British Folk

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).

The British Folk Revival is the very first historical and theoretical work to consider the post-war folk revival in Britain from a popular music studies perspective. Michael Brocken provides a historical narrative of the folk revival from the 1940s up until the 1990s, beginning with the emergence of the revival from within and around the left-wing movements of the 1940s and 1950s.