Folk Rock and Country Rock

RELUCTANT HERO
Four CDs chronicling 40+ years of the guitarist’s guitarist.
By KINGSLEY ABBOTT.
RICHARD THOMPSON
Walking On A Wire 1968-2009
Shout! Factory 4-CD box set
www.shoutfactory.com
In 1967 Richard Thompson confided in me his secret desire to play in a soul band. This, as you might expect, is a total fabrication, but it does give some feel for the breadth of possibilities that lay at the feet of such a precociously talented teenager who was to gradually to emerge from behind his self-consciousness and shyness. When he did blossom it was unsurprising to those that knew him that he would follow a unique personal direction that drew upon musical traditions both eclectic and historic. In fact, listening to this 4-CD chronological journey through his career, it is surprising just how quickly he began to develop as a writer and singer.
After a somewhat predictable, though welcome five track Fairport selection, we’re into three from the still under-rated Henry The Human Fly, including ‘The Poor Ditching Boy’, I think the first of Richard’s songs to attract covers. The pattern for this retrospective is set from here on, with a Thompson-selected handful of tracks from each album, though the next one, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (along with Mirror Blue on CD 3), weighs in with six.
The choices from the various Richard and Linda Thompson albums that follow heavily underscore just how mature, expressive and emotional the material was then, beyond even their collective ages. ‘Down Where The Drunkards Roll’, ‘Dimming Of The Day’ and ‘A Heart Needs A Home’ come across as the classics they are, and the mix of their voices was perfect for that period.
Those lucky enough to see Richard in the ’60s, will recall his guitar virtuosity and inventive playing, as he injected tangential snatches into more familiar material. His subsequent solo work concentrated on the songs themselves, with Richard only rarely letting go on exciting solos on recorded material. ‘Don’t Let A Thief Steal Into Your Heart’ includes some albeit brief cutting loose, indicating how the duo was possibly holding back some aspects of his force. By ’82 and Shoot Out The Lights, Richard’s singing had become even more assured (remember if you will that in early Fairport days he had been a most reluctant vocalist), with ‘Man In Need’ drawing from the feel and the confidence of his favourites The Band, and ‘Wall Of Death’ arguably coming the closest he has ever come to a really commercial pop song.
1983’s Hand Of Kindness finds RT back with a band of sympathetic players around him. ‘Tear Stained Letter’ quickly emerged as a hard rocking live favourite with the blistering guitar work that some had missed. ‘Rockin’ In Rhythm’ from the offshoot Strict Tempo project shows the talent and joy in his acoustic guitar work.
The late ’80s saw him sign with Capitol Records, a relationship from which emerged Amnesia, Sweet Talker, Rumor And Sigh, Mirror Blue and you? me? us? including one of his best known signature excursions, ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’, evoking fondly remembered English cultural commentaries that form an ongoing strand of his work to this day through albums like Mock Tudor, Old Kit Bag and Sweet Warrior.
This set gathers the best of all of them alongside other side projects into a glorious whole of our very finest musician and songwriter’s output to date.
A cause for rejoicing.

WHAT HAS A HAZELNUT IN EVERY BITE?
70 years of England’s oldest independent label commemorated with stunning box set and book.
By KINGSLEY ABBOTT.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Three Score & Ten: A Voice To The People
Topic 7-CD book/box set

If ever there was a retrospective CD set that needed to be set in its historical and cultural context it’s this one. The fact that a quick count back reveals pre-World War Two origins will make readers realise that we are talking about very different starting points in political, cultural and musical terms.
Topic was born at a time when there was a recognisable and active left wing already standing firm against Franco’s Spanish regime, and about to face up to Hitler’s expansionist dreams. It was a time when the Communist Party was a genuine force in many forms, and there was a strong broad left within our political landscape that took in The Labour League Of Youth, The Unity Theatre and musical forms that often had an educational and instructional element.
Topic Records emerged specifically from The Workers’ Music Association, an offshoot from The British Marxist Party. Its earliest 78 rpm releases included ‘The Internationale’, Balaliaka recordings and Soviet Military Choirs alongside Paddy Ryan’s ‘The Man Who Watered The Workers’ Beer’.
Wartime led to a six year shut-down, but when the label re-emerged, its ’50s releases drew from a variety of traditions and artists like Ewan MacColl, Paul Robeson, Jack Elliot and Peggy Seeger. As vinyl arrived, helping a wider spread of sales and pressings that exceeded the couple of hundred that characterised the earliest years, releases reflected the breadth of source material. It was a time that, even within our small islands, folk songs were still very localised, allowing Shirley Collins’ first Topic issue to included songs from Sussex and Somerset alongside a Southern Appallacian text.
This mammoth retrospective draws upon and celebrates such variety. Rather than attempting a chronological overview, there is an initial selection of treasures to draw listeners in, followed by English, Irish and Scottish discs, a singer/songwriter collection, a politically rooted disc and finally a return to more treasures.
There’s intelligent ordering within each disc that eschews any obvious time links, preferring an eclectic mix of both acoustic and electric songs and instrumentals that lets us find Richard Thompson followed by Ewan MacColl, Eliza Carthy by Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and The Battlefield Band followed by The Fisher Family. Such juxtapositions enrich rather than confuse, and promote the idea of Topic being a home for one giant family of intelligent and committed musicians, and the whole package is all the better for it.
The presentation includes a 10-inch square hardback book, reflecting the size of the original issues, many of which are reproduced, complete with foxing. As you would expect, the book tells the chronological story with a wealth of rare photos, record sleeves and sidebars of key company personnel and artists. Also included is a stand-alone discography compiled with as much accuracy as the sometime lack of full early paperwork allowed.
The complete package is as important a CD set as any ever issued, allowing us to enjoy and learn from a really important musical heritage that continues to reverberate throughout so much music today.
“I didn’t like political or protest music”

Shirley Collins has been part of the backbone of English folk music for many years, and has appeared intermittently on Topic Records since 1963.
KINGSLEY ABBOTT caught up with her.

Shindig!: What first brought you to Topic Records, and what was the company like then?

Shirley Collins: It was their production manager Bill Leader who first invited me to make an EP called Heroes In Love. I went to Bill’s home where there was a basement room where we recorded. I was never aware of the actual mechanics of it all; I think I just sang into a mic going to a reel-to-reel recorder. Prior to that I knew the company and how well it was respected. You had made it if you were invited to record for them, so I felt honoured. before that I had been with a small company called Collectors Records run by Colin Pomeroy from Charing Cross Road. As I said, my first Topic release was an EP, as you had to wait to make whole albums in those days.

SD: How did Topic fit with the whole music scene then?

SC: The whole folk scene looked to Topic then. They didn’t record any big names then, apart perhaps from Jack Elliot. Other bigger record companies didn’t want to do folk, and there was very little appreciation from them until the later ’60s when groups like Fairport proved to be sellers. There were companies like Folkways, and HMV tried a bit in about 1958 reflecting the so-called US folk scene. It slowly changed – Harvest was a big boost later on. Topic had good young singers of traditional songs like Nic Jones and Anne Briggs to set alongside the field recordings. Partly because its audiences were limited, Topic was a stand-alone company with a real independent label feel. I was aware of the political roots as I grew up working class and was always left-wing, but I didn’t like political or protest music, as it was so bloody middle-class and was hi-jacked by the wrong people and later on by big business. Traditional songs sung by people who have really lived the life are so much more interesting.

SD: Did you have chances to connect with other Topic artists?

SC: I was always very independent, as a singer and as a person, so I wouldn’t have wanted it anyway. You knew each other, but weren’t a big band of brothers and sisters. I was always very private, apart from meeting people at festivals. People never believe me when I say I only met Sandy Denny twice!

SD: What’s your view on how Topic has developed over the years?

SC: There was always a respect and wonderful support for good new singers, and they kept their line in field recordings that they had collected. My last Topic issue was in 1978, but I am always glad to record for them. The Voice Of The People series in the late ’90s was such a wonderful statement, as it’s where their heart lies. I’ve just finished three CDs for the series. They sent me hundreds of tapes to listen to and select from. They all sounded so fresh, and I found some I didn’t know. It delights you and gives you hope. People feel loyalty to Topic: they are what they are and it’s commendable.

DAVE BIXBY
Ode To Quetzalcoatl
HARBINGER
Second Coming
Both Guerssen CD/LPs
Big plaudits to Guerssen for reissues of the two Dave Bixby albums from ’69. Bixby was a drug-damaged youth who recorded these LPs while becoming involved with religious sect (known enigmatically as The Group) that helped him resolve his substance problems and provided structure to his soul searching. The liner notes do a fine job of telling this curious story.
Bixby plays a kind of reverb-heavy acoustic loner folk. The overall effect is psychedelic without any cheesy phasing or latent weirdness; just a deep vibe that grows on you slowly. Nick Drake is obviously the big reference point here but Bixby has a unique charisma that lends his songs both a profound gravitas and an endearing fragility.
The Harbinger album (Bixby plus a couple of other cult members) was recorded the same year and not known by collectors to be the work of the same artist until recently. Whilst it doesn’t quite conjure up the same spooky atmosphere as the debut it perhaps just edges it in terms of song craft. If you like the weird folk vibes of Linda Perhacs or Perry Leopold then snap these up forthwith.
Austin Matthews
RAY CHARLES
Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music: Volumes 1 & 2
Concord CD
www.concordmusicgroup.com
Ray Charles signed with the more mainstream ABC-Paramount Records in 1959 after dramatically altering the rhythm ‘n’ blues landscape at Atlantic Records with his unique blend of blues, jazz and gospel that became known as soul music.
ABC let him record the various concept albums he’d always dreamed of doing such as these two volumes of country and western chestnuts, recorded and issued just months apart in ’62, whose unique, alternating big band and string arrangements along with Charles’ impassioned, always swinging vocal interpretations permanently transformed country music as well as vastly expanding his pop demographic with crossover hits like ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ and ‘Take These Chains From My Heart’.
The ‘60s also saw Charles enjoy chart success with covers of Johnny Cash’s ‘Busted’ and Buck Owens’ ‘Crying Time’ and ‘Together Again’.
Booklet reproductions of the original front and back album covers are a nice touch.
Gary von Tersch
JESSE FULLER
Move On Down The Line
Fledg’ling CD
www.thebeesknees.com
Jesse Fuller called himself a “folk songster” and as such he travelled during the ’20s and ’30s to wherever he could find an audience before settling in California.
Using a 12-string guitar, foot-operated bass and a harmonica/kazoo rig, he was very much an accessible storyteller rather than the usual bluesman. He eventually reached London where he recorded six tracks for Topic Records in ’65, including the ‘Move On Down The Line’ and ‘Stackolee’.
His best known song, ‘San Fransisco Bay Blues’, is included in its ’54 interpretation, along with ‘Railroad Worksong’, Lining Up The Track’ and Railroad Blues’ on which he drew from first hand experience and toil. His easy-going and rhythmic playing and singing are beguiling and attractive, and always had a real feel for performance about them that immediately sucks listeners in.
Authoritative notes from Joe Boyd and Val Wilmer flesh out our knowledge of Jesse, making this a really attractive package.
Kingsley Abbott
HUNTER MUSKETT
Every Time You Move
Cherry Tree CD
www.cherryred.co.uk
Like a slightly grumpy great aunt, Decca surveyed much of the ’60s music scene from a ’50s perspective. Their eventual realisation of changes in the market led to their almost grudging formation of Decca Nova, the archives of which are being re-examined by the Cherry Red group.
Decca scanned around the scene to sign up acts that sounded right for the times, and Hunter Muskett was one such, offering a soft acoustic guitar cushion on which could be added Danny Thompson’s eloquent bass and washes of strings.
This highly collectable but non-threatening album offered polished, gentle vocals and arrangements with ne’er a rough edge in sight.
Band members Terry Hiscock and Chris George were responsible for the majority of the material, and their songs were melodic and intelligent enough, occupying an area somewhere between Crosby, Stills & Nash and quieter contemporary folk-rock – all very pleasant but without obvious hooks or variation that would have excited listeners then. Modern ears will enjoy the craftsmanship.
Kingsley Abbott