Electric folk
Encyclopedia
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock
pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany
, Ireland
, Scotland
, Wales
and the Isle of Man
, to produce Celtic rock
and its derivatives. It has also been influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain and gave rise to the genre of folk punk
. By the 1980s the genre was in steep decline in popularity, but has survived and revived in significance, partly merging with the rock music
and folk music
cultures from which it originated. Although in Britain the term folk rock is often used synonymously with electric folk, commentators have returned to this term as a means of distinguishing this as a clear and distinct category within the wider folk rock genre.
and the Byrds from 1965. They drew the distinction because they were focusing on indigenous (in this case English) songs and tunes. This is not to say that all the proponents of electric folk totally abandoned American material, or that it would not be represented in their own compositions, but their work would be characterised by the use of traditional English songs and tunes and the creation of new songs in that style, using the format and instruments of a rock band with the occasional addition of more traditional instruments.
The result of this hybridisation was an exchange of specific features drawn from Traditional music and Rock music. These have been defined as including:
Traditional music
:
Rock music
:
Not all of these features are found in every song. For example, Electric folk groups, while predominantly using traditional material as their source for lyrics and tunes, occasionally write their own (much as traditional musicians do).
released a single of the traditional American song "The House of the Rising Sun
" in 1964. In the same year, The Beatles
began incorporating overt folk influences into their music, most noticeably on the song "I'm a Loser
" from their Beatles for Sale
album. The Beatles and other British Invasion
bands, in turn, influenced the Californian band The Byrds
, who began playing folk-influenced material and Bob Dylan
compositions with rock instrumentation. The Byrds' recording of Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man" was released in April 1965 and reached #1 on the U.S. and UK singles charts, setting off the mid-1960s folk rock movement. The Beatles' late 1965 album, Rubber Soul
, contained a number of songs clearly influenced by the American folk rock boom, such as "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone
". During this period, many electric bands began to play rock versions of folk songs and folk singers "electrified" their own songs, including, most famously, Dylan himself at the Newport Folk Festival
in the summer of 1965.
Folk rock became an important genre among emerging English bands, particularly those in the London club scene towards the end of the 1960s. The skiffle
movement, to which many English musicians, including the Beatles, owed their origins as performers, meant that they were already familiar with American folk music As they emulated the guitar and drum based format that had crystallised as the norm for rock music, these groups often turned to American folk and folk rock as the focus of their sound and inspiration. Among these groups from 1967 were Fairport Convention
, who had enjoyed some modest mainstream success with three albums of material that was largely either American in origin, or original songs based that were American in style, before a radical change of direction in 1969 with their album Liege and Lief, which came out of the encounter between American inspired folk rock and the products of the English folk revival.
The first English folk music revival had seen a huge effort to record and archive traditional English music by figures such as Cecil Sharp
and Vaughan Williams in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The second revival in the period after World War II
, built on this work and followed a similar movement in America, to which it was connected to it by individuals like Alan Lomax
, who had fled to England in the era of McCarthyism
. Like the American revival, it was often overtly left wing in its politics, but, led by such figures as Ewan MacColl
and A. L. Lloyd
from the early 1950s, it also attempted to produce a distinctively English music that was an alternative to the American dominance of popular culture
which was, as they saw it, displacing the traditional music of an increasingly urbanised and industrialised working class. Most important among their responses were the foundation of folk clubs in major towns, starting with London where MacColl began the Ballads and Blues Club in 1953. These clubs were usually urban in location, but the songs sung in them often hearkened back to a rural pre-industrial past. In many ways this was the adoption of abandoned popular music by the middle classes. By the mid 1960s there were probably over 300 folk clubs in Britain, providing an important circuit for acts that performed traditional songs and tunes acoustically, where they could sustain a living by playing to a small but committed audience. This meant that there were, by the later 1960s, a group of performers with musical skill and knowledge of a wide variety of traditional songs and tunes.
The worlds of British folk and British folk rock were not hermetically sealed before 1969 and a number of groups who were products of the folk revival had begun to experiment with electrification in the mid-60s. These included the unrecorded efforts of Sweeney's Men
from Ireland and in England, the jazz folk group Pentangle
and bluegrass folk group Strawbs, however, none provided a sustained or much emulated effort in this direction. Also products of the folk club circuit were Sandy Denny
who joined Fairport Convention as a singer in 1967 and Dave Swarbrick
, a fiddle player and session musician who reacted positively to the electric music he encountered while working with Fairport in 1969. The result was an extended interpretation of the song "A Sailor's Life
", which was released on their album Unhalfbricking
. This encounter sparked the interest of Ashley Hutchings
who began extensive research in English Folk Dance and Song Society Library at Cecil Sharp House and the result was the band’s seminal Liege and Lief (1969) which combined traditional songs and tunes with some written by the band in a similar style, all played on a combination of electric instruments with Swarbrick’s acoustic fiddle, setting the template for electric folk.
, formed around the acoustic duo Bob and Carole Pegg, and Pentangle, who having previously recorded largely without electrification, produced a fourth album, Cruel Sister
, in 1970, very much in the electric folk mould. Similarly, Swarbrick’s former playing partner, Martin Carthy
, joined Steeleye Span
in 1971 to howls of protest in the folk music world.
Second were groupings created directly by the members or former members of Fairport, which can be seen as the nexus from which a family of organisations or performers emerged. Sandy Denny's short-lived Fotheringay
was one these and Steeleye Span was another, formed as a more traditionally focused, but still partially electric outfit, by Ashley Hutchings after his departure from Fairport in 1969. He then quit that and eventually formed the Albion Country Band, later the Albion Band, which was still recording and touring, after many line up changes, until 2002. The Albion Band in turn spawned one of the most musically talented electric folk groups of the 1980s Home Service
, whose third album All Right Jack (1985) is often seen as representing another artistic highpoint for the genre.
A much smaller group of English bands were formed in emulation of existing electric rock bands. Most often the model seems to have been Steeleye Span, as it was for the Cambridge group Spriguns of Tolgus
, the Northumbrian band Hedgehog Pie
and the Oyster Band, who started as the unpromising Fiddler’s Dram in 1978. They were often dismissed as "one hit wonders" for their single "Day Trip to Bangor", which peaked at no 3 in the UK and for their clear status as "Steeleye Span soundalikes". What was remarkable is that they proved to have a singer-songwriter of genuine talent in Cathy Lesurf
, and after she had left for the Albion Band in 1980 they became The Oyster Band (sometimes the Oysterband), an increasingly heavy and politically aware electric folk unit who produced some of the best work in the genre in the 1980s and 90s, merging into the developing folk punk and independent scenes.
" and the album of the same name was their most successful, reaching 5 in the UK album charts in the same year. Fairport Convention’s singles made very little impact on the British charts, albums sold well in the early 1970s, but they did not surpass their number 17 for Liege and Lief in 1969 until their only top 10 album, Angel Delight in 1971. Most of their career, from that point until they disbanded in 1979, was one of declining profile and sales.
The same was generally true of other electric folk outfits. The late 1970s and early 1980s were a time to either abandon the genre or fight a losing struggle for survival. The reason is often said to be punk rock
, which reached a peak in 1976-7. It changed the ethos of popular music, overturning certainties about musicianship and songwriting and had no greater target than the old fashioned folk musicians of the preceding generation. All popular music trends have a generational problem as their audiences grow and might not be replaced, but for folk rock the discontinuity was very acute. One result was a further hybridisation with the development of folk punk
among younger acts in the later 1970s, some of which, like the Pogues
and The Levellers, achieved some mainstream success. The early 1980s were the nadir of electric folk, when, in contrast to the mid-1970s only the Albion Band (with the associated Home Service) and the Oysterband remained as major exponents of the genre and this was perhaps their least productive period.
went from strength to strength growing to a regular 20,000 fans a year, and when they reformed in 1985 they were able to embark on increasingly successful tours and produce a series of highly regarded albums. The reason for this recording revival was partly because they abandoned the mainstream record business, instead focusing on growing their own audience and producing records through their own labels (Woodworm
and Matty Grooves
).
The Albion Band survived by becoming involved in theatre productions and, from 1993 by shifting down to a small acoustic outfit that could play the still extensive network of folk clubs. This move was also significant in indicating the way in which electric folk personnel had become assimilated into the folk revival. It is notable that almost all the members of Fairport Convention have toured the folk club circuit solo or in smaller units and the line up at Cropredy includes as many acoustic acts as electric.
In 1980, Steeleye Span’s Sails of Silver
took a decisive move away from traditional songs. It was a commercial failure and their last album for six years as they became a part time touring band. However in 1986 they produced Back in Line
and since then, despite several band changes, they have continued to perform and have recorded eight more albums.
The 1990s also began to see the emergence of the first new electric folk acts for almost a decade, with bands like Broadside Electric
in 1990 and the consciously named Swedish outfit Electric Folk from 1996. Some bands like Stone Angel and Jack the Lad
, who had disbanded in the 1970s, now reformed and resumed a recording or touring career.
This resurgence represents nothing like the heady days of the 1970s. The number, and mainstream recognition, of electric folk groups is lower in the twenty-first century than it was in the late twentieth. However, the genre has not only been highly influential on both rock and folk music, thanks to the remarkable longevity of the key groups and productivity of the members, together with renewed interest in subsequent generations, electric folk continues to survive and artistically thrive.
and Jethro Tull
. Neither of these bands can be considered part of the electric folk movement, but they do provide evidence of its influence.
Led Zeppelin had shared a stage with Fairport Convention at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music in 1970. Robert Plant
and Jimmy Page
’s interest in the genre was first evident in the recording of "Gallows Pole" a traditional ballad on Led Zeppelin III
(1970), which stands out among their usual output of blues orientated rock. At this time they also wrote the ballad "Poor Tom
" which would surface on Coda
(1982). It is more subtly manifested in their most famous album Led Zeppelin IV
(1971), which contained elements of both American folk rock and English electric folk on ‘Stairway to Heaven
’ and most obviously on ‘The Battle of Evermore
’, on which Sandy Denny
had the distinction of being the only person ever to be invited to do guest vocals on a Led Zeppelin album. These influences would also appear on later albums, but reduced as the band returned to a hard rock sound from Presence (1976) onwards.
As Led Zeppelin moved away from electric folk, one of other long term survivors of the British blues
movement Jethro Tull began to move towards it. Ian Anderson
had produced Steeleye Span’s album Now We Are Six
in 1974 and first demonstrated a clear interest in more traditional sound on Minstrel in the Gallery
(1975), but it was in 1977 with the release of Songs from the Wood
(1977) that Anderson took the band into electric folk territory. All the songs on the album focused on rural life and, in addition to the normal electronic instruments and flute of the band, used mandolin, lute and a pipe organ. Two tracks, ‘Hunting Girl’ and particularly ‘Velvet Green’ followed the form of erotic folk ballad
s, much suited to Anderson’s song writing interests. Two more albums followed in a similar vein: Heavy Horses
(1978) and Stormwatch
(1979) to form a loose folk rock trilogy, before Anderson moved into more electronic territory at the beginning of the 1980s. Ironically it was at this point that Dave Pegg
of Fairport Convention would be the first of several members to join Jethro Tull.
, blues
and world music
. As a result it was already established in Britain, albeit a difficult to define and varied sub-genre, before the advent of electric folk at the end of the 1960s. It can be seen as including performers such as Donovan
, the Incredible String Band, Pentangle
, Strawbs, Nick Drake
, Roy Harper
, John Martyn
and the original Tyrannosaurus Rex. Some of this, particularly the Incredible String Band, has been seen as developing into the further sub-genre of psych or psychedelic folk.
The advent of electric folk had profound effects on this developing strand of the folk genre. First, many existing acts, having avoided the American model of folk rock electrification from about 1965 now adopted it, most obviously Pentangle, Strawbs and acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex which became the electric combo T-Rex. It also pushed progressive folk towards more traditional material. Acoustic performers Dando Shaft
and Amazing Blondel
, both beginning about this time, are examples of this trend.
Examples of bands that remained firmly on the border between progressive folk and progressive rock are the short lived Comus
and, more successfully, Renaissance
, who combined folk and rock with elements of classical music
. While progressive folk as a genre continued into the late 1960s, it was overshadowed by electric folk and progressive rock, arguably, later to emerge in a new form.
and renaissance music
as a basis for their music, in contrast to the early modern and nineteenth century ballad
a that dominated the output of Fairport Convention. This followed the trend explored by Steeleye Span, and exemplified by their 1972 album Below the Salt
. Acts in this area included Gryphon
, Gentle Giant
and Third Ear Band
. In Germany Ougenweide
, originally formed in 1970 as an acoustic folk group, opted to draw exclusively on High German medieval music when they electrified, setting the agenda for future German electric folk. In Brittany, as part of the Celtic rock
movement, medieval music was focused on by bands like Ripaille from 1977 and Saga de Ragnar Lodbrock from 1979. However, by the end of the 1970s almost all of these performers had either disbanded or moved, like Gentle Giant and Gryphon, into the developing area of progressive rock
.. One remaining but notable exponent of medieval folk rock is Ritchie Blackmore
with Blackmore's Night
.
replicated electric folk, but naturally replaced the element of English traditional music with its own folk music. It was rapidly evident in all areas of the Celtic nations and regions surrounding England (both Goidelic (Ireland
, Scotland
, Isle of Man
) and Brythonic (Wales
, Cornwall
, and Brittany
), saw the adoption and adaptation of the electric folk model. Through at least the first half of the 1970s, as Celtic rock held close to folk roots, with its repertoire drawing heavily on traditional Celtic fiddle
and harp
tunes and even traditional vocal styles, but making use of rock band levels of amplification and percussion it can be considered part of the electric folk movement. However, as it developed into new derivatives and hybrids, including Celtic punk
, Celtic metal
, and other sorts of Celtic fusion
, the initial electric folk pattern began to dissipate.
, Oysterband
, Billy Bragg
and The Pogues
. Folk dance music
also became popular in the 1980s, with the English Country Blues Band and Tiger Moth. The decade later saw the use of reggae
with English folk music by the band Edward II & the Red Hot Polkas
, especially on their seminal Let's Polkasteady from 1987.
band Skyclad
added violins from a session musician on several tracks for their 1990 début album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
. When this was well received they adopted a full time fiddle player and moved towards a signature folk and jig style leading them to be credited as the pioneers of folk metal. This directly inspired the Dublin based band Cruachan
to use traditional Irish music in creating the Celtic metal
subgenre. Attempts have been made elsewhere to replicate this process with examples ranging from the Middle Eastern folk music of Orphaned Land
, the Baltic folk music of Skyforger
and the Scandinavian folk music of Korpiklaani
. In Germany this trend is more closely associated with the neo-medieval music
known as medieval metal.
, a village five miles north of Banbury
, Oxfordshire
and attracts 20,000 fans. It remains one of the key events in the UK folk festival calendar.
After holding a successful open air concert at Kentwell Hall
, Suffolk in 2005, Steeleye Span decided to hold their own annual festival, known as Spanfest.
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
, to produce Celtic rock
Celtic rock
Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock and a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context...
and its derivatives. It has also been influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain and gave rise to the genre of folk punk
Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...
. By the 1980s the genre was in steep decline in popularity, but has survived and revived in significance, partly merging with the rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
cultures from which it originated. Although in Britain the term folk rock is often used synonymously with electric folk, commentators have returned to this term as a means of distinguishing this as a clear and distinct category within the wider folk rock genre.
Definition
When English bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s defined themselves as 'electric folk' they were making a distinction with the already existing 'folk rock'. Folk rock was (to them) what they had already been producing: American or American style singer-songwriter material played on rock instruments, as undertaken by DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and the Byrds from 1965. They drew the distinction because they were focusing on indigenous (in this case English) songs and tunes. This is not to say that all the proponents of electric folk totally abandoned American material, or that it would not be represented in their own compositions, but their work would be characterised by the use of traditional English songs and tunes and the creation of new songs in that style, using the format and instruments of a rock band with the occasional addition of more traditional instruments.
The result of this hybridisation was an exchange of specific features drawn from Traditional music and Rock music. These have been defined as including:
Traditional music
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
:
- Lyrics
- Tunes (including ornamentation)
- The drone (cf. bagpipesBagpipesBagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
), but usually on a guitar or bass - Use of some acoustic instruments
- Use of traditional rhythms; for example, an eight-beat rhythm of 3+3+2 with the stress on the first, fourth, and seventh beats, as in Led ZeppelinLed ZeppelinLed Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's "The Battle of EvermoreThe Battle of Evermore"The Battle of Evermore" is a folk rock duet sung by Robert Plant and Sandy Denny, by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, featured on their untitled fourth album , released in 1971...
", while not unusual precludes the standard rock backbeat. - Blending of multiple songs in the traditional music style: often a short instrumental piece is inserted as an instrumental in a longer lyrical piece (i.e. a piece with vocals), both in traditional music and Electric folk
Rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
:
- Rhythm (specifically the backbeat)
- The hookHook (music)A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
- Ostinati (plural of ostinatoOstinatoIn music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
), a melodic and/or rhythmic figure that is persistently repeated throughout a piece or a section of a piece - Use of some electric instrumentElectric instrumentAn electric musical instrument is one in which the use of electric devices determines or affects the sound produced by an instrument. It is also known as an amplified musical instrument due to the common utilization of an electronic instrument amplifier to project the intended sound as determined...
- The tempo of some songs may be altered well beyond the traditional boundaries
- Key changes may be added
Not all of these features are found in every song. For example, Electric folk groups, while predominantly using traditional material as their source for lyrics and tunes, occasionally write their own (much as traditional musicians do).
Origins
Arguably the first folk rock track to be recorded was also an example of electric folk, when British band The AnimalsThe Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
released a single of the traditional American song "The House of the Rising Sun
The House of the Rising Sun
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a folk song from the United States. Also called "House of the Rising Sun" or occasionally "Rising Sun Blues", it tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans...
" in 1964. In the same year, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
began incorporating overt folk influences into their music, most noticeably on the song "I'm a Loser
I'm a Loser
"I'm a Loser" is a song by The Beatles, originally released on Beatles for Sale in the United Kingdom, later released on Beatles '65 in the United States...
" from their Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale is the fourth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released in late 1964 and produced by George Martin for Parlophone. The album marked a minor turning point in the evolution of Lennon and McCartney as lyricists, John Lennon particularly now showing interest in...
album. The Beatles and other British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
bands, in turn, influenced the Californian band The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, who began playing folk-influenced material and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
compositions with rock instrumentation. The Byrds' recording of Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man" was released in April 1965 and reached #1 on the U.S. and UK singles charts, setting off the mid-1960s folk rock movement. The Beatles' late 1965 album, Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released in December 1965. Produced by George Martin, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market...
, contained a number of songs clearly influenced by the American folk rock boom, such as "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone
If I Needed Someone
"If I Needed Someone" is a song written by George Harrison. Versions by The Beatles and by The Hollies appeared simultaneously, both being released in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1965. The Hollies version appeared on a single. Most of the Hollies previous singles had been big top ten hits...
". During this period, many electric bands began to play rock versions of folk songs and folk singers "electrified" their own songs, including, most famously, Dylan himself at the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
in the summer of 1965.
Folk rock became an important genre among emerging English bands, particularly those in the London club scene towards the end of the 1960s. The skiffle
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...
movement, to which many English musicians, including the Beatles, owed their origins as performers, meant that they were already familiar with American folk music As they emulated the guitar and drum based format that had crystallised as the norm for rock music, these groups often turned to American folk and folk rock as the focus of their sound and inspiration. Among these groups from 1967 were Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, who had enjoyed some modest mainstream success with three albums of material that was largely either American in origin, or original songs based that were American in style, before a radical change of direction in 1969 with their album Liege and Lief, which came out of the encounter between American inspired folk rock and the products of the English folk revival.
The first English folk music revival had seen a huge effort to record and archive traditional English music by figures such as Cecil Sharp
Cecil Sharp
Cecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born in Camberwell, London, the eldest son of...
and Vaughan Williams in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The second revival in the period after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, built on this work and followed a similar movement in America, to which it was connected to it by individuals like Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
, who had fled to England in the era of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
. Like the American revival, it was often overtly left wing in its politics, but, led by such figures as Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
and A. L. Lloyd
A. L. Lloyd
Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....
from the early 1950s, it also attempted to produce a distinctively English music that was an alternative to the American dominance of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
which was, as they saw it, displacing the traditional music of an increasingly urbanised and industrialised working class. Most important among their responses were the foundation of folk clubs in major towns, starting with London where MacColl began the Ballads and Blues Club in 1953. These clubs were usually urban in location, but the songs sung in them often hearkened back to a rural pre-industrial past. In many ways this was the adoption of abandoned popular music by the middle classes. By the mid 1960s there were probably over 300 folk clubs in Britain, providing an important circuit for acts that performed traditional songs and tunes acoustically, where they could sustain a living by playing to a small but committed audience. This meant that there were, by the later 1960s, a group of performers with musical skill and knowledge of a wide variety of traditional songs and tunes.
The worlds of British folk and British folk rock were not hermetically sealed before 1969 and a number of groups who were products of the folk revival had begun to experiment with electrification in the mid-60s. These included the unrecorded efforts of Sweeney's Men
Sweeney's Men
Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They emerged from the late 1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups such as The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The founding line-up in May 1966 was 'Galway Joe' Dolan, Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine....
from Ireland and in England, the jazz folk group Pentangle
Pentangle (band)
Pentangle are a British folk rock band with some folk jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version has been active since the early 1980s...
and bluegrass folk group Strawbs, however, none provided a sustained or much emulated effort in this direction. Also products of the folk club circuit were Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
who joined Fairport Convention as a singer in 1967 and Dave Swarbrick
Dave Swarbrick
Dave Swarbrick is an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He has been described by Ashley Hutchings as 'the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none' and his style has been copied or developed by almost every British, and many World folk violin players that have followed him...
, a fiddle player and session musician who reacted positively to the electric music he encountered while working with Fairport in 1969. The result was an extended interpretation of the song "A Sailor's Life
A Sailor's Life
"A Sailor’s Life" is an English language folk song which describes the attempt of a young woman to find her lover, a sailor. Eventually she hears that he has drowned and mourns him.-History:...
", which was released on their album Unhalfbricking
Unhalfbricking
The band's male vocalist Iain Matthews left during the recordings for Unhalfbricking to make his own album Matthews' Southern Comfort, after recording just one track, "Percy's Song". Sandy Denny sang lead vocals on all the other songs, including her own compositions, "Autopsy", and "Who Knows Where...
. This encounter sparked the interest of Ashley Hutchings
Ashley Hutchings
Ashley Stephen Hutchings is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band...
who began extensive research in English Folk Dance and Song Society Library at Cecil Sharp House and the result was the band’s seminal Liege and Lief (1969) which combined traditional songs and tunes with some written by the band in a similar style, all played on a combination of electric instruments with Swarbrick’s acoustic fiddle, setting the template for electric folk.
The heyday 1969-76
The rapid expansion of electric folk that followed in the wake of Liege and Lief in the 1970s came mainly from three sources. First were existing folk performers who now ‘electrified’, including Mr. FoxMr. Fox
Mr Fox were an early 1970s electric folk or folk rock band. They were seen as in the ‘second generation’ of electric folk performers and for a time were compared with Steeleye Span and Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay. Unlike Steeleye Span they mainly wrote their own material in a traditional style and...
, formed around the acoustic duo Bob and Carole Pegg, and Pentangle, who having previously recorded largely without electrification, produced a fourth album, Cruel Sister
Cruel Sister
Cruel Sister was an album recorded in 1970 by folk-rock band Pentangle. It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs...
, in 1970, very much in the electric folk mould. Similarly, Swarbrick’s former playing partner, Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...
, joined Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
in 1971 to howls of protest in the folk music world.
Second were groupings created directly by the members or former members of Fairport, which can be seen as the nexus from which a family of organisations or performers emerged. Sandy Denny's short-lived Fotheringay
Fotheringay
Fotheringay was a short-lived British folk rock group, formed in 1970 by singer Sandy Denny on her departure from Fairport Convention. The band drew its name from her 1968 composition "Fotheringay" about Fotheringhay Castle, in which Mary, Queen of Scots had been imprisoned...
was one these and Steeleye Span was another, formed as a more traditionally focused, but still partially electric outfit, by Ashley Hutchings after his departure from Fairport in 1969. He then quit that and eventually formed the Albion Country Band, later the Albion Band, which was still recording and touring, after many line up changes, until 2002. The Albion Band in turn spawned one of the most musically talented electric folk groups of the 1980s Home Service
Home Service
Home Service are a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album Alright Jack, which is usually considered one of the finest products of the electric folk...
, whose third album All Right Jack (1985) is often seen as representing another artistic highpoint for the genre.
A much smaller group of English bands were formed in emulation of existing electric rock bands. Most often the model seems to have been Steeleye Span, as it was for the Cambridge group Spriguns of Tolgus
Spriguns of Tolgus
Spriguns of Tolgus was an electric folk group formed in 1972. They managed to obtain a record deal with a major label and the attention of some most significant figures in the folk rock world. They produced four albums with growing originality and recognition, but were unable to attain mainstream...
, the Northumbrian band Hedgehog Pie
Hedgehog Pie
Hedgehog Pie were an electric folk group from the north-east of England, formed in 1971. Despite frequent line-up changes, they build up a considerable regional and national following and produced three highly regarded albums...
and the Oyster Band, who started as the unpromising Fiddler’s Dram in 1978. They were often dismissed as "one hit wonders" for their single "Day Trip to Bangor", which peaked at no 3 in the UK and for their clear status as "Steeleye Span soundalikes". What was remarkable is that they proved to have a singer-songwriter of genuine talent in Cathy Lesurf
Cathy Lesurf
Cathy Lesurf, born 1957, is a British folk music singer-songwriter who was brought up in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. She has been a member of bands in the 1970s such as Oyster Ceilidh Band, Fiddler's Dram, Fairport Convention and The Albion Country Band. She released a solo album, Surface, in 1985....
, and after she had left for the Albion Band in 1980 they became The Oyster Band (sometimes the Oysterband), an increasingly heavy and politically aware electric folk unit who produced some of the best work in the genre in the 1980s and 90s, merging into the developing folk punk and independent scenes.
Decline and survival 1977-85
For a time electric folk threatened to break through to the mainstream, peaking in the early to mid-1970s when Steeleye Span managed to get one single in the top 20 in 1972 and another in the top 5 in 1975 for "All Around My HatAll Around My Hat (song)
The song "All Around my Hat" is of nineteenth century English origin. In an early version, dating from the 1820s, a Cockney costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancee, who had been sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft and to mourn his loss by wearing green willow...
" and the album of the same name was their most successful, reaching 5 in the UK album charts in the same year. Fairport Convention’s singles made very little impact on the British charts, albums sold well in the early 1970s, but they did not surpass their number 17 for Liege and Lief in 1969 until their only top 10 album, Angel Delight in 1971. Most of their career, from that point until they disbanded in 1979, was one of declining profile and sales.
The same was generally true of other electric folk outfits. The late 1970s and early 1980s were a time to either abandon the genre or fight a losing struggle for survival. The reason is often said to be punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, which reached a peak in 1976-7. It changed the ethos of popular music, overturning certainties about musicianship and songwriting and had no greater target than the old fashioned folk musicians of the preceding generation. All popular music trends have a generational problem as their audiences grow and might not be replaced, but for folk rock the discontinuity was very acute. One result was a further hybridisation with the development of folk punk
Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...
among younger acts in the later 1970s, some of which, like the Pogues
The Pogues
The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...
and The Levellers, achieved some mainstream success. The early 1980s were the nadir of electric folk, when, in contrast to the mid-1970s only the Albion Band (with the associated Home Service) and the Oysterband remained as major exponents of the genre and this was perhaps their least productive period.
Resurgence 1985-present
In the later 1980s, things began to look much more positive for the genre. After disbandment, Fairport’s Cropredy FestivalCropredy Festival
Fairport's Cropredy Convention is an annual festival of folk and rock music held on the edge of the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England. It has taken place in August since 1976....
went from strength to strength growing to a regular 20,000 fans a year, and when they reformed in 1985 they were able to embark on increasingly successful tours and produce a series of highly regarded albums. The reason for this recording revival was partly because they abandoned the mainstream record business, instead focusing on growing their own audience and producing records through their own labels (Woodworm
Woodworm Records
Woodworm Records was a record label created in 1979 to enable the British folk-rock band Fairport Convention to release their album Farewell Farewell. The album was a recording of performances taken from the band's 1979 farewell tour...
and Matty Grooves
Matty Grooves Records
Matty Grooves Records is a record label which was started by the members of Fairport Convention in 2004, when Woodworm Records was put into hold. The name is derived from the English folk song of similar name.-Release List:-DVD Release List:...
).
The Albion Band survived by becoming involved in theatre productions and, from 1993 by shifting down to a small acoustic outfit that could play the still extensive network of folk clubs. This move was also significant in indicating the way in which electric folk personnel had become assimilated into the folk revival. It is notable that almost all the members of Fairport Convention have toured the folk club circuit solo or in smaller units and the line up at Cropredy includes as many acoustic acts as electric.
In 1980, Steeleye Span’s Sails of Silver
Sails of Silver
Sails of Silver is an album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span.The album was produced two years after the band's ostensible break-up, at the request of Chrysalis Records. Peter Knight and Bob Johnson both returned, replacing their own replacements Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick, who had...
took a decisive move away from traditional songs. It was a commercial failure and their last album for six years as they became a part time touring band. However in 1986 they produced Back in Line
Back in Line
Back in Line is an album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span.This album, the band's 12th, was released in 1986, after a hiatus of almost 6 years. It was their first album without founding member Tim Hart, who quit the music business entirely...
and since then, despite several band changes, they have continued to perform and have recorded eight more albums.
The 1990s also began to see the emergence of the first new electric folk acts for almost a decade, with bands like Broadside Electric
Broadside Electric
Broadside Electric are an American electric folk band from Philadelphia. Formed in 1990, they are still active in 2011...
in 1990 and the consciously named Swedish outfit Electric Folk from 1996. Some bands like Stone Angel and Jack the Lad
Jack The Lad
Jack the Lad was a folk rock or electric folk group from North East England formed in 1973 by three former members of the most successful band of the period from the region Lindisfarne. They moved from the progressive folk rock of Lindisfarne into much more traditional territory and were in the...
, who had disbanded in the 1970s, now reformed and resumed a recording or touring career.
This resurgence represents nothing like the heady days of the 1970s. The number, and mainstream recognition, of electric folk groups is lower in the twenty-first century than it was in the late twentieth. However, the genre has not only been highly influential on both rock and folk music, thanks to the remarkable longevity of the key groups and productivity of the members, together with renewed interest in subsequent generations, electric folk continues to survive and artistically thrive.
Impact on English rock music
One indicator of the importance electric folk in the 1970s was its adoption into more mainstream rock music, most notably in the bands Led ZeppelinLed Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
and Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
. Neither of these bands can be considered part of the electric folk movement, but they do provide evidence of its influence.
Led Zeppelin had shared a stage with Fairport Convention at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music in 1970. Robert Plant
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...
and Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
’s interest in the genre was first evident in the recording of "Gallows Pole" a traditional ballad on Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin III is the third studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded between January and July 1970 and released on 5 October 1970 by Atlantic Records. Composed largely at a remote cottage in Wales known as Bron-Yr-Aur, this work represented a maturing of the band's...
(1970), which stands out among their usual output of blues orientated rock. At this time they also wrote the ballad "Poor Tom
Poor Tom
"Poor Tom" is a song by English rock group Led Zeppelin, but may also be a reference to several characters throughout literary history. Led Zeppelin's song was composed in 1970 by vocalist Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page when they were staying at Bron-Yr-Aur, a small cottage in Wales, and was...
" which would surface on Coda
Coda (album)
-Sales chart performance:AlbumSinglesNo commercial or promotional singles were issued, although three tracks received independent radio airplay...
(1982). It is more subtly manifested in their most famous album Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin IV
The fourth album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin was released on 8 November 1971. No title is printed on the album, so it is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, following the naming standard used by the band's first three studio albums...
(1971), which contained elements of both American folk rock and English electric folk on ‘Stairway to Heaven
Stairway to Heaven
"Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant for the band's untitled fourth studio album . The song, running eight minutes and two seconds, is composed of several sections, which...
’ and most obviously on ‘The Battle of Evermore
The Battle of Evermore
"The Battle of Evermore" is a folk rock duet sung by Robert Plant and Sandy Denny, by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, featured on their untitled fourth album , released in 1971...
’, on which Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
had the distinction of being the only person ever to be invited to do guest vocals on a Led Zeppelin album. These influences would also appear on later albums, but reduced as the band returned to a hard rock sound from Presence (1976) onwards.
As Led Zeppelin moved away from electric folk, one of other long term survivors of the British blues
British blues
British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s and which reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s, when it developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric guitar and made international stars of several proponents of...
movement Jethro Tull began to move towards it. Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson (musician)
Ian Scott Anderson, MBE is a Scottish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the leader and flautist of British rock band Jethro Tull.-Early life:...
had produced Steeleye Span’s album Now We Are Six
Now We Are Six (album)
Now We Are Six is an album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span. Its title refers to both its sequence among their albums, and the band's size, in light of the addition of drummer Nigel Pegrum...
in 1974 and first demonstrated a clear interest in more traditional sound on Minstrel in the Gallery
Minstrel in the Gallery
Minstrel in the Gallery is the eighth studio album by British band Jethro Tull, released in September 1975.Ian Anderson's lyrics and subject matter show an introspective and cynical air, possibly the byproduct of Anderson's recent divorce from first wife Jennie Franks and the pressures of touring,...
(1975), but it was in 1977 with the release of Songs from the Wood
Songs from the Wood
Songs from the Wood is the tenth studio album by Jethro Tull and is considered to be the first of a trio of folk rock albums despite the fact that folk music elements are present in the work of Jethro Tull both before and after this trilogy...
(1977) that Anderson took the band into electric folk territory. All the songs on the album focused on rural life and, in addition to the normal electronic instruments and flute of the band, used mandolin, lute and a pipe organ. Two tracks, ‘Hunting Girl’ and particularly ‘Velvet Green’ followed the form of erotic folk ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s, much suited to Anderson’s song writing interests. Two more albums followed in a similar vein: Heavy Horses
Heavy Horses
Heavy Horses is the eleventh studio album by Jethro Tull, released on 10 April 1978. It is considered the second album in a trilogy of folk-rock albums by Jethro Tull, although folk music's influence is evident on a great number of Jethro Tull releases...
(1978) and Stormwatch
Stormwatch (album)
Stormwatch is the twelfth studio album by the rock group Jethro Tull. It is considered the last in the trilogy of folk-rock albums by Jethro Tull...
(1979) to form a loose folk rock trilogy, before Anderson moved into more electronic territory at the beginning of the 1980s. Ironically it was at this point that Dave Pegg
Dave Pegg
Dave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, arguably most visible as a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the pre-eminent electric folk band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of important folk and rock groups including The Ian Campbell...
of Fairport Convention would be the first of several members to join Jethro Tull.
Electric and progressive folk
Progressive folk developed in Britain in the mid-1960s partly as an attempt to elevate the artistic quality of the folk genre, but also as a response to diverse influences, often combining acoustic folk instruments with jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. As a result it was already established in Britain, albeit a difficult to define and varied sub-genre, before the advent of electric folk at the end of the 1960s. It can be seen as including performers such as Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
, the Incredible String Band, Pentangle
Pentangle
Pentangle may refer to:*another word for a pentagram, a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes*Pentangle , a British folk-rock band*The Pentangle, the 1968 album by the band Pentangle...
, Strawbs, Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
, Roy Harper
Roy Harper
Roy Harper is an English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s...
, John Martyn
John Martyn
John Martyn, OBE , born Iain David McGeachy, was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a forty-year career he released twenty studio albums, working with artists such as Eric Clapton and David Gilmour...
and the original Tyrannosaurus Rex. Some of this, particularly the Incredible String Band, has been seen as developing into the further sub-genre of psych or psychedelic folk.
The advent of electric folk had profound effects on this developing strand of the folk genre. First, many existing acts, having avoided the American model of folk rock electrification from about 1965 now adopted it, most obviously Pentangle, Strawbs and acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex which became the electric combo T-Rex. It also pushed progressive folk towards more traditional material. Acoustic performers Dando Shaft
Dando Shaft
Dando Shaft is the name of a short-lived psych/progressive folk and folk jazz band that was primarily active in the early 1970s. The band has attracted a measure of attention from recent compilation releases and Dando Shaft is today known primarily as one of the major influences on the progressive...
and Amazing Blondel
Amazing Blondel
Amazing Blondel are an English acoustic progressive folk band, consisting of Eddie Baird, John Gladwin, and Terry Wincott. They released a number of LPs for Island Records in the early 1970s...
, both beginning about this time, are examples of this trend.
Examples of bands that remained firmly on the border between progressive folk and progressive rock are the short lived Comus
Comus (band)
Comus is a British progressive rock / folk band which had a brief career in the early 1970s; their first album, First Utterance, gave them a cult following which persists. They have revived in the late 2000s and played several festivals.-History:...
and, more successfully, Renaissance
Renaissance (band)
Renaissance are an English progressive rock band, most notable for their 1978 UK top 10 hit "Northern Lights" and progressive rock classics like "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia" and "Ashes Are Burning".-Original incarnation :...
, who combined folk and rock with elements of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. While progressive folk as a genre continued into the late 1960s, it was overshadowed by electric folk and progressive rock, arguably, later to emerge in a new form.
Medieval folk rock
From about 1970 a number of performers inspired by electric folk, particularly in England, Germany and Brittany, adopted medievalMedieval music
Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...
and renaissance music
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
as a basis for their music, in contrast to the early modern and nineteenth century ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
a that dominated the output of Fairport Convention. This followed the trend explored by Steeleye Span, and exemplified by their 1972 album Below the Salt
Below the Salt
Below the Salt is a 1972 album by Steeleye Span, and considered by many fans to be one of their best. The album has a slightly medieval theme, most notably in the artwork and title...
. Acts in this area included Gryphon
Gryphon (band)
Gryphon were a British progressive rock band of the 1970s, best known for their unusual Medieval sound and instrumentation.-Career:Multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey and his fellow Royal College of Music graduate Brian Gulland, a woodwind player, began the group as an all-acoustic ensemble that...
, Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members. All of the band members, except the first two drummers, were multi-instrumentalists...
and Third Ear Band
Third Ear Band
Third Ear Band evolved within the London alternative and free-music scene of the mid 1960s.-History:Members came from The Giant Sun Trolley and The People Band to create an improvised music drawing on Eastern raga forms, European folk, experimental and medieval influences...
. In Germany Ougenweide
Ougenweide
Ougenweide is a progressive rock band from Germany. They are notable for being pioneers of the medieval folk rock subgenre. The name comes from Middle High German ougenweide .- The beginning :...
, originally formed in 1970 as an acoustic folk group, opted to draw exclusively on High German medieval music when they electrified, setting the agenda for future German electric folk. In Brittany, as part of the Celtic rock
Celtic rock
Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock and a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context...
movement, medieval music was focused on by bands like Ripaille from 1977 and Saga de Ragnar Lodbrock from 1979. However, by the end of the 1970s almost all of these performers had either disbanded or moved, like Gentle Giant and Gryphon, into the developing area of progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
.. One remaining but notable exponent of medieval folk rock is Ritchie Blackmore
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was known as one of the first guitarists to fuse Classical music elements with rock. He fronted his own band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple where he was unhappy because his favourite musical style wasn't adequately...
with Blackmore's Night
Blackmore's Night
Blackmore's Night is an English-American traditional folk rock duo led by Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night .-Early:...
.
Celtic rock
Initially Celtic rockCeltic rock
Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock and a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context...
replicated electric folk, but naturally replaced the element of English traditional music with its own folk music. It was rapidly evident in all areas of the Celtic nations and regions surrounding England (both Goidelic (Ireland
Music of Ireland
Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...
, Scotland
Music of Scotland
Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which has remained vibrant throughout the 20th century, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music...
, Isle of Man
Music of the Isle of Man
The music of the Isle of Man reflects Celtic, Norse and other influences, including from its neighbours, Scotland, Ireland England and Wales. The Isle of Man is a small island nation in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland .A wide range of music is performed on the island, such as rock,...
) and Brythonic (Wales
Music of Wales
Wales has a strong and distinctive link with music. The country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song". This is a modern stereotype based on 19th century conceptions of Nonconformist choral music and 20th century male voice choirs, Eisteddfodau and arena singing, such as sporting...
, Cornwall
Music of Cornwall
Cornwall has been historically Celtic, though Celtic-derived musical traditions had been moribund for some time before being revived during a late 20th century roots revival.-History:...
, and Brittany
Music of Brittany
Since the early 1970s, Brittany has experienced a tremendous revival of its folk music. Along with flourishing traditional forms such as the bombard-binou pair and fest-noz ensembles incorporating other additional instruments, it has also branched out into numerous sub-genres...
), saw the adoption and adaptation of the electric folk model. Through at least the first half of the 1970s, as Celtic rock held close to folk roots, with its repertoire drawing heavily on traditional Celtic fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
tunes and even traditional vocal styles, but making use of rock band levels of amplification and percussion it can be considered part of the electric folk movement. However, as it developed into new derivatives and hybrids, including Celtic punk
Celtic punk
Celtic punk is punk rock mixed with traditional Celtic music. The genre was founded in the 1980s by The Pogues, a band of punk musicians in London who celebrated their Irish heritage. Celtic punk bands often play covers of traditional Irish folk and political songs, as well as original compositions...
, Celtic metal
Celtic metal
Celtic metal is a subgenre of folk metal that developed in the 1990s in Ireland. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal music and Celtic music. The early pioneers of the genre were the three Irish bands Cruachan, Primordial and Waylander...
, and other sorts of Celtic fusion
Celtic Fusion
Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for modern music which incorporates influences considered "Celtic," or Celtic music which incorporates modern music. It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the perceived "Celtic" musical traditions of all the Celtic nations, as well as from...
, the initial electric folk pattern began to dissipate.
Folk punk
In the mid-1980s a new rebirth of English folk began, this time fusing folk forms with energy and political aggression derived from punk rock. Leaders included The Men They Couldn't HangThe Men They Couldn't Hang
The Men They Couldn't Hang are a British folk punk group. The original group consisted of Stefan Cush , Paul Simmonds , Philip "Swill" Odgers , Jon Odgers and Shanne Bradley .- Controversy and success:Their first single, "The Green Fields...
, Oysterband
Oysterband
Oysterband is a British electric folk or folk rock band formed in Canterbury in or around 1976.-Early history:...
, Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
and The Pogues
The Pogues
The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...
. Folk dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
also became popular in the 1980s, with the English Country Blues Band and Tiger Moth. The decade later saw the use of reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
with English folk music by the band Edward II & the Red Hot Polkas
Edward II (band)
Edward II is an English band named for King Edward II, which play a fusion of world music, English folk and reggae. Active from 1985, the band broke up after losing several key members in 1999, relaunching as "e2K" in 2000...
, especially on their seminal Let's Polkasteady from 1987.
Folk metal
In a process strikingly similar to the origins of electric folk in the 1960s, the English thrash metalThrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band Skyclad
Skyclad (band)
Skyclad are a British heavy metal band with heavy folk influences in their music. They are considered one of the pioneers of folk metal. The etymology behind the term "skyclad" comes from a pagan/wiccan term for ritual nudity, in which rituals are performed with the participants metaphorically clad...
added violins from a session musician on several tracks for their 1990 début album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth is the first album by British folk metal group Skyclad, and is thus probably the first ever folk metal album, with the track "The Widdershins Jig" in particular pointing the way for the genre....
. When this was well received they adopted a full time fiddle player and moved towards a signature folk and jig style leading them to be credited as the pioneers of folk metal. This directly inspired the Dublin based band Cruachan
Cruachan (band)
Cruachan [kroo-a-khawn] is a Celtic metal band from Dublin, Ireland that has been active since the 1990s. They have been acclaimed as having "gone the greatest lengths of anyone in their attempts to expand" the genre of folk metal. They are recognised as one of the founders of the genre of folk metal...
to use traditional Irish music in creating the Celtic metal
Celtic metal
Celtic metal is a subgenre of folk metal that developed in the 1990s in Ireland. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal music and Celtic music. The early pioneers of the genre were the three Irish bands Cruachan, Primordial and Waylander...
subgenre. Attempts have been made elsewhere to replicate this process with examples ranging from the Middle Eastern folk music of Orphaned Land
Orphaned Land
Orphaned Land is an Israeli progressive metal band, formed in 1991, that combines Death/doom, Jewish and Arabic influences.- History :In 1992, the band changed its name from the original Resurrection to Orphaned Land....
, the Baltic folk music of Skyforger
Skyforger
Skyforger is a heavy metal band from Latvia which was formed in 1995 out of the remains of doom metal band Grindmaster Dead. Most of their songs are about pagan gods and warfare; they also play traditional Latvian folk songs and metal covers. Although Skyforger is known for their folk metal, their...
and the Scandinavian folk music of Korpiklaani
Korpiklaani
Korpiklaani is a folk metal band from Finland who were formerly known as Shaman.-Biography:While other folk metal bands began with metal before adding folk music, Korpiklaani started with folk music before turning metal...
. In Germany this trend is more closely associated with the neo-medieval music
Neo-Medieval music
Neo-Medieval music is a term used to describe a variety of styles within modern popular music. A common characteristic of these styles is that they contain elements of Medieval music and early music in general...
known as medieval metal.
Electric folk festivals
Fairport's Cropredy Convention (previously Cropredy Festival) has been held every year since 1974 near CropredyCropredy
Cropredy is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell, north of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-Early history:The village has Anglo-Saxon origins and is recorded in the Domesday Book...
, a village five miles north of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
and attracts 20,000 fans. It remains one of the key events in the UK folk festival calendar.
After holding a successful open air concert at Kentwell Hall
Kentwell Hall
Kentwell Hall is a stately home in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It includes the hall, outbuildings, and a rare breeds farm and gardens. Most of the current building facade dates from the mid 16th century, but the origins of Kentwell are much earlier, with references in the Domesday Book of...
, Suffolk in 2005, Steeleye Span decided to hold their own annual festival, known as Spanfest.
See also
- Electric folk performers: List of folk rock artists and :Category:Electric folk groups
External links
- Folk Icons Websites. Links to numerous sites on artists and subjects related to electric folk.