Folk 12 Items

The third album of powerfully vivid songwriting from Marina Allen. Beautifully orchestrated, highly melodic and delivered with unrivalled lyrical perspective. Across two acclaimed records, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has ripened a rare harvest, but her third studio album is an arrival home.Compared to the soaring and swelling compositions of Allen's second album Centrifics or the innocent tranquillity of Candlepower, the world of Eight Pointed Star is more deeply addressing and open-armed. Shimmer...

Muireann Bradley is a young blues, ragtime, roots and folk guitarist and singer based in Ballybofey in County Donegal Ireland. Tompkins Square actually signed her when she was 13, but because of Covid and just “growing up", the process of recording took place over three years. She will be 17 in December, 2023. "This is my first album. Most of these tunes were originally recorded by the great blues men and women who were making records from the 1920s and 1930s right up in some cases to the early 1970s. I have also found inspiration for the renditions recorded here in the playing of some of the musicians who began recording this music in the 1960s and later, and who in some cases learned at the feet of the greats. Many of these guitarists played pivotal roles in the 1960s blues revival and subsequent 'rediscovery' of many of the greats of country blues. I grew up steeped in these old blues in the hills overlooking the valley of the River Finn just outside the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal. My father would play this music constantly at home and wherever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was listening or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news. My father could of course play all this stuff on guitar, I remember watching him when I was very young and thinking 'I want to be able to do that'. When I was nine he agreed to teach me and bought me my first little travel guitar. I worked hard to learn how to play but as time wore on I seemed to have less and less time to practice as I became more and more invested in the combat sports I was regularly training and competing in. Then in March 2020 the first Covid lockdowns happened and all contact sports were shut down. I was lost for a while but soon found my way back to the guitar. I was now listening, playing and practicing with a new intensity and focus. In a very serious moment I wrote out a list of tunes I was going to learn. The first tune on that list was Blind Blake’s 'Police Dog Blues'. I’m not sure now how long it took to get that arrangement together but when it was ready we videoed me performing it and posted it on YouTube. It ended up getting a lot of attention, I remember my parents being quite shocked and soon after that Josh Rosenthal got in touch… and here we are! Each individual track on this album was recorded live in the studio and represents one entire take with me singing and backing myself up on guitar simultaneously. Most are either first or second takes. Nothing has been added or taken away, no overdubs or modern recording tricks of any kind have been used at all so at least in some respects this album has been recorded in the same way as those classics of the 1920s and 1930s. I hope you enjoy the record."—Muireann Bradley May 2023

Includes original inner sleeve.

Celebrated Zambian guitarist and bandleader Paul Ngozi’s concept album about the stuggles of those living in Africa’s 1970s townships Includes Oversized 8 Page Booklet That Details Paul Ngozi and The Ngozi Family’s Arc, Including Rare Photographs, Discography And Annotation The third entry in an era-defining reissue series on Now-Again centered around this Zamrock legend and his band - previous entries include Day Of Judgement and 45,000 Volts "Zambia’s Zamrock movement that exploded in the 1970s...provided young musicians access to European and American music, and created a unique sound. At its root, Zamrock melded fuzz-toned psychedelia, chugging garage rock and roiling funk with a broad mix of African cadences and beats...enlivening a scene that included bands like Musi-O-Tunya, Amanaz and the Ngozi Family” - Zamrock was a bona-fide rock scene: on the African continent, only Nigeria can claim one so comprehensive, and Nigeria’s was largely catalyzed and funded by subsidiaries of the European major labels. Zamrock was as independent as the newly-named country, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia. Zamrock is starting in its completeness, especially for a scene that emerged, unfurled and disappeared so quickly. From Musi-O-Tunyaís fusion of Fela’s Afro-beat, Hendrix’s rock, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies and rhythms to Salty Dog’s acid folk/rock, Zambia’s rock scene contained all of rock’s subgenres. Zamrock was much more than an imitation of American and European rock music: it quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. Witch, Paul Ngozi and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent - or elsewhere.

Enchanting and sunny 1969 psych folk by San Francisco teenage sisters Wendy & Bonnie Flower. A cult album that would later inspire bands like Stereolab, with dreamy vocal harmonies as the main attraction, laced with Brazilian splashes and soft-rock strains. Pure timeless psychedelic pop perfection, awash in serenity and haunting reverie floating in the ether above airy soundscapes that convey a sophistication that belies the artists' tender age: 15 and 18. Alongside them are top-notch musicians such as guitarist Larry Carlton, drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Randy Sterling and organists/pianists Mike Melvoin and Mike Lang. Originally produced by Gary McFarland, Gábor Szabó and Cal Tjader.

Limited to 100 copies on green vinyl. Only available at hhv.de

Enchanting and sunny 1969 psych folk by San Francisco teenage sisters Wendy & Bonnie Flower. A cult album that would later inspire bands like Stereolab, with dreamy vocal harmonies as the main attraction, laced with Brazilian splashes and soft-rock strains. Pure timeless psychedelic pop perfection, awash in serenity and haunting reverie floating in the ether above airy soundscapes that convey a sophistication that belies the artists' tender age: 15 and 18. Alongside them are top-notch musicians such as guitarist Larry Carlton, drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Randy Sterling and organists/pianists Mike Melvoin and Mike Lang. Originally produced by Gary McFarland, Gábor Szabó and Cal Tjader.