In 1965, Geoff Stephens and Peter Eden entered into an agreement with EMI’s Columbia label to capitalize on the folk boom Britain was then experiencing.  The deal between Stephens and Eden and EMI was to produce four LPs.  Though the fourth never materialized, the three albums released under the banner of The Eve Folk Recordings have been collected, along with bonus tracks, on RPM’s 2014 two-CD set of the same name.  Stephens and Eden’s early managerial client, Donovan, is featured, along with Mick Softley, Bob Davenport and The Rakes, and Vernon Haddock’s Jubilee Lovelies.

Young troubadour Donovan Leitch’s deal with Eden and Stephens (later a successful songwriter himself, with credits including “There’s a Kind of Hush” and “Winchester Cathedral”) ended in a flurry of accusations and litigation, but not before Eden and Stephens produced some of his most influential early recordings including his first two albums.  Four Donovan tracks open The Eve Folk Recordings: the single versions of favorites “Catch the Wind” and “Colours,” as well as a pair of Mick Softley songs, “Gold Watch Blues” and “The War Drags On.”  Eden and Stephens were taken with Softley’s songwriting and offered him an LP of his own.  The resulting album was the cheekily-titled Songs for Swinging Survivors.  Softley took aim at the establishment, blending his own protest songs and cautionary tales with covers by Pete Seeger (“The Bells of Rhymney”), Woody Guthrie (“Plains of the Buffalo”) and Billie Holiday (“Strange Fruit”).  Softley’s later singles for Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label, “I’m So Confused” and “She’s My Girl,” have been appended to Swinging Survivors.

While Softley’s LP has previously appeared on CD, the two remaining albums on The Eve Folk Recordings are both new to CD.  Bob Davenport, born in 1932, was older than Softley (born 1941) or Donovan (born 1946).  Although Bob Davenport and The Rakes was his first full-length LP, he was already a respected veteran folk artist in the U.K. with his band The Rakes: Reg Hall (melodeon), Michael Plunkett (fiddle), and Paul Gross (second fiddle).  Davenport had fans in Pete Seeger and the up-and-coming Bob Dylan, and played with Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, and even Ravi Shankar.  A true music historian, a typical Davenport set list might feature English and American folk songs along with a Chuck Berry rock-and-roll song, a Bessie Smith blues or a Gershwin showtune.  The focus on his LP, though, was traditional folk music and adaptations thereof including “William Brown,” “My Bonnie Lad” and “New York Gals.”  Two Davenport live tracks have been added, also from 1965: “The White Cockade” and “The Shepherd’s Life.”

The third LP on this set is an eponymous release by Vernon Haddock’s Jubilee Lovelies.  This ultra-rare album (of which only 400 copies were reported to have sold) featured Haddock on mandolin, jug and whistle, David Elvin on banjo, guitar, kazoo and vocals, Alan Woodward on guitar, Alan Sutton on washboard and percussion, David Vaughan on harmonica and vocals, and Sid “Piles” Lockhart on vocals and twelve-string guitar.  The cover featured the British flag alongside that of the U.S. Confederacy, as well as an image of a steam engine.  The old-time Southern Americana vibe extended to the songs, drawn from the jug band and rural songbooks.  The excellent liner notes by Colin Harper point out that Grateful Dead later performed four of the song here: “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,” “Boodle-Am-Shake,” “Stealin’” and “Viola Lee Blues.”  Another pair of songs, “Coney Island Washboard” and “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” were being revisited in the U.S. by the Jim Kweskin Jug Band.  Needless to say, this offbeat record was quite unlike any other released during the U.K. folk boom!

This treasure trove of rare folk is available now from Cherry Red’s RPM imprint.  It’s been remastered by Simon Murphy and includes a 24-page booklet; the essay includes new reflections by Peter Eden.  It can be ordered at the links below!

Various Artists, The Eve Folk Recordings (RPM RETRO D 957, 2014) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1 (Tracks 1-4 by Donovan, Tracks 5-18 by Mick Softley)

1. Catch the Wind (Single Version)
2. Colours (Single Version)
3. Gold Watch Blues
4. The War Drags On
5. After the World War is Over (Or How I Learnt to Live Without Myself)
6. The Bells of Rhymney
7. Strange Fruit
8. Blues for Cupid Green
9. All I Want is a Chance
10. The War Drags On
11. Keep Movin’ On
12. Jeannie
13. What Makes the Wind to Blow
14. I’ve Gotta Deal That You Can’t Turn Down
15. West Country Girls
16. Plains of the Buffalo
17. I’m So Confused (Single)
18. She’s My Girl (Single)

CD 2 (Tracks 1-16 by Bob Davenport and the Rakes, Tracks 17-27 by Vernon Haddock’s Jubilee Lovelies)

1. William Brown
2. The Foggy Dew
3. Reel
4. My Bonnie Lad
5. Wake Up, My Love
6. New York Gals
7. The Soldier and His True Love
8. Rap Her to Bank
9. Sandgate Girls’ Lament
10. The Hexamshire Lass
11. Jig
12. Old Johnny Booker
13. Gateshead Town
14. Down the Glen
15. The White Cockade (Live LP track)
16. The Shepherd’s Life (Live EP track)
17. Coney Island Washboard
18. Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down
19. Clementine
20. Coloured Aristocracy
21. Mandy, Make Up Your Mind
22. Boodle-Am-Shake
23. Viola Lee Blues
24. Vickyandal
25. Stealin’
26. Little White Washed Chimney
27. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

All tracks originally released 1965.

CD 1, Track 1 from Pye 7N 15081
CD 1, Track 2 from Pye 7N 15866
CD 1, Track 3 from Pye NPL 18117
CD 1, Track 4 from Pye NEP 24219
CD 1, Tracks 5-16 from Songs for Swinging Survivors, Columbia 33SX1781
CD 1, Tracks 17-18 from Immediate IM014
CD 2, Tracks 1-14 from Bob Davenport and The Rakes, Columbia 33SX1786
CD 2, Track 15 from The EFDSS Presents Folksound of Britain, EMI/HMV CLP 1910
CD 2, Track 16 from The EFDSS Presents Folksound of Britain, EMI/HMV 7EG 8911
CD 2, Tracks 17-27 from Vernon Haddock’s Jubilee Lovelies, Columbia SX6011