The Albion Dance Band

For long-time Island fans the most fun way to celebrate this hugelytrumpeted anniversary would be reissuing the two budget-price samplers which introduced so many cash-strapped kids to the label in 1969. The wide range of musical strains presented was packed with avenues to explore, but You Can All Join In’s Side Two, Track One was Fairport Convention’s hauntingly anthemic Meet On The Ledge, heralding the label’s oncoming “quiet revolution” combining folk and electric rock forms, examined here over three CDs.

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).

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).

Shirley Collins - legendary folk singer and one of England's most respected song collectors - has announced her return to recording after 38 years. With new album Lodestar, Shirley has created the unlikeliest release of the century so far. Lodestar is a collection of English, American and Cajun songs dating from the 16th Century to the 1950s, recorded at Shirley's home in Lewes by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown of Cyclobe and produced and musically directed by Ian Kearey. The first track to be shared from Lodestar is 'Cruel Lincoln'.

After the success of their Jimi Hendrix-produced debut album The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away (also available from Real Gone) and its hit “Good Old Rock ‘N’ Roll,” the members of Cat Mother repaired to their Woodstock cabin (pictured in the album gatefold reproduced here) and started writing songs for Albion Doo-Wah. The record had much more pastoral, country feel to it, no doubt in part due to the replacement of Charlie Chin by multi-instrumentalist folkie Jay Ungar, who also brought several songs to the group. But there was definitely something in the air in the late’-60s/early ‘70s Woodstock scene; Albion Doo-Wah has several scoops of that timeless, Americana-laced Basement Tapes/Music from Big Pink fairy dust. CD debut, and one long, long requested by the band’s fans, with a gorgeous remastering job by Maria Triana at Battery Studios.

Lee Presson and the Nails (also known as LPN) is a swing band that formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in October 1994 during the late 1990s swing revival. As of 2010, the band has released five albums. LPN differentiated themselves from other bands of the late '90s swing revival by their wacky stage antics and the sinister appearance of band leader Lee Presson. The San Francisco Chronicle described LPN in 1996 by coining the term "Goth Swing." The band won a California Music Award (Bammie) in 1998 for Best Swing/Cabaret Act, an SF Weekly Award for Best Swing Band later that year. LPN temporarily disbanded in 2004 when Lee Presson moved to Hollywood, where he played keyboard for the Oingo Boingo tribute band Dead Man's Party.

Australian folk duo Luluc follow-up their deeply enchanting 2014 LP Passerby with Sculptor, a largely self-produced, self-recorded set that leans out dramatically from the quiet introspection of its predecessor both in lyrical content and more cinematic sound. Now firmly entrenched in the creative enclave of Brooklyn, Melbourne natives Zoë Randell and Steve Hassett dance around the minimalist framework of their first two outings, expanding their palette with more elaborate harmonies, dark sonic textures, synths, and various experimental elements.

In the mid-'90s, Detroit blues guitarist and songwriter Kenny Parker released his debut album for the London-based JSP Records, Raise the Dead. Parker's blues education began with the Beatles in the early 1960s, but it wasn't long before he discovered the roots of their music. Parker grew up in Albion, Michigan and began playing in his first band, the Esquires, at 14. He begin listening to Albert King and B.B. King in high school via the local record store, and he took his inspiration from them. He graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1976 and took a job in a Cadillac factory while looking around for the right opportunities to play blues at night. He began working with a paragon of the Detroit scene, Mr. Bo (Louis Bo Collins), and later joined the Butler Twins.