June Moss

"There's something happening here, but you don't know what it is…" 'Weirdlore:Notes From The Folk Underground' 18 exclusive tracks by some of the best artists operating in folk hinterland. "There's something happening here, but you don't know what it is…" said Bob Dylan It's a good starting point for Weirdlore. The clichés about our folk music suggest that if it's not 97-verse traditional ballads about our murderous aristocracy, then it's all jolly milkmaids, foaming nutbrown ale and illegal shagging. Others would have it as some sort of Wicker Man kingdom of haunted pastoral pagan fakelore shading through whimsical singer-songwritery into eccentric steampunk with banjos. Well, it's some of all that and none of that, but there are increasing numbers of musicians and songwriters beyond the mainstream currently taking inspiration from the themes, tunes and musical strangenesses of our roots and making something timelessly new but still distinctly local out of them.

A self-taught musician from Long Beach, California, Taylor learned guitar at age 15 and performed in bands during education. He later created background music for prayer meetings at his church, which was heard by a film writer and director, Eliot Rausch. They collaborated on some short films together, and Taylor contributed to the soundtrack of August: Osage County (composed by Gustavo Santaolalla), before his first full soundtrack credit, Meadowland (2015). More recently, he composed for the TV series The Handmaid's Tale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

When you take the plunge into a Joe Meek rarity CD, you have fair warning that you're not going to encounter many lost masterworks. This compilation of 29 tracks by female singers he worked with in the early and mid-'60s, though, is one of the better ones on the market. None of these – by the likes of Jenny Moss, Gunilla Thorn, Kim Roberts, and Yolanda – were hits (ten tracks weren't even previously released), and frankly they didn't deserve to be, due to the extremely innocuous and slight nature of the material. That's not, however, what Meek connoisseurs are seeking with these archival releases. You want examples of Meek's inimitable outer space bathroom production techniques, whether highly polished or in progress, and you get them here, via the Casper-the-ghost strings, compressed percussion, and spooky keyboards. Which makes it a not half-bad document if you've got the Meek bug, even if the songs themselves are completely overshadowed by their embellishments, although the odd tune (Jenny Moss' "Hobbies," Pamela Blue's "Hey There Stranger," and especially Glenda Collins' dramatic "Baby It Hurts") carried some hit potential.

With over 25 years under his belt, Boston-based blues guitarist Monster Mike Welch is handily considered a seasoned veteran of the international blues scene at just a mere 37 years old. Adorned with the nickname Monster Mike by actor/comedian Dan Aykroyd at the tender age of 13, Welch has since carved out a successful living as a highly accomplished and in-demand guitarist.