Linda Thompson

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).

Three CD set. 2024 instalment of Grapefruit's acclaimed year-by-year overview of the British rock and pop scenes of the 70s. A compendium of hit singles, intriguing misses, cult classics and key album tracks from 1975. While received wisdom among pop pundits is that 1975 was merely the calm before the following year's punk-instigated storm, there was plenty of vibrant, vital music being made in Britain and Ireland during that largely overlooked 12-month period. Roxy Music, 10cc and ELO were still firing on all cylinders, Thin Lizzy and post-Free act Bad Company were emerging as prime contenders for stardom, Hawkwind remained linchpins of the still-thriving free festival circuit, and cult live performers The Sensational Alex Harvey Band unexpectedly achieved Top Ten singles success after covering a melodramatic Tom Jones' ballad. The London-based pub rock scene housed the likes of Ace, Brinsley Schwartz, The Kursaal Flyers and the game-changing Dr. Feelgood, successful glam-era bands like Slade and Sweet were still producing the goods, while a handful of 60s stalwarts - Manfred Mann, The Pretty Things, The Kinks - were updating their sound to appeal to a new generation of record-buyers. All these and more are documented in 'Lazy Days', a four-hour, 3CD boxed set that, like every other release in the series, includes a 48-page booklet with photos, cuttings and the story behind each song.

Sandy Denny's second post-Fairport solo offering, produced by then-future husband Trevor Lucas, is a beautiful blend of the traditional style with which she is most often associated and a slightly more lavish sound that would become more prevalent in her later work. Lucas does an excellent job of balancing the two and creates an exquisite backdrop for Denny's gorgeous songs and majestic voice. Nearly every track has the radiance and timelessness of her best Fairport work, along with an accessibility she had merely hinted at prior to this. Sandy also boasts her best collection of original material, as well as terrific covers. If you're simply looking for a quick introduction to a wonderful songwriter and one of the finest voices in popular music, go for the single-disc best-of collection, but if you would like to hear Sandy Denny's definitive (solo) musical statement, search out Sandy.

Second Hand News: The Songs of Stevie Nicks & Fleetwood Mac is a compilation CD included with the August 2024 issue of MOJO. The CD includes three tracks from Stevie Nicks and 12 tracks from various artists, who cover songs by Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac.

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.

Three CD set. 2024 instalment of Grapefruit's acclaimed year-by-year overview of the British rock and pop scenes of the 70s. A compendium of hit singles, intriguing misses, cult classics and key album tracks from 1975. While received wisdom among pop pundits is that 1975 was merely the calm before the following year's punk-instigated storm, there was plenty of vibrant, vital music being made in Britain and Ireland during that largely overlooked 12-month period. Roxy Music, 10cc and ELO were still firing on all cylinders, Thin Lizzy and post-Free act Bad Company were emerging as prime contenders for stardom, Hawkwind remained linchpins of the still-thriving free festival circuit, and cult live performers The Sensational Alex Harvey Band unexpectedly achieved Top Ten singles success after covering a melodramatic Tom Jones' ballad. The London-based pub rock scene housed the likes of Ace, Brinsley Schwartz, The Kursaal Flyers and the game-changing Dr. Feelgood, successful glam-era bands like Slade and Sweet were still producing the goods, while a handful of 60s stalwarts - Manfred Mann, The Pretty Things, The Kinks - were updating their sound to appeal to a new generation of record-buyers. All these and more are documented in 'Lazy Days', a four-hour, 3CD boxed set that, like every other release in the series, includes a 48-page booklet with photos, cuttings and the story behind each song.