Featuring Leo Kottke, Dando Shaft, The Woods Band, Gary Higgins, Linda Perhacs, John & Beverley Martyn, Jaki Whitren, Tony Caro & John, Trees, Robin Williamson, The Amazing Blondel, Jade, Mushroom, Jim Page, Tia Blake, Harry Tuft.
This week’s Folk Show opens to a possible UFO sighting at night, courtesy of a stoned Dennis Hopper. That introduction takes us on a vintage psych-folk trip featuring music from the 1970s with a strong leaning towards the early part of that decade.
Most of the names will be familiar to those interested in that era. However, Dublin group Mushroom may be new to many as ‘Early One Morning’ from 1973 was their only album and has become something of a collector’s item. Likewise, Tia Blake‘s Folksongs & Ballads album was the only release from this American teenager living in Paris. Following the album’s release, she did one live performance to promote its release and then left Paris never to record again. Linda Perhacs was a similar proposition; Parallelograms being her only release for decades until Davendra Banhart encouraged her back to the studio in 2007 to sing on his “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon”. She later signed to Asthmatic Kitty and released The Soul of All Natural Things – forty-four years after her debut.
Another singular release was Gary Higgins‘ Red Hash. Like many independent releases from this era, it suffered from a limited distribution, becoming better known decades later following reissues.
Harry Tuft‘s Across the Blue Mountains was released in 1976 on Folk-Legacy Records with Lord Gregory; the song featured here, taught to him by Karen Dalton. According to Smithsonian Folkways, through whom the album is still available, Tuft was an important figure in the Philadelphia folk scene of the late 1950s; in the 1960s in Colorado, Tuft went on to establish the Denver Folklore Center, one of the city’s most significant venues for folk music, welcoming the likes of Doc Watson and Leo Kottke. It’s Kottke who opens this week’s show with some fantastic playing, recorded live in front of a hometown Minneapolis audience in 1973.
Folk-rock trio Jade released just the one album ‘Fly on Strangewings’. A little more pop-orientated than Fairport, there was no denying that lead singer Marian Segal’s vocals had similarities to Sandy Denny (Unhalfbrickling was released just the year before in 1969).
Robin Williamson‘s 1972 album Myrrh was also a sign of the waning presence of the Incredible String Band, who were drifting into what was considered more commercial-rock orientated waters. Williamson’s solo album was steeped in British folk pastoralism, as you can hear on The Dancing Of The Lord Of Weir. The album did well, something many put down to Williamson’s return to folk music and a sound that ISB fans were still loved.
Another band that supposedly drew on ISB influences was Tony, Caro and John. The trio have since found a lot of love amongst fans of ’70s British folk-rock despite the original release only numbering 100 copies. There have been a number of subsequent reissues as late as 2018.
Hopefully, many more will continue to rediscover these rich offerings of the past.
Folk Show 105 – Music Played
Leo Kottke – Busted Bicycle (from My Feet Are Smiling – 1973)
Dando Shaft – Cold Wind (from An Evening with Dando Shaft – 1970)
The Woods Band – As I Roved Out (from The Woods Band – 1971)
Gary Higgins – Last Great Sperm Whale (from Red Hash – 1973)
Linda Perhacs – Paper Mountain Man (from Parallelograms – 1970)
John & Beverley Martyn – Auntie Aviator (from The Road to Ruin – 1970)
Jaki Whitren – New Horizon (from Raw But Tender – 1973)
Tony Caro & John – Eclipse Of The Moon (from All On The First Day – 1972)
Trees – Lady Margaret (from The Garden of Jane Delawney – 1970)
Robin Williamson – The Dancing Of The Lord Of Weir (from Myrrh – 1972)
The Amazing Blondel – Shepherd’s Song (from The Amazing Blondel and A Few Faces – 1970)
Jade – Mrs. Adams (from Fly on Strangewings – 1970)
Mushroom – Drowsey Maggie (from Early One Morning – 1973)
Jim Page – A Sign of the Times (from A Shot of the Usual – 1976)
Tia Blake – Hangman (from Folksongs & Ballads – 1971)
Harry Tuft – Lord Gregory (from Across the Blue Mountains – 1976)
You can find more Psych Folk goodness here: https://klofmag.com/2018/03/folk-show-ep-19-a-psych-folk-special/
Photo by Jake Weirick