Jotcamp is a pair of art students with some vague principles on media gluttony. We don’t want to just sit back and consume all the tasteful art we come across, so we’ve made this blog to compile and comment on that delicious media to keep our TV, music, and movies habit from becoming a one way conversation.
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14 posts tagged folk rock
Carolanne Pegg - A Witch's Guide to the Underground
Carolanne Pegg put out this charming folk rock album in 1973. She’d just split from her husband and the band project, Mr. Fox, that they’d begun together, so a lot of the songs are autobiographical about the tough time she had as a single mother. The record alternates between country-rock ballads and British folk arrangements led by Carolanne’s fantastic fiddle playing. She also dabbled in witch-craft when she was a busker, providing the inspiration for this song, A Witch’s Guide to the Underground. Unfortunately she didn’t manage to break into the industry, and when her musical aspirations didn’t pan out, she pursued a career in academics, studying Mongolian history.
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Caedmon - Ten Maidens Fair
Caedmon is a music collector’s wet dream. The self-titled album was produced in 1978 as a modest Scottish folk band’s farewell project before splitting up. As such, only 500 copies were originally released. But those records made it into the hands of just the right kind of pushy music lovers, and, because of its breath-taking instrumentation (sans drums), they’ve been preaching about it ever since.
This resulted in a 1994 CD reissue which let the former members know about the cult following they’d gained, which in turn spurred them to reform in recent years and put out a new album called, A Chicken To Hug. They also put up a website so you can obsess over the historic details of one of the rarest and greatest psychedelic folk albums ever made. The closest sounding folk act I can think of would probably be Spirogyra.
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Kim Jung Mi - Wind
Kim Jung Mi was a Korean psychedelic folk band during the early 70s, headed by renowned Koeran guitarist, Shin Jung-hyeon. For whatever reason I can’t find much information about this group other than that. The band’s name very possibly could be the name of the female vocalist. In any case, this is a wonderful psychedelic record that sounds like it was recorded on a grassy hilltop during a 70s summer.
10 Plays | Download
Fairport Convention - Tam Lin
In my last few posts I’ve been referencing a few bands that I haven’t posted to Jotcamp yet, so today’s kind of a blogging catch-up day.
Fariport Convention doesn’t really need much of an introduction, does it? They were a major driving force behind the creation of folk-rock as a genre. Admittedly, the line differentiating “folk-rock” from just plan “folk” was pretty subtle at the time. The difference between the two genres is audible when you compare this 1969 song with the contemporary one I posted from The Pentangle yesterday. Fairport, sometimes, has a little more punchiness in their guitar riffs.
41 Plays | Download
Shelagh McDonald - Mirage
Shelagh McDonald was a Scottish folk singer that put out a pair of records in the early 70s and then vanished from the music scene altogether. It’s really too bad because she had an absolutely beautiful voice and this debut album set her up as Scotland’s answer to Joni Mitchell. Her work involved collaboration with big folk names like The Pentangle and Fairport Convention so it’s sad we didn’t get a few more records out of her.
Apparently I haven’t posted either of those bands to Jotcamp yet… I should probably get around to doing so soon.
10 Plays | Download
Horslips - Sword of Light
This and the last record were picked up by my room-mate when he was grabbing me a Xmas present from Victoria’s Turntable. This is why record stores need to stay in business.
Horslips was an early-70s Irish band that tried to bring a symphonic sound to Celtic rock. They fill this album, The Book of Invasions, with subtle folk flourishes (like violins lurking in the rhythm section) and bombastic trumpet and keys. They’ve apparently reformed as of 2005 and are doing some gigs.
11 Plays | Download
Renaissance - Prologue
Apparently I’ve only posted one Renaissance song to Tumblr since switching to Jotcamp. That needs fixing, so here’s the thundering titular track off of their 1972 record, Prologue.
Renaissance is a 70s progressive rock group with a serious classical bent. Lots of prog bands claim to have classical influences, but… Renaissance took a real stab at classical-rock fusion. Though they lasted into the eighties, they preferred actual string, horn, and woodwind sections to synthesisers, giving their music an epic sound and distinguishing [themselves] from contemporaries like King Crimson or Genesis.
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Grobschnitt - Wonderful Music
Grobschnitt started out as a German progressive rock band, incorporating folk influences (flutes and acoustic strings) into an otherwise keyboard-effect heavy krautrock sound. But they managed to stay together until 1989, and over the course of that career they delved into other genres like pop and “new-wave”.
Strangely, some of their releases would ship with English vocals for the foreign market, but have German vocals for their home market. This song is off of their 1972 self-titled debut, and brings to the fore their then folk focus.
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The People's Victory Orchestra & Chorus - Did You Ever See A Lady Act That Way?
It’s so annoying that there aren’t any decent images of this record on the internet. I think I need to try and do something about this and go troll some forums.
The People’s Victory Orchestra and Chorus was… well no one really knows. They released 3 privately pressed records of inspired psychedelic rock and folk, hailed from Long Island during the 70s, and seem to have placed a high value on their anonymity. Some people think a Rolling Stone was exploring a private side project, and others think this was an album crafted by a musical hippie commune.
If anyone out there know anyone who some crazy how has a copy of this record in good condition, please force them to take a picture of it and upload it!
1 Plays | Download
Ciccada - Ciccada
Tonight’s a Greek music night. Ciccada is a modern progressive rock band with a prominent folk element. Like Beardfish and Wobbler, this band’s guitarwork tends toward metal distortion, which sometimes gives it that corny, soaring sound like in Sonata Arctica. It sounds like it’d be a blast to play in a band like that, but I’d settle to see them live.
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