Brit Folk

The Watersons, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Kate Rusby, Jake Bugg, The Unthanks

Bright Phoebus Revisited review – Watersons bring a cult classic back to life

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A stirring celebration of Mike and Lal Waterson’s great lost folk album gathered daughters, sons, cousins and uncles – plus an Arcade Fire star

evamping a cult masterpiece is a dangerous business, and Bright Phoebus – the 1972 album by siblings Mike and Lal Waterson – really is a masterpiece. Imagine the most severe voices in folk music pitched against lush, boozy, crushingly tender instrumentals. The songs have a gnarled lyricism, a concise and dreamy poetry. If you’ve never heard them, that’s probably because half of the original vinyl copies were pressed with the hole in the wrong place and it took until last summer for Bright Phoebus to be remastered and rereleased – largely thanks to the efforts of Lal’s daughter [ . . . ] More at: Bright Phoebus Revisited review – Watersons bring a cult classic back to life

Folk trio find comfort in Strangers

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Therevival of English folk music carries on apace on the back of the success of bands like Mumford And Sons and, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Decemberists.

But double BBC award winners The Young’uns are a little different. On first hearing the close harmonies of the three lads from Stockton-on-Tees in England’s north east, Sean Cooney, Michael Hughes and David Eagle, may remind older listeners of 1960s a cappella trio The Young Tradition [ . . . ]

More at: Folk trio find comfort in Strangers

From Lynched to Lankum: Ian Lynch on folk song collecting and the ‘pure drop’  

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Lynched or Lankum; Lankum or Lynched? Rumours have been doing the rounds for some time that the acclaimed Dublin four-piece would be changing their name, and sure enough, in the days following this interview, they published the following statement, confirming that from here on in, Lankum they would be:  While it’s clearly an important occasion, it’s not something that Ian Lynch – co-founder of the band – seems to have on his mind when I call him up in mid-January. Like so many of his contemporaries, he’s a young man who has the folk bug and has the folk bug bad. He’s bonhomie itself, but […]

Source: From Lynched to Lankum: Ian Lynch on folk song collecting and the ‘pure drop’ – Grizzly Folk