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The Imagined Village: The Imagined Village

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Real World Records
Released: 2007.09.10
Time:
 60:59
Category: Contemporary Folk, World, & Country
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.theimaginedvillage.com
Appears with: Afro Celt Sound System
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 10,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] 'Ouses 'Ouses 'Ouses (S.Coe/S.Emmerson/J.Copper/S.Chandra) - 6:20
[2] John Barleycorn (Traditional) - 5:42
[3] Tam Lyn Retold (S.Emerson/T-G.Underground/B.Zephaniah/E.Carthy) - 9:22
[4] Death and the Maiden Retold (M.Lindsay/S.Genders) - 3:48
[5] Cold, Hailey, Rainy Night (Traditional) - 6:10
[6] Welcome Sailor (Traditional) - 5:44
[7] Acres of Ground (E.Carthy) - 4:47
[8] Pilsden Pen (S.Emmerson) - 5:17
[9] Hard Times of Old England Retold (Traditional/B.Bragg) - 5:38
[10] Kit Whites 1 & 2 (Traditional) - 4:44
[11] Sloe on the Uptake (Traditional) - 3:33

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Simon Emmerson - Guitar on [1,3,5,7,8,9], Mandolin on [2,8,11], Bouzouki on [3], Spoons on [11], Arrangements on [2,9,11], Recording on [8], Producer on [1-3,6-11], Additional Production on [5], Executive Producer on [4]

Cello – Barney M Brown on [1,5,7,8,9]
Eliza Carthy - Vocals on [2,3,4,7], Fiddle on [2,3,4,7,9,11], Arrangements on [2,4,9,11]
Richard Evans - Bass on [1,11], Mixing on [1,8,10], Bass Engineer on [1,11], Recording on [8,10,11]
Carole Robb - Northumbrian Bagpipes on [1]
Phil Beer - Violin on [1], Fiddle Recording on [1]
John Copper - Vocals on [1]
Sheila Chandra - Vocals on [1,5], Arrangements on [5]
Martin Carthy - Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars & Arrangements on [2,4]
Nigel Eaton - Hurdy Gurdy on [2]
Paul Weller - Vocals, Electric Guitar
Hamid Mantu - Programming on [3]
Tim Whelan - Programming on [3,4], Organ on [3], Sintir on [4]
Sheema Mukherjee - Sitar on [3,4]
Trans-Global Underground - Programming & Producer on [3,5], Arrangements on [4]
Benjamin Zephaniah - Vocals on [3]
Chris Wood - Vocals on [4], Fiddle on [5], Viola on [5], Strings Recording on [5], Arrangements on [4,5]
Johnny Kalsi - Dhol on [4,7], Tabla on [7], Shaker on [7]
Jim Chase - Kit Drum on [4]
Young Coppers - Vocals on [4]
Ben Ivitsky - Acoustic Guitar on [7], Viola on [7], Recording on [7], Producer on [7]
Ali Friend - Double Bass on [7]
Tom Salter - Electric Guitar on [7]
Andy Poore - Anglo Concertina on [8,9]
Jim Barr - Double Bass & Recording on [8]
Lucy Roberts - Fiddle on [8]
Kate Garrett - Harmonium on [8], Vocals on [8]
Ben Mandelson - Guitars on [9,11], Producer & Arrangements on [11]
Billy Bragg - Vocals on [9]
The Young Coppers - Vocals on [9]
Jon Brenner - Accordion on [10]
Colin Cotter - Banjo & Stompbox on [10]
Laurel Swift - Fiddle on [10]
Ian Anderson - Slide Guitar & Arrangements on [11]
Rod Stradling - Melodeon & Arrangements on [11]
Chris Turner - Harmonica & Jaws Harp on [11]

Mass - Programming on [1,2,8,9,11], Arrangements on [2,8], Engineer & Mixing on [2,3,5,7,8,9], Producer on [11]
Martin Russell – Nickel Harp, String Drones, Keyboards, Programming on [1], Drones on [5], Mixing on [5], Additional Programming on [2], Cello & Percussion Recording on [7], Engineer on [1,3,5,6,9]
Mike Lindsay - Producer on [4]
Sam Genders - Producer on [4]
Jon Moore - Producer on [11]
David Kenny - Engineer on [11]
Ian Cooper - Mastering
Ally Lee - Pipes Recording on [1]
The Gloworms - Arrangements on [10]

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2007 CD Real World Records – CDRW147

Notes from the back cover:

The Imagined Vilage is an ambitious reivention of the English folk tradition, embracing modern-day culture in all its diversity. Classic folk songs are skillfully reworked with the sounds and voices of today, updating the tradition for a new generation.

Winner of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award
Sponsored by the Arts Council of England



As a group of musicians and record producers we'd like to welcome you to this site. We started this project back in 2004 as a way of exploring our musical roots and identity as English musicians and music makers. Some of our names may be familiar to you whilst some of us swim hidden in the fringes of the big village pond; some of us have backgrounds in traditional music whilst others are as far away from the folk club as you can get.

There is a lot of discussion in the media at present about what constitutes the English identity, we hope to use this web site and our first record as a contribution to this discussion. We are not trying to re-invent the wheel or for that matter re-invent the English folk tradition. What we are interested in is building an inclusive, creative community were we can engage in the debate passed down to us by the late Victorian collectors of English song, dance and stories spearheaded by Cecil Sharpe and his contemporaries and brought into contemporary resonance by Georgina Boyes in her book 'The Imagined Village', Billy Braggs recent works 'The Progressive Patriot', academics such as Paul Gilroys in 'After Empire Melancholia or Convivial Culture' and the commentaries of musicians such as Chris Wood, Eliza and Martin Carthy amongst others.

We all walk in the footsteps of our Victorian song collecting ancestors but feel it is more relevant now than ever to question who decides what it is to be authentic and English and more importantly what it is that makes us proud to be English musicians. We are not providing a manifesto or for that matter any easy answers. We also understand there are a lot of people out there who have been discussing these issues a lot longer than some of us who are relatively new to the debate. As musicians the primary focus for our communication comes through our music and we hope you feel inspired by our first CD to come and see us play live. We also hope this web site provides a vibrant and creative arena for discussion and exchange of ideas. Thanks for checking us out, keep it positive and keep it rooted.
Articles in The Financial Times and New Statesman written around the first rehearsal gathering of the Village in July immediately before our WOMAD show this summer are worth a look, they give you a real sense of the fun we had getting the show on the road.

We've got an informal filmed interview/discussion between Simon Emmerson and John Copper recorded at the end of the filming session for 'ouses 'ouses 'ouses - John tells the story of a musical family going back his 'great grandfather's grandfather. We have also had a lot of requests for the audio from the open discussion on English Identity that took place between Billy Bragg, Chris Wood, Simon Emmerson and an audience of 400+ on the afternoon of the WOMAD gig, which is now available as a download in the audio/video section.

We have some amazing live footage from the 1st ever Imagined Village performance at Real World Studios. We played to a small invited audience of friends and family as we were getting out set together for last summers Womad gig. Our 'retold' version of 'Hard Times Of Old England' is available now and we'll be adding 'John Barlycorn' soon.

Finally on the subject of having fun, no one does it better than the deep south USA re-mixer Doghouse Riley who has come up with a completely inspired and totally mad do-wop re-mix of Cold Hailey Rainey Night that can be found on the Real World Remixed site.

www.imaginedvillage.com



A press release accompanying The Imagined Village boldly proclaims it to be 'arguably the most ambitious re-invention of the English folk tradition since Fairport Convention's Liege And Lief. No pressure then, guys.

The brainchild of Afro Celt Sound System veteran Simon Emmerson, The Imagined Village certainly has a stellar cast list, with folk music luminaries Martin and Eliza Carthy joined by Billy Bragg, Paul Weller and a host of other contributors from across the British musical spectrum to create a formidable line-up of contrasting styles.

Given its world premiere at this year's WOMAD festival, the project aims to reinterpret some of England's most venerable folk songs by fusing old and new sounds to reflect the multicultural society of the country today. That this is a laudable and highly relevant concept is not in question, but delivering it in an authentic, coherent way represents a daunting challenge that The Imagined Village sometimes struggles to overcome.

Opening track ''Ouses, 'ouses, 'ouses' features a nostalgic lament for the lost English countryside from John Copper, a member of the revered family of Sussex singers who have been performing traditional folk songs for six generations. This theme of a disappearing rural idyll seems a little incongruous on a record that is supposed to celebrate the vibrancy of England in the 21st century, yet it remains prominent throughout, the inevitable consequence of trying to transplant the lyrics of a bygone age into a contemporary musical setting.

Sometimes it works; Martin Carthy belts out a storming version of "John Barleycorn" with Weller and daughter Eliza; Bragg gives a typically heartfelt performance on 'Hard Times Of Old England', bellowing bittersweet couplets like 'time was I could sell all I grew at the shop, when Tesco's turned up all of that had to stop'. Unfortunately, attempts at more radical departures from the original subject matter are less successful - charismatic poet Benjamin Zephaniah's dub-heavy 'Tam Lyn' sounds like it revels in its own adventure, but Jah Wobble and Leftfield were producing similar and superior sonic landscapes over a decade ago.

A brave experiment, The Imagined Village is too often constrained rather than propelled by its sheer breadth of vision. Undeniably well-intentioned and always intriguing, it nevertheless fails to scale the lofty heights to which it clearly aspires, frequently falling victim to artificiality rather than demonstrating the organic purity its creators nobly sought to share with a new generation of listeners.

Chris White - BBC Review



he folk collective overcome "difficult third album" syndrome with bravura playing and inventive songwriting. Once an unaccompanied Jackie Oates has delivered the antique murder ballad The Captain's Apprentice, the band concentrate on original compositions, using an array of tricky rhythms, dashing fiddles, mournful cello and winding sitar. Eliza Carthy's state of the nation Sick Old Man and the celebration of Wintersinging sit alongside the stately dub of The Guvna, the John Barryesque Fisherman and the epic 12-minute title track, with its dhol drum battle. It's a daring mix of tradition and modernity, but the group's skill and organic approach carry it off.

The Observer



The Imagined Village is being hyped as "the most ambitious re-invention of the English folk tradition since Fairport Convention's Liege & Lief." Those are bold words indeed, and it would take a lot to live up to them, especially since Fairport didn't deliberately set out to re-invent the tradition -- they simply adapted folk songs to their style. This album draws on a number of talents -- Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Paul Weller, Afro Celt Sound System leader Simon Emmerson and Sheila Chandra, and a number of others. But the point about traditions is that they evolve. Sometimes there are sudden leaps, but you can't sit down and say "I'm going to reinvent this type of music." It's all well and good to try and define the new, multicultural England, but adding sitars and dhol drums to "Cold Hailey Rainy Night" isn't the way to do it, nor beats to "John Barleycorn" (and having Weller perform a verse isn't radical -- after all, Traffic did a sublime version in 1970). "Tam Lyn" retold as dub poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah might sound interesting, but it's really not a reinvention -- the bridge between worlds so important in the original has no magic here. The closest it comes to success are with the ceilidh tracks at the end, Billy Bragg's modernization of "Hard Times of Old England," and the duet between Sheila Chandra and Chris Wood on "Welcome Sailor," which is effective because of its simplicity. And that's' the key -- throwing in beats isn't really necessary. Often a less is more approach would be more effective (certainly on "Cold Hailey Rainy Night" where the voice alone carry ample power with any instruments and programming). Perhaps the tradition doesn't need to be remodeled into a one size fits all shape, and that being English can be celebrated by diversity, rather than trying to cram a multinational kitchen sink into an old English song. It's ambitious, but sadly, a bit of a failure.

Chris Nickson - All Music Guide



Folk war einmal ein Wort mit vier Buchstaben. Dann kam das Projekt The Imagined Village, nahm das Wort aus dem Regal, staubte es ab und zeigte, wie Folk im multikulturellen England des 21. Jahrhunderts klingen sollte. So kommt es, dass hier Folk-Evergreens wie Martin Carthy, seine Tochter Eliza und The Copper Family auf Benjamin Zephaniah und Sheila Chandra treffen - und auf Paul Weller.

JPC.de
 

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