The Imagined Village is a folk music project founded by Simon Emmerson of Afro Celt Sound System, with a cavalcade of stars, including Eliza and Martin Carthy, Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Sheila Chandra and Benjamin Zephaniah. I suspect I bought this for the full price, and have since bought it 'by accident' for a quid in a charity shop.
I've always like the idea of folk music much more than I've actually enjoyed real folk music, but this sort of folk-rack crossover has held more appeal.
The album opens with 'Ouses 'Ouses 'Ouses, a spoken piece by John Copper (from an old Sussex folk dynasty) bemoaning building encroaching on the countryside, with a sprightly reel to follow and an outro sung by Sheila Chandra. Next, John Barleycorn is a pretty straight version of the classic English folk song, fronted fantastically by Martin Carthy, with daughter Eliza and Paul Weller helping out.
Tam Lyn Retold bears little resemblance to the Tam Lin by Fairport Convention that I'm familiar with, but it's a tremendous modern tale by Benjamin Zephaniah, ably assisted by Eliza Carthy. However, this wondrous start isn't maintained - there's a couple of pleasant enough songs in Death And The Maiden by Tunng, and Martin Carthy's Cold Haily Rainy Night, before Sheila Chandra's dull ballad Welcome Sailor.
But the album gets a second wind, as Eliza Carthy reworks GreenGrow The Rushes O into the lovely Acres Of Ground, with a tepid instrumental, Pilsdon Pen separating it from Billy Bragg's superb reworking of Hard Times Of Old England, with a 21st century update. Ending with a couple of pleasant ceilidh tunes, this is a fine album. It seems to work best when Eliza Carthy has a hand in proceedings, but there's an awful lot to enjoy here, and nothing bad.
4* - a bold experiment in reworking folk music, with some spectacular results.
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