Exploring English Folk Rock

As I was growing up, my family exposed me to many 70’s-90’s rock bands. One of them was Steeleye Span, an English folk rock band from the 70s. I hardly knew anything about them, only that their album “All Around My Hat” is ingrained in my childhood memories because it was a frequent roadtrip CD choice with my family as I was growing up. I had always liked the bounciness of the song “The Hard Times of Old England” and would ask for them to replay “Gamble Gold (Robin Hood)” because I liked the medieval-ish sound of the instruments. Recently I wondered, how did they get this CD? (because it was different from the rest of my family’s music library) It was probably an influence by my grandparents, who are lovers of 60s/70s rock, the Steeleye album being a favorite in their vinyl collection.

When learning about European ballads a few weeks ago and hearing “Barbary Allen” for the first time, I was reminded of Steeleye’s song “Black Jack Davey,” a ballad based on an old English tale about a rich girl running away with a gypsie man. After googling this song, I learned that Bob Dylan and many other folk singers have also made song versions using this story.
In my google search to learn more background info about Steeleye Span, I read that they formed in 1969 and are considered part of the music of the British Folk Revival. Their album All Around My Hat is their 8th album, and apparently their most successful, with the song “All Around My Hat” charting number 7 on UK Albums Chart and number 143 in the U.S. in 1975. Their popularity went down after the 70s, probably because of changes in audiences’ interests.

I still love the album to this day; mostly for nostalgic reasons because of those roadtrip memories; but I’ve always found something enjoyable about the music style. I don’t know exactly what- maybe because the lyrics/themes of the song had a medieval-era feel, while the folk rock sound made the songs flavorful and catchy—and, I always enjoyed the blend of the vocalists’ harmonies.

Here is a link to “All Around My Hat”. I had never watched a video of the band before, so this was fun to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRZ_Va4niUs

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