Although Sweet Child is usually cited as the group's high-water mark, Basket of Light finds them at their most progressive and exciting. Highlights of this album – which actually reached the Top Five in the U.K. – include the buzzing jazz dynamics of "Light Flight," their moving rendition of the traditional folk song "Once I Had a Sweetheart," their reinvention of the girl group smash "Sally Go Round the Roses," and "Springtime Promises," one of their finest original tunes.

Judy Dyble (the original singer with Fairport Convention) now has a cross-over market appeal working with Marc Swordfish, writer and singer of Australasia, this album offers appealing treats for both to the Folk/Folk Rock and Ambient markets. With "Spindle", we see the development of Dyble's music to a much higher level with the musical directions of Mark Swordfish plus the involvement of internationally acclaimed guitarist Robert Fripp (King Crimson). Also featured here is a reworking of "See Emily Play", the classic Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd song she recorded in the 1970's with King Crimson precusor Giles Giles & Fripp.

Teamed with Rick Kemp, Prior turns in her best non-Steeleye Span folk-rock performance, with heavy amplification, crisp electric guitars, and accordion for support. Her airy vocals and the heavy electric sound make this a superb adjunct to the best rock sides by Steeleye (Commoner's Crown, etc.), although this stuff has more of a contemporary feel, relating to Prior's Steeleye Span work roughly the way Dylan's best '70s and '80s stuff relates to his '60s folk and folk-rock sides, with a definite rock beat and pop music feel. There's also a strong social consciousness at work, with topical songs dealing with unemployment and privation amid love songs and a very playful cover of "Who's Sorry Now". (Bruce Eder, AMG)

Davy Graham was one of the most eclectic guitarists of the 1960s, and his mixture of folk, blues, jazz, Middle Eastern sounds, and Indian ragas was an important catalyst of the British folk scene. Like Sandy Bull and John Fahey – two folk-based guitarists with a similar taste for genre-bending experimentation – Graham could not be said to be a rock musician. But like Bull and Fahey, he shared the eagerness of the '60s psychedelic rockers to stretch out and incorporate unpredictable influences into his music. While he wasn't much of a singer, Graham's taste in material was broad and shrewd, encompassing blues, ragas, Joni Mitchell, Charles Mingus, and the famous instrumental "Anji," which Graham recorded in 1962, way before the more famous versions by Bert Jansch and Simon & Garfunkel. Collection includes: The Guitar Player (1963); Folk, Blues & Beyond… (1965); Midnight Man (1966); Large As Life And Twice As Natural (1968); Hat (1969); Godington Boundry (1970).

Eliza Carthy officially inherits the British folk crown from her parents with the willfully traditional Rough Music. Described in the liner notes as "a form of community punishment practiced all over England" (basically a public beating for a heinous social crime), Rough Music sounds like a lost pre-percussion Steeleye Span record filtered through A.L. Lloyd's whaling collection Leviathan! Carthy's strong fiddling and powerful vocals – she really is beginning to surpass Norma – are ably enhanced by the chiseled performance of her backing band, the Ratcatchers. Together they celebrate longstanding English traditions like public execution ("Turpin Hero"), syphilis ("The Unfortunate Lass"), and alcohol ("Tom Brown") with equal parts reverence, earnestness, and mischief. Primarily arranged for violin, viola, double bass, and melodeon, Rough Music also features lovely a cappella cuts like "Maid on the Shore" and enough fiery instrumentals to keep your feet on the cobblestones during the long walk home from the pub. In fact, there's not a moment on Rough Music that isn't essential listening. Highly recommended.

The Island Years is the most exhaustive career retrospective from one of Britain’s most original and enduring singer/songwriters. Housed in an LP size hard-back slip case, this lavish box set including: 17 CDs featuring 12 key studio albums, recorded for Island between 1967 and 1987, now with previously unreleased mixes, Out-Takes, unheard songs and 2 complete, previously unreleased live solo concerts from 1972 and 1977 and the complete demos for The Apprentice, the last album Martyn delivered to Island. A hard-back book featuring a new essay by The Island Years compiler and researcher John Hillarby plus rare and previously unseen photographs and extensive memorabilia.

Solomon's Seal was an album recorded in 1972 by folk-rock band Pentangle. It was the last album recorded by the original line-up, before the band split in 1973. Jacqui McShee has stated that it is her favourite Pentangle album. The album title refers to the Seal of Solomon - a mythical signet ring with magical powers, sometimes associated with the pentagram symbol adopted by Pentangle.

Large contemporary group who augment their musical roots in British folk with a large variety of classic instruments. Collection includes: Burlesque (2006); Matachin (2008); Umbrellowhead (2009); Hedonism (2010); Broadside (2012).

A 14-song, 63-minute collection (originally a double LP) comprising many of the highlights (but no "Light Flight") of the original group's history from 1968 through 1972. The notes are minimal, and there are no original release dates or any identification of the albums (The Pentangle, Sweet Child, Basket of Light, Cruel Sister, etc.) whence this material originated. The latter are the only flaws in what is otherwise a fine if not completely comprehensive cross-section of the group's work, showcasing their many and varied sides – Bert Jansch's, Danny Thompson's, and Terry Cox's jazz leanings in "Train Song," John Renbourn's more traditional approach in "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme," their forays into medieval music ("Lyke-Wake Dirge") and progressive folk ("House Carpenter," "Bruton Town"), etc., much of it projected by Jacqui McShee's clear, soaring vocals. The CD also highlights their early records' effective use of stereo as a format for their contrasting technique, especially among the guitars and the rhythm section.

Ian Matthews left Fairport Convention in 1969, and while the U.K.'s greatest folk-rock band was beginning to reinvent itself in a more traditional and very British direction, Matthews began digging deeper into the American influences that had marked his old band's first era. Later That Same Year, the second album from Ian's new group Matthews Southern Comfort (it was released in late 1970, a mere six months after their debut, hence the title), is a beautiful set of songs that splits the difference between West Coast folk-rock and early country-rock, with Gordon Huntley's pedal steel and Roger Coulam's lending an air of sunny sadness that dovetails beautifully with Matthews' silky tenor. Matthews wrote three of the songs on Later That Same Year, and they rank with the album's finest moments, especially the ethereal harmonies of "And Me" and the graceful simplicity of "My Lady," but Matthews also borrows some excellent material from American writers, including a cover of Neil Young's "Tell Me Why" that remains faithful while creating a languid mood of its own.

"Rosie" is the eighth studio album by folk-rock outfit Fairport Convention, released in 1973. The album was the first to feature Australian singer-songwriter guitarist Trevor Lucas and American lead guitarist Jerry Donahue. Both had previously played with ex-Fairport Sandy Denny, to whom Lucas was married, in the short-lived Fotheringay. Here they had effectively replaced Simon Nicol who had quit Fairport to join another ex-member Ashley Hutchings in The Albion Band, thus leaving the band with no original members until he rejoined in 1976. Remastered reissue includes previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John' (Live), 'The Hen's March Through the Midden…' (Live), 'Rosie' (Live), & 'The Claw' (Live).

This 4 CD collection gathers together for the first time the entire Ian Campbell Folk Group catalogue recorded for Transatlantic Records, covering the period 1963-1968. This collection includes 6 studio albums plus related bonus material from the period. The Ian Campbell Folk Group were one of the most respected, influential and best known British folk groups of the 1960’s. Taking their origins from Aberdeen, the band formed in Birmingham in 1958. They signed to Transatlantic Records in 1963 and proceeded to record the content of this collection over the next 6 years. They topped the bill at the Royal Albert Hall, made numerous TV appearances, attended the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and were prolific live performers throughout Europe. Dave Swarbrick and Dave Pegg who both achieved fame with Fairport Convention, are featured in this collection.

Lark in the Morning: The Early Years is a mid-priced, two-disc rendering of the band's first three records. Remastered for the first time, Hark! the Village Wait, Please to See the King, and Ten Man Mop are featured in their entirety, and in their original sequence, making this an absolute necessity for fans, and a perfect entry point for the uninitiated. Steeleye Span are masters of arrangement, and nowhere is that more evident than on their debut. Though familial tension ran high during its recording, Hark! the Village Wait yielded some of the most agreeable tunes the band ever laid to tape. Beginning with the a cappella "A Calling-On Song," the group established itself as peerless singers, utilizing the dual lead vocals of sirens Gay Woods and Maddy Prior to a tee, particularly on "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" and "Dark Eyed Sailor." The lineup is legendary, rivaling only Fairport Convention in their Sandy Denny/Richard Thompson heyday. Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Tim Hart, future Pogue Terry Woods, and Gay and Maddy produced a landmark album that continues to inspire countless musicians and fans alike.

Three-disc, 64-track collection. The folk revival that took place at club level during the Sixties introduced a whole new audience to traditional folksong, while also bringing to the fore the concept of the earnest young singer/songwriter. When, by the end of the decade, centuries-old songs were being given a sonic makeover by the new breed of electric folkies (headed by the likes of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, both of whom are represented on this collection), folk music had long since escaped out of the clubs and into the charts. This companion piece to similar 3CD sets concentrating on the Irish and Scottish folk scenes focuses on the astonishing depth of talent emanating from the English folk scene during this most tumultuous of decades. Every facet of the English folk genre is encompassed, ranging from club singers and trad folksong revivalists like Isla Cameron and Shirley Collins, the post-Dylan singer/songwriter (Donovan, Ralph McTell), folk-based fusion act Pentangle, and even such turn-of-the-decade acid folk iconoclasts as Synathesia and the mighty Comus.

In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.