A huggable chicken

Caedmon. A Chicken to Hug. 2010. CRCD00001
With the first notes the years fall away. We are transported back 35 years to the original sound of Celtic folk-rock, before Runrig, before Big Country, before U2. And we are transported once again another 1,300 years back to the golden age of Celtic mysticism, spirituality and Christianity.

Imagine if they could sustain this for a whole album - as the original Caedmon album almost achieved, becoming a classic once some collector picked up one of the original 500 pressings from the dusty shelves of a second hand music shop.

This CD released at the end of last year merits a mention because it is remarkable for its very existence. Caedmon in the 1970s, a Scottish student band, has been classified by some with Parchment in the very narrow category of Christian acid folk. On the whole, the bands did not sound similar - but they did create unique and wonderful sounds. That was recognised when the limited press Caedmon album because a collector's album, routinely changing hands for £1,000 or more. Some 30 years later - with the lead vocalist a vet in the Midlands, they managed to reunite, play some reunion gigs and then produce a CD.

 Well, second albums don't have to be the same and bands are allowed to mature and move on. In Caedmon's case they had more than three decades to forge individual lives  - and the miracle was that they re-formed, played together and have given us an album of songs that bridge the gap of decades.

In A Chicken to Hug (the source of the album's title is revealed in the bonus track at the end), the instrumentation is a little more sophisticated and the singing a little hoarser than in 1978. So while in 1978, the band did calypso Celtic-prog-folk style, now they do African music (Ouagadougou) in African style. But the cello is still there, there's some mandolin and there are Jim Bisset's electric break-outs from folky melodies. And I don't remember the accordion from the first album.

In fact there is an extensive list on instruments on this album, including a mbira, a fretless bass, a ukelin, a djembe and a bhodran.

The obessions are middle-aged, reflections on lives that have been difficult, joyful and varied - and as a band that have drifted apart in some ways yet remained, Still Here, faithful to youthful aspirations. It's a similar mixture in lyrical content to Sue McClellan's band River, a rare attempt to reflect the real passage of real lives.

So once you pass that first track, don't expect youthful nostalgia. We had that at the live gig - but even more welcome is a band recognising that great music, and especially spiritual music, should be timeless in speaking to the seven ages of humanity.

My only criticism: the original Caedmon album was a classic. The discovery of a live recording was a massive bonus because this is a band that likes to play its instruments and play them well and creatively. It would be good to hear more jamming, more of them letting rip.

Let's hope for more in the near future!

Link to the album's Facebook page

Fish Co - Beneath the Laughter

Fish Co. Beneath the Laughter. 1977. Producer John Pac. Grapevine 114.
Last time I discussed this classic Grapevine album it was on the basis of a couple of sample tracks.

Now a full download has become available on the web at Electric Psalms. I think the download is legitimate - in that there's no effort under way to market CDs or paid downloads from Fish Co, so far as I can tell. And the tribute site, fairnie.net, links to downloads of later incarnations of this band, such as Writz and Famous Names.

At the time I commented that Grapevine picked up a band that was undergoing rapid evolution. Having heard the full album now, I can report that the combination of Fish Co, Steve Fairnie and John Pac indeed produced something utterly remarkable.

The album morphs from acid folk to something that only be described as punk folk. The title track, Beneath the Laughter and much of the album have a lush electric folk sound, reminiscent of Shamblejam. But Fish Co were heading in a different direction to Parchment, who returned to a more acoustic, rootsy sound in Rehearsal for a Reunion, while Steve Fairnie and his bandmate Steve Rowles stayed close to the rapidly changing tastes of the late 70s and early 80s.

With the exception of John Pac's production there was no cross over in performers - and in fact the album features Pete Banks, of After the Fire on keyboards. So by the end, the band is experimenting with funk and then, in the song Super Heroes, with the new sound of punk - yet still overlaid with the lush female backing vocals of Bev Sage (Mrs Fairnie).

As with many Grapevine albums, copyright was attributed to Parchment Ltd.

Full tracklisting:
Beneath the Laughter
Never Feel Alone
Two on the Street
Across the Table
Miss Esther Lauden
Seventies Children (funk)
Harbour Mouth
Sail Away
Super Heroes (punk)

Pack Up Your Sorrows - Ruthanna

This gives me an excuse to talk about the New England folk singer Ruthanna who began releasing albums in the mid-1970s. I've been stalking her work on ebay for some time and was able to spend some Christmas money to pick up her second album, the live recording Radiant Circle.

There is surprisingly little about her on the web, possibly because she is very much around and the music-sharing web-sites are reluctant to share her albums. On e-bay she's sold as 'weird folk' and much of her stuff is gospel influenced - although her own MySpace website hints at a bit of a spiritual journey, possibly away from the church. Her first album sells for 50 dollars.

If  you collected the Ancient Star Song site's Christmas albums you would have picked up her collaboration with the Catholic priest Richard Ho-Lung - the astonishing Star Lullaby.


I would say she's somewhere between Joan Baez and an Appalachian singer and fits neatly into the genre of remarkable New England musicians that includes Dana Lee Price and more recently the Innocence Mission.

Anyway Radiant Circle, which I am still playing on continuous loop, includes a version of 'Pack Up Your Sorrows'. It's  more derived from the jingle-jangle Joan Baez version than the Parchment rendering - which, like so many Parchment interpretations, seems to have been utterly unique and was a deeply moving adaptation of the song.

Ruthanna uses an instrument called the lute-guitar and that may be responsible for some of the tingly backing music on the album.

Here's our last report on Pack Up Your Sorrows

Love Is Come Again

 There was I watching BBC Alba's Alleluia! (It's a Gaelic channel) and up comes a report on Love is Come Again, the classic track from the Light Up the Fire album.

It seems it could be a Gaelic melody, rather than an English one, as the writer John Macleod Campbell Crum was the son of a Gaelic speaking wealthy Scottish business family. Crum himself spent his adult life in England as a Church of England clergyman, according to the programme.

The programme, number 11, features a stunningly beautiful acapella Gaelic version of the song, known as Èirigh Bileag Ur Ghorm. You may be able to find it on the BBC iPlayer if you're quick. Failing that Alba's website has another, equally glorious, rendition of the Gaelic version of the song, performed by a band, and you may find it by following this link and selecting the song title.

Parchment's high acid folk version of the song has attracted the interest of collectors in recent years as we recorded some six years ago.

* I have just spotted that an anonymous poster on this site last year suggested the melody was very similar to a French carol.  The band always recorded the song as "traditional" as I recall. So did Crum borrow from a French carol - or did a French carol composer borrow from Crum?

Electric Eden?

Santa dropped a copy of Rob Young's 600-page monster Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music into my stocking this Christmas. It's a very readable account of the development of progressive folk in the 1960s - a sorry saga of death and self-destruction among many of the brilliant young musicians who created a new genre from traditional British folk. Quite a lot of time is devoted to the big names, such as the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Pentangle but there are also revelations about many of the more obscure names that crop up on compilation CDs.

There's two pages devoted to Parchment et al. The pages feel like a bit of an afterthought, probably culled from blogs like this one. Rob, I think correctly, suggests that acoustic folk music was an "ideal idiom" for rewriting the hymn book in a modern, gentle image. He names some 14 bands as having made music of "lasting value", including Parchment, Trinity Folk, Caedmon, Water into Wine Band, Presence and 11:59 and a mention of Grapevine Records. And there's some intriguing speculation about Reflection Records A quick check suggests that quite a bit more information has surfaced about Reflection in the last year - including a tribute blog.

Rob Young sets all this in the context of some 60s musicians embarking on spiritual journeys of their own. However, unlike in the USA, in Britain there was very little cross-over to the Christian bands mentioned above. They were mainly fresh-faced youngsters, making their own way in the music scene. The big exception was John Pantry, who brought his talent and production skills to bands such as Parchment.

* Additional note: if you read the Amazon reviews you will see many writers highly critical of Rob Young's efforts to trace a succession to 'Electric Eden' through the 80s and 90s via Kate Bush and new romantics Talk Talk. I'm stuck on those rather tedious closing chapters too. It raises again the question of what on earth happened in the 1980s. Young tries to link the music to a particular view of England. In fact he succeeds in highlighting just how few musicians were playing progressive folk in the 60s and 70s because they thought it was an interesting genre and how many were involved just because it was there. The same comment applies to the Christian scene. Some were in Christian bands because it was a way of making music, others because it was a way of worshipping God or evangelising. In fact those who failed to adopt the latest musical styles were mocked mercilessly, especially at the Greenbelt festival (see the 1979 Greenbelt video) In spite of some deep thinking at the time by  the likes of Os Guinness, very few saw the creation and celebration of excellent music as potentially an act of worship in itself, rather than having some other purpose. In my personal view, this is reflected in the continued dumbing down of church worship music (often there is a fear that worshippers might admire the musicians - just as in the days when many churches banned musical instruments). The history of Parchment and the tensions, both artistic and within the Christian community, really highlight this. Is this a talking point for some of those who were around at the time? Comments welcome!

Wintry music

I made the mistake of going out in the snow with Parchment albums loaded on my mp3 player. 'Summer's coming'? It's not snow music! River's Shadow and Flame would be a better choice. Rehearsal for a Reunion's Angel Voices possibly.

However if you're looking for Christmas music of this era, the Ancient Star Song has gone to the trouble of creating a mega-collection of seasonal tracks. I haven't listened to it yet but it's currently loading to my mp3 player.

The return of acid folk?

Today has been World Aids Day but has also marked another momentous event - the launch of a new album by 70s acid folk legends Caedmon. A Chicken to Hug is their second only studio album. Many of the songs will be familiar to those of us who attended their reunion gig. In nearly 40 years they've all had different life stories but have managed to work together successfully. Sadly Amazon's dispatching seems to have got mixed up with the Christmas rush - so no idea when my copy will arrive, perhaps in Santa's sack? You can find much of the back story at the Amazon page. Also at their own site where there are samples and a link to a new Youtube video.

From the City to the Sea

John Neill. From the City to the Sea. 1976. Producers Sue McClellan and Pete Yates-Round. GRV 107.
This was another of the Grapevine label's early releases, put out directly after the last Parchment album Rehearsal for a Reunion. It's now available as a download on the Ancient Star Song site.

The label liked neat work on the acoustic guitar and this album is one of the best. Like quite a few Grapevine and Pilgrim artists, John Neill came from Ireland - and is a talented song-writer. In fact this album is so good it may find its way on to my mp3.

There's harmonica and, according to The Archivist, also dulcimer. I haven't heard it yet but I shall be listening again to find it. Does anyone have a sleeve shot?

Looking at our Grapevine discography, I see there are still one or  two albums that haven't been identified. What was GRV117 in 1978 or numbers 127 and 130 in 1979?

New songs on Pandora

If you're in the USA, and you're allowed to listen to the World of Parchment Radio Station we set up on Pandora you can now hear the following tracks:
•'The Dangling Conversation' by Simon & Garfunkel
•'Go Your Way' by Anne Briggs
•'High Low And In Between' by Townes Van Zandt
•'Soldier Of The Heart (Live)' by Judee Sill
•'Tomorrow Is A Long Time' by Judy Collins

They sound like interesting tracks. Sadly here in the UK, we're blocked from listening to the Pandora service and haven't been able to hear how the station's developing for a long time. Originally, it proved a great way of exploring the influences and legacy that led to some great music!

Caedmon live in 2010!

Not since discovering River six years ago has there been such an event. Caedmon were a lost legend, known to a hardcore of folkies and one-time fans. When I first heard their work, on an illicit down-load, I was blown away.

At the weekend the band, with all its members, played together in public for the first time in 32 years, gathering in the centre of Edinburgh. And there is even a new album in the pipeline.

As they re-created the sound of their legendary album, it became possible to see how it was done: a cello played like a fiddle; a folk ensemble playing in harmony with a rock guitarist; members with the talent and versatility able to magic up a mandolin, ukelele or accordion as the moment required; and those amazing Gaelic folk-rock melodies.

They were forgotten for a period of 12 years after the members packed up their student life in Edinburgh and set off for real jobs. In 1978 that folk-rock was not fashionable, especially acid folk as it came to be called. They have been of interest here because some analysts classify them together with Parchment as having been the only two Christian acid folk bands, both playing in the 70s, mixing electric guitar, acoustic, mandolin and more.

Watching them live, you could see a band that enjoyed doing what it did, not quite recognising the unique sound and corps of songs they had created. And don't forget in 1978 Celtic rock was only two years away. U2 were about to emerge as were Big Country.

As they played there were few signs of that 32 year gap. The extra performers on the stage - their children - indicated the passage of time. We saw musicians playing together, enjoying re-creating their former sound but also enjoying trying out new songs, adding the experiences of life to their one-time youthful exuberance.

So from our party these were the favourites:
Aslan - 2 votes
Old Kings (new song) - 1
Give Me Jesus - 1.
The last is my choice - even though it's not their composition and is a traditional spiritual. The rendition was  anthemic with vocalist Angela Webb (Naylor) joined on stage by her daughter.

Of the new songs I might have voted for Four Winds, performed by electric guitarist Jim Bisset, and telling, I think, a moving story in powerful lyrics. I'm sorry they didn't play Second Mile, my all-time favourite. Another time?

I hope they continue to play together. I hope some folk festival - Cambridge? - gives them the starring role they deserve.

Some updates

There's been quite a lot of activity involving two of the bands we've been taking an interest in.

Firstly Caedmon have announced plans for the first live gigs of the reunited band. They are to take place in Edinburgh, Scotland, on May 7th and the 8th. Details on their website. Looking forward to it!

Caedmon have also now made all the tracks of their original, highly valued album available for listening on their site - along with some of their new material.

Dana Lee Winner, formerly Dana Lee Price, has also made many of the Dave and Dana songs available for listening on her website. There are 13 tracks from the original albums together with some of her new material.  At a guess, I think it is all the original material written by the duo - with the covers of other artists omitted, presumably for copyright reasons. That means you get amazing tracks like Come on In, He's Not a Rumour and Right Track but you still have to find the albums to listen to equally amazing versions of songs like Empty-Handed and Still Waters.

Our tracking shows that, even though it's four months since we last posted anything, interest in Parchment and their legacy is still high with many daily visits to this site. Let's hope this encourages others!

Dave and Dana - the complete discography

Satisfied - Bradley Recording Company,1975
Come on In, Pilgrim - 1976
Morning Star, Grapevine - 1978
Right Track, Rivendell - 1980
Be Still, cassette only - 198?

Some great new music by Dana Lee Price, now Dana Winner, can be found at her website here.

We know this because Dana has been on the site this weekend, sharing some of the history of the duo and her experience of working with Sue McClellan and Grapevine. Her postings are here and here.
Last year we heard from the other half of the duo, Dave Price - details here.

* Additional note: Come on in is now available as a download at The Ancient Star Song.

Some Grapevine downloads

The Ancient Star Song has been busy uploading a number of rare Jesus music albums from the 1970s and early 80s including two Grapevine productions.

These are:
Alan Shiers Lamplighter 1980 GRV135
Sonrise Before My Eyes 1976 GRV105

There is also an album from Grapevine's parent label Pilgrim, which used the Parchment members as its production team during this period.
Resurrection Plain Or Salted 1977 Pilgrim 434

New music from Caedmon!

More fantastic news about Caedmon, the second most obscure band of the 70s and the alternative acid folk gospel band from the period, a kind of parallel Parchment from Edinburgh.

The reformed band has laid down four full tracks and you can hear them on their Myspace site along with some of the originals (Aslan, Beyond the Second Mile, Maker Man). There is every indication they might produce work as good as the original.

This was our report of their reunion last year

Carol, John and Aubrey

This folk trio feature on the Sound Vision in Concert album with Trinity Folk. We did a feature on Sound Vision in November and mentioned the work of Carol, John and Aubrey. Now Aubrey has visited the site with some info. It seems they all hail from Essex, UK.

Green Anthem

A copy of Reynard's Green Anthem just sold on e-bay for £51. This was the first time I've seen a cover shot of the Liverpool electric folk band's second album, released in 1979, and featuring classics such as Leviathan, Gadera Moor and Angel Wings.

A YouTube tribute

This may be the first tribute to the band on YouTube. The song, Don't Let the Morning Come, is from Shamblejam.

Spring is sprung

Today is a glorious spring day in the UK and what better way to celebrate it than to get out the old copy of Light Up the Fire - the album - or even the CD, get out the elderflower cordial and give it a spin at full volume. It just reeks of spring.

From the moment when "colours of day dawn into the mind" , we're off through the park and letting  the fruit grow.

Then it's  over by the waterfall/ I'll come when I hear you call/ at your next convenient sunrise.

In the park it's time to ride on the  roundabout and very soon  the green blade rises, the greatest spring song of all.

Then we're looking forward to the carelessness of summer  (it's a cheating game to play) and heralding  summer's coming and the warm smile of the sun.


And all the while the mandolin hums and the guitars strum and pluck out melodies. The sound has never been bettered!

Light Up the Fire launched!

There was a time when members of Parchment performed together as a band and there was no song called Light Up the Fire in their repertoire. They were known as Trinity Folk. This is a cutting from a Buzz special in 1972 when the band, newly renamed Parchment, discussed the release of their first single, which was "not really representative" of their style.

Great picture of the band too. Note the dobro, mandolin and guitar.

The Archivist

The Archivist is a remarkable collection of reviews of "Jesus Music", spanning 1965-1980, produced by a man called Ken Scott.

I can't find out how many albums he reviews but estimate it is about 3,000. His latest edition, just out, includes 800 additional reviews. You can find it here and purchase it from the Lulu service.

His review of Parchment begins "the group would... contribute four essential lps of British progressive folk-rock". The words have been widely quoted on the web.

I bought the latest edition in the hope of plugging some of the holes about the Grapevine label. Astonishingly, despite high praise for Grapevine's output, he has not managed to collect the whole label. For instance the terrific Unity is missing and coverage of the parent Pilgrim label is also patchy. In spite of that Archivist is a remarkable treasurehouse of information about the output of this era, full of  interesting judgements. For instance Whitsuntide Easter is a "Dutch heavy acid folk monster" that's by far the "best LP on this great UK label".

  So I'll be drawing on it over the course of the year, especially as I have several Grapevine album reviews to post.

pf