private 
Beneath The Oak : Utopia Folk (UK,2011)****'
I don’t know why but it remains rare to find a perfect and beautiful folk album like you used to find them (even though few people bought them) in the late 60s/70s. Most of such releases were and still are released privately, protected and in an intimate setting, just like the magical live gigs which are always small and with a handfiul of the right people to keep their sincere atmosphere intact, far away from what is not yet possible for a bigger public and setting. Beneath The Oak is such a band, from Leeds, West Yorkshire. They are influenced by these good days, nature, myths and folkore. They have Paul Wale on vocals, mandolin, cuatro, acoustic guitar ; Miranda Higgs on vocals, percussion ; Danny Laycock on vocals, bass guitar, harmonium and ukulele and Adam Lehan on acoustic guitars, no percussion. With the kind of lead vocalist, harmony vocals and slightly fragile feminine female vocals you expect to create this perfect lead, there’s also plenty of space for picking atmospheres on different picking instruments, one of the instruments used a few times resonates a bit like sitar, not sure which instrument this is. The pickings are worked out well and vary in parts. The songs are all comparable in structure and sound. There’s also one up-tempo instrumental. Magical. Recommended, a classic for the future.
