Customer Reviews
Excellent - By: Bernard Burke, 07 Jul 2010 
About 3/4 of the tracks on this are excellent, the rest OK ish. In short, well worth buying. Even my kids like some of them!
Folk compilation - By: E. Carruthers, 11 Jun 2010 
Not the best folk compilation I have bought. Interesting to hear some of the artists I haven't heard before. Bert Jansch, etc.
One of the best of its kind - By: Mark Wallace, 08 Jun 2010 A great collection of folk songs from the 60's & 70's, which was a very productive timein British folk. There's hardly a bad track among the 20 here.
All the big names are here: Donovan with "Colours", Bert Jansch with "Needle of Death", Ralph McTell's "Streets of London". But it's not just acoustic guitars, they also include plugged-in band performances: Steeleye Span are represented by a great track called "When I was on Horseback". It's an old traditional tune, but one I had never heard before getting this album. It's played at a slow, mournful pace, with a droning guitar accompaniment & an outstanding vocal. Atmospheric & haunting. I love this song, & for me the album was worth getting for this song alone.
Another excellent track included is Pentangle's "Night Flight", the least folky-sounding song of the collection. Fairport Convention are also included with "Matty Groves."
The Watersons "Bright Phoebus" is here, too, with lead vocals from the unmistakeable Mike Waterson, who has a great & extremely distinctive voice.
Another highlight is "The Pedlar & the Alchemist" by Dransfield, who I had never heard of, but it's a very well-constructed & thoughtful lyric, both a compelling narrative & searchingly philosophical. Nice delivery, too.
There's also a song by the Humblebums, comprising Billy Connolly & Gerry Rafferty, called "Her Father Never Liked me Anyway": a pleasant enough song, if slight.
There's a few less successful inclusions. The Ian Campbell Folk Group's cover of "The Times they are A-Changin", for example, was too reverential & hymnal for my tastes.
I'm a semi-fan of folk, & have a few collections of this sort, & I think, song for song, this is the best one. It was cheap, too. It's great music, well crafted & truthful & including most of the best folk artists of the time.
An ideal sampler for anyone new to classic British Folk - By: Mr. Howard J. Ellis, 26 May 2010 
What a cracking album. A couple of tracks one would expect to feature - Streets of London being the most obvious example - & most of the luminaries of the British Folk scene are represented here one way or the other. I particularly like Light Flight - Pentangle - am I alonein thinking that these could be the lyrics to go with Dave Brubeck's Take Five?
A very enjoyable album as an albumin the classic sense - ie to be heard as an entirety - & a useful signpost for further musical exploration.
Not mine - By: A 70's Old Fart, 10 Nov 2009 I purchased this as a present for a friend. She said it's an exellent CD but she is a big folk music fan, while I am more into blues & rock. In her opinion if you like folk music you'll love this.
