Various Artists – (The great granddaughter of) The Great White Dap
Ghosts From The Basement (GFTB 7055) – Out Now
I was born in Manchester and raised in its outskirts. We knew what was what, even when it came to clothing, all those decades ago. It was always a source of frustration that our parents would never refer to a gym shoe (in that pre-trainer era) as a gym shoe, or as a plimsoll as the teachers called them, but as daps. I was in my late teens before I learned that this term is only to be found in the West Country, where both my parents came from. It was the only bit of dialect they used – other than my mother offering us a ‘bananal’ to eat.
Bounce forward a few years, to 1970 – my daps of choice being green-flash Dunlops, hidden by the flares on my loons, and I was the proud owner of a double-album sampler from Island Records, Bumpers. Taking these two things together, a local word for exercise footwear, and an album of ground-breaking music, it was great to come across the cover of The Great Granddaughter of The Great White Dap, a line drawing of a trainer, well-worn with holes and a familiar unpleasant odour escaping from its innards.
The Great White Dap is also a sampler though not of what is to come, but a look back at what has been one of the important niche folk labels of the early 1970s, Bristol-based Village Thing Records. It is quite right to start the album with Wizz Jones’ When I Leave Berlin from 1973. One the leading lights in the acoustic guitar flotilla from the early days of British folk, this is a rolling tune, with Jones on guitar, Sandy Jones and Don Caging both on banjos and, to add to the music make-up of the time, the dulcimer of Jake Walton and the flute of John Bidwell. This line-up features many who eventually became Jones’s band, Lazy Farmer. The track is from his 1973 album of the same name (Village Thing VTS24).
If it was right to have Wizz Jones on the first track, then it is also right that the next track goes to Ian A Anderson for it is he who set up Village Thing with Gef Lucena and John Turner and produced this album. Anderson’s contribution of the folk world has also extended to publishing fROOTS magazine which unfortunately stopped publication last year. On this track, Anderson is joined by Ian Hunt, and they recorded it at the legendary Rockfield Studios which was recently the subject of an excellent BBC documentary. This is a busy track, the two guitars working off each other and creating a very fine example of the genre of the period. It originally appeared on the album A Vulture Is Not A Bird You Can Trust (VTS9)
Derroll Adams met up with Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and after travelling around the US, they came to England in the 1960s. When Elliot returned home, Adams stayed. Deep Ellum Blues, an American traditional song, is from his 1972 album Feelin’ Fine (VTS17). Adams, on banjo, is joined by Wizz Jones on guitar, and Roland van Campenhout on harmonica. Adams’s voice is deep – warm treacle with a bit of gravel added. However, despite this fine attribute, his recording career was patchy though he was well-known for taking aspiring artists under his wing, most notably Donovan.
There is more exciting pairing on What Would You Be? with Steve Tilston and Dave Evans. The two guitars work so well together and set a cracking pace, possibly tempting each other into an error, though not succeeding. They are joined by John Turner on the double bass, offering subtle punctuations in the background. Tilston was part of that second wave of folk guitarists from the late 60s into the early 70s, and it is great to hear both him and Dave Evans together, an un-released snapshot of 1971 when Village Thing released Tilston’s first album An Acoustic Confusion (VTS5) and Evans’s The Words in Between (VTS6) which was re-released in 2018.
Al Jones originally played in a trio with Anderson and harmonica player Elliot Smith. However, he then took himself off to Cornwall to live the life of a self-imposed recluse. Anderson managed to lure him back to record the album Jonesville (VTS19) in 1973 from which this track, Tell The Captain, is taken and features the harmonica of Graham Smith.
So much for the guitar-based folk of the period. The guitar revolution also spawned some very interesting – and likeable – offshoots, particularly off into the world of faeries, folklore and flowers, best exemplified by, but by no means restricted to, the Incredible String Band. Village Thing’s 2nd release was The Sun Also Rises (VTS2) by the band of the same name, and as good an example of the period’s Acid and Psych folk as you could wish for. Tracking down the whole album is well worth it, but in the meantime, this track, Flowers, has it all: simple riffs, repetitions, speeding up, slowing down, bells. What’s not to dislike? Graham and Anne Hemingway flowered but briefly, and this was their only album.
These six tracks evoke memories, provoke a bit of nostalgia and serve to remind us all of some of the not-quite-so-famous artists of the time. They also serve a practical use in that the coronavirus situation has forced the proposed 50th anniversary of Village Thing Records off the diary and The Great Granddaughter of the Great White Dap is a stop-gap that keeps the short-lived label alive in the annals of British folk and blues. Village Thing only released 25 albums, and this sampler gives you an excellent taste of what they were about. It’s no wonder that their pressings became hard to find, but here is a chance to savour some of the flavours of the period. Great tunes, great names and lots for the Great Granddaughter’s peers to listen to, and learn from, as well as a bit of nostalgia for us older types.
Now, where have I put my green-flash Dunlops?
Order via Bandcamp: https://ghostsfromthebasement.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-granddaughter-of-the-great-white-dap