I know wot I like….

I have been asked to make a few musical recommendations on folk music. I can’t say that I am an authority on any genre as I tend to dip into many different styles of music, but I know what I like. These that I have chosen here a generally English folk, though they are more modern than traditional and so are influenced by the country’s more cosmopolitan nature.

Musical Recommendations – English Folk


Underneath the Stars by Kate Rusby

The most traditional of the four albums selected here, Kate has a clear and sweetly regional accent that lends itself well to the gentle and clean sound that she creates. This is a beautiful album for either background music or quiet contemplation. I would say this is a good album to introduce you to the folk style.


The Imagined Village

This is something quite different in that it is a determined attempt at moving the genre along to better represent the modern world. A great collective of people mixing folk stalwarts such as Martin and Eliza Carthy, The Copper Family, Chris Wood and Billy Bragg, with new borrowed cultural music from Sheila Chandra, rock influences like Paul Weller and Trans Global Underground and even poetry from Benjamin Zephaniah. This might not be for the old traditionalist, but it is very relevant to the new audience of today.

‘The Imagined Village is an ambitious reinvention of the English folk tradition, embracing modern-day culture in all the diversity. Classic folk songs are skilfully reworked with the sounds and voices of today, updating the tradition for a new generation.’


The Boy Bands Have Won by Chumbawamba

Folk has always had its political and protesting side to it and this band, like the Imagined Village, have set out trying to push the genre forward into the future. They are a very considered and thoughtful group who have a point to make even when you don’t realise it as you listen to the catchy tunes and often humorous lyrics.

‘The boy bands have won, and all the copyists and the tribute bands and the TV talent show producers have won, if we allow our culture to be shaped by mimicry, wether from lack of ideas or from exaggerated respect. You should never try to freeze culture. What you can do is recycle that culture. Take your older brother’s hand-me-down jacket and re-style it, re-fashion it to the point where it becomes your own. But don’t just regurgitate creative history, or hold art and music and literature as fixed, untouchable and kept under glass. The people who try to ‘guard’ any particular form of music are, like the copyists and manufactured bands, doing it the worst disservice, because the only thing that you can do to music that will damage it is not change it, not make it your own. Because then it dies, then it’s over, then it’s done, and the boy bands have won.’


Burlesque by Bellowhead

This is a big band with a big sound that is quite a contrast to the gentle sounds of Kate Rusby, as they relish the wall of sound that the mixture of instruments can achieve. They are all about entertainment and they take the traditional folk songs and add colour and lights to the sound.

‘M’Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure – oh yes – to present these rare and glittering gems, these dazzling and delectable delights, these precious sparkling stones from the gilded coronet, the diamante tiara that is indeed the English music tradition.

So without further ado, pray sit back, recline and repose whilst we entertain and edify you, courtesy of the bold and brazen brass, soothing soniforous strings, rich and resplendent reeds, pantechnicon of outré percussion, and of course, vivacious, nay, effervescent vocals, that conjoin and coalesce to form the truly singular sui generis that is: Bellowhead!’