Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
The Electric Muse Revisited
Engrossing account of an era when the crossover between folk and rock began
Electric Muse pic: Roy Harper credit: Man Alive/Creative Commons
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
THE ORIGINAL Electric Muse was written by Karl Dallas (Melody Maker), Dave Laing (Let It Rock), Robert Shelton (New York Times) and Robin Denselow (The Guardian) and published in 1975.
It traced British folk music from its mid-1960s revival up till the mid-1970s. Sadly, only Denselow is alive to see its significantly updated publication accompanied by a wonderful 4-CD box set.
Its early chapters compare the 1960s British folk boom with the US, where folk music consisted of Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Hank Williams, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan and The Byrds — not forgetting the 1920s and ‘30s musicians who recorded hillbilly, blues and gospel, music that Rolling Stone columnist Greil Marcus called “old weird America.”
More from this author
New releases by Samba Touré, Santrofi, and Piers Faccini & Ballake Sissoko
The towering figures of the North American right and the South American left are set to clash this summer as Brazil hosts Brics, an alliance Trump is determined to smash, reports TONY BURKE
The looming Trump presidency has forced unions to rebuild their unity and strength, writes TONY BURKE, as the SEIU returns to the AFL-CIO, healing the 2005 rift over organising priorities and getting ready to fight the right together
A horn of plenty, no less!
