Roaring Jack is an Australian Celtic punk/Folk punk band of the 1980s and 1990s. The band built a cult following by playing the Sydney pub circuit eventually scoring regular slots at the Harold Park Hotel in Glebe and the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown. Their music had a strong political focus with emphasis on Scottish sectarianism, Aboriginal Rights and union activism. The band went on to support the likes of Billy Bragg, the Pogues and The Men They Couldn't Hang during their Australian tours.
Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys is a compilation album of sea shanties performed by artists representing a variety of genres, ranging from pop musicians like Sting and Bryan Ferry, to folk musicians, including Richard Thompson and Martin Carthy.
Fruit Tree is a four-disc box set featuring all three of Nick Drake's studio albums (Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, Pink Moon) and the rarities collection Time of No Reply. In other words, it contains every known recording Drake made during his brief lifetime, and listening to the set, the depth of his talent becomes abundantly clear…
Psychedelic-folk debut from one of the most erudite, literate minds in rock, Thomas D. Rapp (and the first of his ever-changing Swine). Although the songs here lack some cohesion, this is still a stunning piece of work, from the nightmarish sleeve art – the "Hell Panel" from Hieronymus Bosch's 15th century painting "Garden of Delights" – to the strange yet powerful songs. "Another Time," the most memorable selection, is an understated acoustic song, the first that Rapp ever penned, based on his experience in a horrific car crash where he walked away unscathed.
June Tabor is an acquired taste, I've noticed. For me, the first listen to her way back in the late '70s had me smitten. What still amazes me is that she will not be bound by trends; wasn't then, isn't now. Folk music has enjoyed a revival over the last couple of decades, thanks to great, vintage folk and bluegrass reissue albums in CD format, and people like Tracy Chapman, who showed us in the 90's that a single voice with a guitar can still weave a spell, Bonnie Raitt, who stuck by her passion for the blues, even while she was trying other stuff, and Bob Dylan, who still has the muse in 'im…
Haley Fohr’s latest and best record of experimental folk folds in some of the simpler songwriting of her countrified Jackie Lynn project.