Various
Never The Same (2lp)
What the pop histories don't tell you is that the seventies were the real golden years for British folk music. The scene had gone underground, disappeared into the now totally unfashionable world of the folk clubs But the musicians who'd come up in the heady years of the sixties hadn't gone away: they were just getting better and better. Over next ten years Leader put out a series of album of a standard unmatched by any other major folk label. Not all of it was straight traditional folk. Leader was always open to experimentation and released albums as varied as the psych folk of Dave and Toni Arthur, the singer-songwriting of Rosie Hardman, and the elaborate arrangements of John Tams' Muckram Wakes. He also released the peerless song suite Bright Phoebus by Lal & Mike Waterson, and two of the songs here represent this lost classic. But at the heart of the label's output were very simple virtues: great singers and great instrumentalists playing and singing the traditional music of Britain. Featuring; Lal Waterson - "Never The Same", Nic Jones - "Annan Water", Dorothy Elliott - "Adieu To Judges And Juries", Alistair Anderson - "The Kid On The Mountain", Dick Gaughan - "Jock O' Hazeldean", Dave Burland - "The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh", Aly Bain - "Niel Gow's Lament For His Second Wife", Lal Waterson - "To Make You Stay" Nic Jones - "Annachie Gordon", The Boys Of The Lough - "Caoineadh Eoghain Rua", Dave Burland - "A Dalesman's Litany. Tony Rose - "Blackwaterside", Dick Gaughan - "MacCrimmon's Lament / Mistress Jamieson's Favourite".