The Incredible String Band

Five CD set that highlights the absolute finest recordings for the Elektra label during their first (and some say finest) decade: 1963-73. Features the label's biggest hits, most famous artists and plenty of obscure classics as well. 117 tracks from the likes of Judy Collins, Eric Clapton, Tom Rush, Paul Butterfield, The Lovin' Spoonful, Queen, Dennis Linde, Carly Simon, Bread, The Wackers, David Ackles, Harry Chapin, Mickey Newbury, The Doors, The Stooges, Love, MC5, The Dillards, Tim Buckley, Nico, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and many more. Rhino. 2006.

'Skirting The River Road' is the second ECM recording by Scottish singer/songwriter Robin Williamson. It follows his critically praised solo album 'The Seed-At-Zero', which set texts by Dylan Thomas. The new album finds a thread of continuity that links three visionary poets - Walt Whitman, William Blake, and Henry Vaughan - and places their work in an improvisational context. There are also new songs by Williamson himself and a radical remake of an early classic, "Here To Burn". Williamson is usually considered a "folk" musician - his roots are certainly in the world's folk traditions - but he has also always been an experimentalist. The Incredible String Band (which he co-founded) was an autonomous, homemade 'avant-garde' unit in the 1960s, outside all the idioms but instinctively reaching for new forms, with Williamson's soaring voice leading the way.

The Acoustic Folk Box presents a masterful overview of folk music from the British Isles, encompassing some 40 years of history and dozens of artists. Each of the four discs covers an era, the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, and carries over an hour of music. Basically, The Acoustic Folk Box begins with the British folk revival of the 1960s and follows echoes that reverberate into the present. Many of the artists are well-known to general audiences (Martin Simpson, Richard Thompson, and June Tabor), while others (Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs, and John Renbourn) are perhaps less known than one might hope, especially in the United States. Where to begin? First of all, there's Alexis Korner and Davy Graham's lovely duet "3/4 AD," perhaps the mother of all fine British fingerpicking, and fellow picker Bert Jansch's definitive version of "Angi." Briggs offers a chilling version of "She Moves Through the Fair," leaving little doubt where Sandy Denny drew her inspiration several years later.

Grapefruit’s landmark 100th release
A definitive overview of the British psychedelic scene, an epic five-CD/book set that includes more than 50 minutes ofpreviously unreleased music from the halcyon period 1966-68. Including the major acts of the era (The Who, Traffic, Small Faces, The Move, Procol Harum, Incredible String Band, Family, Crazy World of Arthur Brown etc), ‘Think I’m Going Weird: Original Artefacts From The British Psychedelic Scene 1966-68’ features many bands who also played London’s underground dungeons during the Summer Of Love. Featuring studio demos from the likes of Tintern Abbey, The Soft Machine, Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, Genesis, Mandrake Paddle Steamer, Dantalian’s Chariot and others plus numerous cult 45s (July, Caleb, Vamp, Blossom Toes, Sweet Feeling, etc) and fascinating album cuts from such scene stalwarts as Tomorrow, Fairport Convention, Kaleidoscope, The Deviants and Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera.

The Acoustic Folk Box presents a masterful overview of folk music from the British Isles, encompassing some 40 years of history and dozens of artists. Each of the four discs covers an era, the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, and carries over an hour of music. Basically, The Acoustic Folk Box begins with the British folk revival of the 1960s and follows echoes that reverberate into the present. Many of the artists are well-known to general audiences (Martin Simpson, Richard Thompson, and June Tabor), while others (Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs, and John Renbourn) are perhaps less known than one might hope, especially in the United States. Where to begin? First of all, there's Alexis Korner and Davy Graham's lovely duet "3/4 AD," perhaps the mother of all fine British fingerpicking, and fellow picker Bert Jansch's definitive version of "Angi." Briggs offers a chilling version of "She Moves Through the Fair," leaving little doubt where Sandy Denny drew her inspiration several years later.

The set features such pioneers as Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Cyril Davies, as well as those who would become worldwide superstars with Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and many more contributing.

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).

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).

The set features such pioneers as Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Cyril Davies, as well as those who would become worldwide superstars with Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and many more contributing.