Some months ago I dicovered British folk music, via a brillant BBC documentary called Folk Britannia. I chanced upon a whole world of music and musicians that fall just below the standard pop culture radar. These musicians were involved in the Folk Revival that began in the 1950s on both sides of the Atlantic.

Davy Graham was the first of the British folkies to catch my attention. Right at the outset, at the dawn of the 60s, he proved to be much more than a folk guitarist. He incorporated the blues, and jazz, and eastern influences. All this was way before the hippies got in on the act. In fact, American artists like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon picked up several techniques and ideas from Graham, as well as his contemporaries Bert Jansch and Martin Carthy — who were also visionary guitarists. Paul Simon learned ‘Scarborough Fair’ from Martin Carthy, and then promptly copyrighted it. (He did this by including new lyrics. What a guy.) Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page also pinched a few ideas from these trailblazers. I’m posting some tracks from Davy Graham’s 1964 instrumental album The Guitar Player. ‘Anji’ was covered by Paul Simon on Simon & Garfunkel’s debut album, and quickly became an acoustic standard. I’ve included Davy Graham’s cover of Dave Brubeck’s brilliant ‘Take Five’ — one of the few jazz tracks I really like. Then there’s ‘She Moves Through The Bizarre’ which is his attempt to show a connection between Irish folk and Indian/Middle Eastern music. To fully appreciate what he’s done, go to youtube and look for the original folk song ‘She Moves Through the Fair’, sung by various people, including … er … Boyzone. Jimmy Page shamelessly copied Davy Graham’s version on the Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin track ‘White Summer‘.

Davy Graham — Anji

Davy Graham — Take Five

Davy Graham — She Moves Through The Bizarre

Next up is a track by Bert Jancsh called ‘Blackwater Side’. Jimmy Page takes “inspiration” from it on the track ‘Black Mountain Side’. Glorious stuff.

Bert Jansch — Blackwater Side

Bert Jansch was part of the band Pentangle in the late 60s and early 70s. Their debut album has been on heavy rotation recently. It’s not folk-rock. More like folk-jazz. I really think this band could be my window into the world of jazz — a world that I just haven’t been able to come to grips with. ‘Waltz’ is really something. Dig them drums. Apart from the music, I really like the album cover. Hehe. They really look like the cool crowd. The people you might want to hang out with.

Pentangle — Waltz

Two more tracks. They’re from Fairport Convention’s album Liege and Lief. Sandy Denny was the lead singer — she’s the one who duets with Robert Plant on ‘The Battle of Evermore’. Quite a voice. Fairport is more of a folk-rock band, which is a good thing. Too much noodly jamming can be quite off-putting.

Fairport Convention — Come All Ye

Fairport Convention — The Deserter