To many, the phrase "English weather" conjures images of fog, clouds, and rain. To Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, English weather means something "melodic, melancholy, with jazz and folk touches, and the same similar shrug of resignation..." So explains the compilers of the recent English Weather, an absorbing 18-track compendium from Ace Records collecting rare and unusual songs that might be, in their words, akin to "an unfamiliar album with a hint of Crosby, Stills and Nash, but an identifiably
In the spirit of past box sets such as Love, Poetry and Revolution which spotlighted the British underground psychedelic scene circa 1966-1972, Cherry Red's Grapefruit label has just released Dust on the Nettles, a new 3-CD compendium of British underground folk in roughly the same time period (1967-1972). This new mini-box set, subtitled A Journey Through the British Underground Folk Scene, boasts 63 tracks and a running time of nearly four hours. The emphasis is on the genre sometimes