Electric Folk
Electric folk (aka British folk rock) is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in Britain during the late 1960s by the bands Sweeney's Men, Fairport Convention, and Pentangle. It uses traditional British music and self-penned compositions in a traditional style, and is played on a combination of traditional and rock instruments. This incorporation of traditional British folk music influences gives electric folk its distinctly British character and flavour. It evolved out of the psychedelia-influenced folk rock of British acts such as Donovan, The Incredible String Band, and Tyrannosaurus Rex, but was also heavily influenced by such American folk rock bands as The Byrds, Love, and Buffalo Springfield. Electric folk was at its most significant and popular during the late 1960s and 1970s, when, in addition to Fairport and Pentangle, it was also taken up by groups such as Steeleye Span and The Albion Band.
Steeleye Span was founded by Fairport Convention bass player, Ashley Hutchings, and was made up of traditionalist folk musicians who wished to incorporate electrical amplification, and later overt rock elements, into their music. This, in turn, spawned the conspicuously English folk rock music of The Albion Band, a group that also included Hutchings as a member. In Brittany electric folk was pioneered by Alan Stivell (who began to mix his Breton, Irish, and Scottish roots with rock music) and later by French bands like Malicorne. During this same period, electric folk was adopted and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Cornwall, to produce Celtic rock and its derivates. Electric folk also gave rise to the subgenre of Medieval folk rock and the fusion genres of folk punk and folk metal. By the 1980s the popularity of the electric folk was in steep decline but it has survived into the 21st century and has been revived as part of a more general folk resurgence since the 1990s. Electric folk has also been influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain, such as the U.S. and Canada.
Other articles related to "electric folk, electric, folk":
... The Albion Band Broadside Electric Comus Sandy Denny Fairport Convention Fotheringay Gryphon Hedgehog Pie Jack The Lad Steeleye Span Alan Stivell Malicorne Jim Moray Oysterband Pentangle Richard Thompson ...
... Main article Electric folk Electric folk is the name given to the kind of folk rock pioneered in England at the end of the 1960s, particularly by the band Fairport Convention ... Rather than mixing electric music with forms of American influenced progressive folk, it used traditional English music as its basis ... and gave rise to the sub-genre of Medieval folk rock and the fusion genres of folk punk and folk metal ...
... The adoption of electric folk produced groups including the JSD Band and Spencer's Feat ... release original albums, Runrig produced highly polished Scottish electric folk, including the first commercially successful album with the all Gaelic Play Gaelic in 1978 ... From the 1980s Capercaillie combined Scottish folk music, electric instruments and haunting vocals to considerable success ...
... Folk music underwent a related rapid evolution and expansion at that same time ... Dylan's use of electric instruments helped inaugurate the genres of folk rock and country rock, particularly by his album John Wesley Harding ... changes represented a further departure from traditional folk music ...
... Fairport's Cropredy Convention (previously Cropredy Festival) has been held every year since 1974 near Cropredy, a village five miles north of Banbury, Oxfordshire and attracts 20,000 fans ... It remains one of the key events in the UK folk festival calendar ...
Famous quotes containing the words folk and/or electric:
“the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye
So priketh hem nature in hir corages
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?1400)
“Remember dancing in
those electric shoes?
Remember?
Remember music
and beware.”
—Anne Sexton (19281974)