VARIOUS – Gather In The Mushrooms – The British Folk Underground 1969-1975 – 2LP – Black Vinyl [APR 25]

2LP – Black Vinyl

This new edition of Gather In The Mushrooms contains the cream of both long-deleted compilations with a few additionsC.O.B., Roy Harper, Fotheringaythat werent available to Sanctuary at the time.

Though they arent traditional, these songs have an authenticity of their own, an autumnal atmosphere, and a naivety that proved influential in the 2000s neo-folk boom (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Alasdair Roberts, Tunng, et al.) but remain impossible to replicate.

For many of these acts at the end of the 60s, folk music and the hippy world that surrounded them was a way of lifea way of opting out from the Vietnam War, the Angry Brigade, and the three-day-week early 70s. Anne Briggs lived in a caravan in Suffolk, Shelagh McDonald lived in a tent, Vashti Bunyan eschewed electricity; they werent part-timers.

Listening to Gather In The Mushrooms, we are transported to a time when no one used the term post-modern.

Tracklist:

SIDE ONE
1. CORN RIGS – Magnet & Paul Giovanni
2. MORNING WAY – Trader Horne
3. NOTTANUM TOWN – Oberon
4. GRAVEYARD – Forest
5. THE SKATER Midwinter

SIDE TWO
1. WINTER WINDS – Fotheringay
2. LORD AND MASTER – Heron
3. FLY HIGH – Bridget St John
4. SHEEP SEASON – Mellow Candle
5. THE BELLS OF DUNWICH – Stone Angel *

SIDE THREE
1. THE SEAGULLS SCREAM – Christine Quayle
2. FOREST AND THE SHORE – Keith Christmas
3. ROSEMARY HILL – Fresh Maggots
4. FINE HORSEMAN – Anne Briggs
5. THE WEREWOLF – Barry Dransfield

SIDE FOUR
1. ANOTHER DAY – Roy Harper
2. WINDOW OVER THE BAY – Vashti Bunyan
3. ELEVEN WILLOWS – C.O.B. (Clive’s Original Band)
4. THE HERALD – Comus

* LP BONUS TRACK