One of the ironies of music is how quickly it can change allegiances. Songs that are so blithely referred to as Americana were brought over by immigrants from the British Islands and have their origins in Irish, Scottish, and Anglo Saxon folk lore. Musical anthropologists as far back as the 19th century discovered the songs and folklore of the people in the Appalachians and Tennessee Valley areas were modified versions of traditions they had carried with them across the ocean.
"Pretty Saro", "Two Sisters", "Barbara Allan", and countless other similar songs had stayed lyrically intact, even if their manner of presentation had changed. Adapted to the instruments and accents of the new world, their cadences might have changed, but their meanings hadn't changed a whit.
In North America, these songs have never really become part of the mainstream, and, even in the folk "revival" periods that we periodically go through, these songs are largely ignored. Its only been in recent years, with movies like Songcatcher and Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, that they have come to the general public's attention.
In Great Britain, it's been a different story, as those songs remained part of the cultural heritage throughout the islands. They may not have been part of the mainstream popular music scene, but neither did they vanish from view as completely as they did over here. In the great British folk revivals of the early 1960's and later, groups like Renaissance, Clannad, Steeleye Span, and Fairport Convention drew upon that history for both their material and their inspiration.
One of the groups who led the way from the early 1960's to the mid 1970's was Incredible String Band. Playing a mixture of adapted traditional music and original compositions, they created a sound that became loosely referred to as psychedelic folk music. Dressing like troubadours and courtly ladies from days gone by, they had great success with their musical hybrid, routinely scoring high in the British musical charts.
Of course, all good things come to an end, and so did the Incredible String Band. But individuals from the band still played together on and off throughout the years, and, for the Millennium celebrations in Edinburgh, some of them joined together and gave a reunion concert. Because of that gig the band reformed, and, a few years further down the road, the line up became a quartet with two of the founding members, Mike Heron and Clive Palmer, being joined by Lawson Dando and Fluff.
Article comments
1 - Kristine Nicholson
I just got done watching Live at Lowry and I enjoyed it very much. If you want all the pitches and rhythms to line up in the same place as they always have, no need to be disappointed, go back to the old records; they're still there. But these are new versions just like the second takes of the album versions were and just like all live performances are. To enjoy the Incredible String Band "aright" throughout all their formations and reformations, you only need to love the fact that "This moment is different from any before it." Give it a (nother) try. Smile.