THE BRITISH FOLK UNDERGROUND 1969-1975

Description

Compiled by Bob Stanley to document the acid folk scene, "Gather In The Mushrooms" was first released in 2004 on Sanctuary, as a CD-only release. Its success was such that a follow-up, "Early Morning Hush", was released two years later. This new edition of "Gather In The Mushrooms" brings together the best of both long-deleted compilations, with a few additions – C.O.B., Roy Harper, Fotheringay – that were not available on Sanctuary at the time. Although not traditional, these songs possess their own authenticity, an autumnal atmosphere and a naiveté that influenced the neo-folk boom of the 2000s (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Alasdair Roberts, Tuung et al.), but are impossible to reproduce. For many of these late 60s groups, folk music and the surrounding hippie world were a way of life, a way of escaping the Vietnam War, the Angry Brigade and the three-day week of the early 70s. Anne Briggs lived in a caravan in Suffolk, Shelagh McDonald in a tent, Vashti Bunyan refused electricity; they were not part-time workers. Listening to "Gather In The Mushrooms" transports you to a time when no one used the term "postmodern". While it may not have resonated with staunch political folkies, more than five decades later, this music strongly evokes an England of yesteryear – not necessarily one of poachers and pedlars, but of long-haired youths in tie-dye t-shirts, bikers and hippies, playing acoustic guitars in whitewashed stone cottages. Bands like Midwinter and Oberon privately recorded primitive folk albums; today, they sound as distant and mystical as Alan Lomax's field recordings. The sincerity and folk knowledge of a band like Forest lose all relevance as soon as you hear a piece as strange and evocative as "Graveyard". Homemade, comforting, warm as soup or chilling as frost, it is music of innocence and rare beauty.