Fairport C

Rhino's Troubadours of British Folk series, encompassing three volumes, four decades, 49 songs, and almost as many performers, is a model genre retrospective. For those who want a representative collection of the style's highlights, it covers virtually all of the major performers and innovators of British folk, represented by their best-known (and usually best) songs. For those who want an introduction/guide to the form, it's equally useful, serving as an excellent foundation to build upon if you're motivated to seek out more albums by these performers after an initial taste. Volume One covers the mid-'50s to the early '70s, encompassing skiffle (Lonnie Donegan), elder statespersons (Ewan MacColl), virtuoso guitarists (Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy), traditional singers (Jean Redpath, Shirley & Dolly Collins), singer-songwriters (Donovan), and early efforts by the major players of British folk-rock (Fairport Convention, Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span).

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the next release in their series of compilations celebrating the so-called “underground” rock music – “Banquet – Underground Sounds of 1969”, is a 3CD clamshell boxed set which gathers together nearly four hours of music from 1969, a year that saw a huge progression in both musically and socially.

Career-spanning four CD box set from the British Folk Rock legend spanning the years 1969-2009. The songs chosen for this selection of his work were carefully assembled and aim to provide a real sense of Richard Thompson, as well as to celebrate the diversity of his music - Rock 'n' Roll with Folk, Jazz, Rockabilly and the odd waltz thrown in - the scope of his songwriting, and the sheer virtuosity of his playing. Produced by Richard Thompson, Walking On A Wire impressively includes 71 tracks from albums released by 15 different labels, and includes a 60 page booklet with new notes by Patrick Humphries.
"A perennial dark-horse contender for the title of Greatest Living Rock Guitarist…. folks should be sated by this excellent 71-track primer, which also shows the U.K. vet as a world-class songwriter. 4.5 Stars" – Rolling Stone, August 9,2009

Career-spanning four CD box set from the British Folk Rock legend spanning the years 1969-2009. The songs chosen for this selection of his work were carefully assembled and aim to provide a real sense of Richard Thompson, as well as to celebrate the diversity of his music - Rock 'n' Roll with Folk, Jazz, Rockabilly and the odd waltz thrown in - the scope of his songwriting, and the sheer virtuosity of his playing. Produced by Richard Thompson, Walking On A Wire impressively includes 71 tracks from albums released by 15 different labels, and includes a 60 page booklet with new notes by Patrick Humphries.
"A perennial dark-horse contender for the title of Greatest Living Rock Guitarist…. folks should be sated by this excellent 71-track primer, which also shows the U.K. vet as a world-class songwriter. 4.5 Stars" – Rolling Stone, August 9,2009

Career-spanning four CD box set from the British Folk Rock legend spanning the years 1969-2009. The songs chosen for this selection of his work were carefully assembled and aim to provide a real sense of Richard Thompson, as well as to celebrate the diversity of his music - Rock 'n' Roll with Folk, Jazz, Rockabilly and the odd waltz thrown in - the scope of his songwriting, and the sheer virtuosity of his playing. Produced by Richard Thompson, Walking On A Wire impressively includes 71 tracks from albums released by 15 different labels, and includes a 60 page booklet with new notes by Patrick Humphries.
"A perennial dark-horse contender for the title of Greatest Living Rock Guitarist…. folks should be sated by this excellent 71-track primer, which also shows the U.K. vet as a world-class songwriter. 4.5 Stars" – Rolling Stone, August 9,2009

2010 two CD compilation that charts the story of Folk music in the UK from Martin Carthy, who equivalent to Bob Dylan in the US, is the pioneer of the UK Folk revival, through Fairport Convention and the Folk Rock movement, right up to contemporary artists carrying on the rich tradition such as Noah And the Whale, who reached #5 in the UK Album charts. Whether you're drinking cider in the sun at a festival or just interested in getting to know some of the pioneers and artists that have made folk what it is today and influenced the last 40 years of popular music in Britain. 38 tracks. Spectrum.

It's now half-a-century since British folk rock became A Thing, with the early practitioners breaking new ground and inspiring an entire scene that peaked in the late Sixties/early Seventies. Earnest young post-Dylan singer/songwriters moved away from the intimacy of the folk clubs in favour of the nascent college/university circuit. Counter-cultural iconoclasts The Incredible String Band became a seismic influence on a whole raft of bands now categorised as acid-folk, Pentangle's use of acoustic instrumentation within a nominally rock framework attracted many emulators (though arguably no real equals), while Fairport Convention graduated from their initial American West Coast-indebted sound to explore their own country's musical heritage, thus establishing the concept of indigenous English folk rock (a baton that would be picked up by the likes of Ashley Hutchings' post-Fairport venture Steeleye Span and many others).

61-track, 4-CD set explores the experimental side of the British folk scene, from the folk-rock era to the present.
Includes new and unreleased recordings from Imagined Village (the first new music from the band in 9 years, with vocals from Eliza Carthy), Justin Adams, and Stick In The Wheel, unreleased songs from Maddy Prior and Lavinia Black-wall, and rare demos from Sandy Denny and Richard and Linda Thompson. The remarkable cast also includes everyone from Shirley Collins and Fairport Convention to Billy Bragg, June Tabor and Oysterband, Eliza Carthy, Jim Moray, Olivia Chaney, Spiro, Lau, Jon Boden, Martyn Bennet, Capercaillie, Stick In The Wheel, Sam Lee, Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita, Yorkston Thorne Khan and many more. Compiled by writer and broadcaster Robin Denselow, who also wrote the 24-page sleeve notes, the boxset is released to coincide with publication of the book of the same title (on Omnibus) - which is an updated version of the celebrated story of the folk-rock era The Electric Muse, first published in 1975. This boxset brings together an extraordinary cast of great musicians for the first time, and tells the story of how British traditional music has been re-worked with influences not just from rock but from punk, rap, electronica, big band brass, and sounds and styles from around the world.