Various Artists - Weirdlore: Notes from the Folk Underground (2012)

"There's something happening here, but you don't know what it is" 'Weirdlore:Notes From The Folk Underground' 18 exclusive tracks by some of the best artists operating in folk hinterland. "There's something happening here, but you don't know what it is" said Bob Dylan It's a good starting point for Weirdlore. The clichés about our folk music suggest that if it's not 97-verse traditional ballads about our murderous aristocracy, then it's all jolly milkmaids, foaming nutbrown ale and illegal shagging. Others would have it as some sort of Wicker Man kingdom of haunted pastoral pagan fakelore shading through whimsical singer-songwritery into eccentric steampunk with banjos. Well, it's some of all that and none of that, but there are increasing numbers of musicians and songwriters beyond the mainstream currently taking inspiration from the themes, tunes and musical strangenesses of our roots and making something timelessly new but still distinctly local out of them. And sometimes quite odd. The genesis of Weirdlore is an all-dayer taking place in Bristol on Sunday 10th June. Folk Police Recordings have taken up the baton and bring you an album of 18 exclusive tracks by some of the best artists operating in the folk hinterland. The album features names you will know (Alasdair Roberts, Emily Portman, Sproatly Smith, Rapunzel & Sedayne, Nancy Wallace and Telling the Bees) and some who will be less familiar. In keeping with the theme of the event, the album features sounds that range from twisted trad to bucolic psychedelia, from fully fledged brass-and-wood-flavoured steamfolk to the sort of songwriting that used to happen before singer-songwriters gave the genre a bad name. With extensive sleeve notes by Jeanette Leach (author of The Seasons They Change and regular contributor to fRoots and Shindig) and an introduction by Ian A. Anderson, editor of fRoots, the album comes handsomely packaged in a sleeve designed by Dom Cooper of the Rif Mountain Collective.