Delay68 Rec.
V.A.: Folk is a four letter word (US,F,POL,UK,SP,CAN,1969-2003)****
While UK 70’s folkrock scene is widely consumed and dug out of the bottomless well, all that happened in the US in this area of new folk movements has only just started to see the light of day. Of course a big part of the most interesting work is influenced by a hippie-mentality, (also partly influenced by voices like Janis Joplin, Janis Ian,..) and rock of course. Tracks like from Carol Batton, Kathy Smith ("It's taking so long"), Wendy & Bonnie (Flower), Heaven and Earth (with "Jenny"), Erica Pomerance, with perhaps the best track from her album, and of course Bonnie Koloc and perhaps Linda Perhacs (with "Hey, who really cares")* expose this area. Strangely enough this compilation also shows a few other, foreign examples, from Brigitte Fontaine (one of the biggest free-minded spirits from France, here with a rare early 45’), Breakout (Polish folkblues-psych) ("Warm up my lips"), Musica Dispersa (psychfolk from Spain), The Poppy Family (folkpsych from Canada) ("Shadow on my wall") but fitting perfectly amongst the rest of this selection. Audience is completely unknown folkpsych to me, a group from London with Howerd Werth, who released one of the many great unknown Polydor releases. A very original version of "Scarborough fair", partly Gryphon-like, partly retro-jazzy and baroque-jazz medieval, is added too, by a UK session group called The Roundtable. From the same label as Meic Stevens, Sain, with 2 more tracks by another Welsh 5-piece vocal folkrock group called Sidan are added too, (like "Gobiath").
The compilation really sounds like a perfect listen, and has only more or less essential tracks. Recommended !
