Although English folk ballads and customs like morris dancing (a ritual dance performed with sticks to the accompaniment of fiddle and/or accordion) have existed for hundreds of years or more, they were performed in rural communities and generally not exposed to the wider world. But that began to change in the early 20th century with the work of song collectors Francis James Child and Cecil Sharp. Were it not for them the English folk/folk-rock scene as it exists today would not have developed without the pioneering work of those two men. The repertoires of many currently active performers include songs collected by Child, Sharp or both.
Child, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, who graduated from Harvard in 1846, produced the five volume set The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, which contains 305 songs and has become an invaluable sourcebook for performers looking to add to their repertoires. In 1903, Cecil Sharp bicycled around England collecting ballads and tunes. He lectured about his findings and in 1911 formed the English Folk Dance Society (which merged with the Folk Song Society to become the English Folk Song and Dance Society in 1932). Sharp continued his research by traveling to Appalachia in 1916 and there found songs that had English roots.
The English folk revival's first wave came in the 1960s, with performers such as the Young Tradition, the Watersons, Davey Graham, Pentangle and Fairport Convention. The Young Tradition and the Watersons emphasized close harmony a capella singing and focused on traditional ballads. Guitarist Graham created the "folk baroque" school, blending traditional melodies with the elegance of baroque and classical music. The acoustic-based quintet Pentangle further explored that style by adding jazz-influenced instrumental techniques and rhythms. Fairport Convention started out as a psychedelic-era pop/folk band, playing original songs as well as interpretations of Bob Dylan tunes. But when vocalist Sandy Denny joined in 1968, she introduced the group to her repertoire of traditional ballads. This began a major change for the band, which was manifest on the 1969 release Liege & Lief. This landmark album, generally considered the seminal English folk-rock recording, consisted of adaptations of traditional ballads and tunes along with new songs. That recording inspired several generations of musicians and that Fairport lineup included several musicians whose solo careers later added their own stamps to the development of English folk-rock. Bassist Ashley Hutchings, for instance, was a founding member of Steeleye Span, the other great English folk-rock group.
Inspired by Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, a number of other folk rock bands appeared in the 1970s, but none of those bands lasted more than a few years. In 1980s that punk-influenced folk-rockers like Billy Bragg and the Men They Couldn't Hang appeared. This spirit strongly affected one time country-dance unit Oyster Ceilidh Band, which evolved into Oysterband and whose catchy original songs were (and are) propelled by rocked-up folk-dance rhythms. Along side the punk-folkers, veterans remained active. Martin Carthy teamed up with accordionist John Kirkpatrick and a brass section to form Brass Monkey. Also sporting a brass section was the regal sounding and fully electric band Home Service.
Led by Eliza Carthy (daughter of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson) and Yorkshire's Kate Rusby, the next generation of English roots musicians began to appear in the late 1990s. They're a talented and diverse bunch, but one thing that binds them together is that all are adventurous musically, equally comfortable playing in solo situations or with bands. Ken Roseman
