GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
The Electric Muse Revisited
Engrossing account of an era when the crossover between folk and rock began
Electric Muse pic: Roy Harper
[Man Alive/Creative Commons]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
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.”
Similar stories
TONY BURKE revels in the publication of previously unreleased tracks by the great US folksinger
Fiery words from the Bard in Blackpool and Edinburgh, and Evidence Based Punk Rock from The Protest Family
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
How underground bands formed a vital part of the struggle against white supremacy