Essential Folk Albums

aka, 'Dessert Island' mp3's..........

I feel that us old fogeys, sorry, folkies (I am talking about myself here) have a duty to impart our wealth of knowledge among the 'youngsters' (under 40's!) or anyone new to folk music in general. In some ways I think we are going through yet another 'folk revival'. This is not a term I enjoy using as I believe it never went away to have to be 'revived', but for the want of anything better I have used it. Every now and again I would like to 'bloggerfie' or 're plug' the albums (some were originally made of a strange black plastic material) that satisfied our folkie needs way back then. This is not a 'they don't write em like that anymore'. Just good albums that may have 'slipped through the ears' at the time or are a good basis for any collection or just super nostalgic....

Where better to start, than with Nic Jones and his 1980 album 'Penguin Eggs'.

Although first issued on vinyl by Topic records the CD version was released by them in 1991 (TSCD 411). Nic was born in 1947 (that was even before me!). A fiddle and guitar player extrodinaire and not a bad singer to boot. He filled the years 64'-81' with several high quality recordings, 'Penguin Eggs' being the only one from Topic.

His career was all but over following a car accident (with a lorry!) in early 82'. It left him unable to play the fiddle at all and stopped any other appearances for 28 years! In 2010 it was great to see him guitar in hand at Sidmouth Folk Week where he played three songs. We hope for many more Nic.

Back to 'Penguin Eggs', 'Canadee-I-O' and 'Little Pot Stove' come at the top of my list but the whole album is great. I hope you enjoy it? Nic is married to Julia and lives in Devon. They have set up their own record label 'Mollie Music', you can find him and his work at http://www.nicjones.net/.

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