001: Burlesque, by Bellowhead

Bellowhead (United Kingdom)
Burlesque (2006)
13 tracks, 60 minutes
Spotify · iTunes

Although I pride myself on the breadth of my listening, for the longest time I dismissed the folk music of these islands – English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, the lot – as being hokey, boring and vaguely embarrassing. I’ve changed my tune now, obviously (and rather drastically), and I put that down in a large part to Bellowhead.

Their arrangements of English folk songs and tunes really revolutionised those traditions for me and, I think, many others. They kept the original melodies and tunes (mostly) but the old-school line-up of fiddles, melodions, acoustic guitars, bagpipes and the like were bolstered by a full horn section, strings and a kicking percussion section. They added elements from funk, jazz and disco, all while keeping things more or less acoustic and all with a fantastic humour.

The album I've chosen here is their debut album as it’s really their statement of intent – it encapsulates the sound that they continued to perfect – but really their skill was always their live shows. In their time, they must have been one of the best live bands around, their ability to get the crowd jumping from the first beat was uncanny. Unfortunately they hung up their horns in 2016, and to my knowledge there hasn’t been as rollicking a folk band since...and it may take a long time until they’re surpassed.

Together with the Imagined Village (who will feature at some point later in the year), Bellowhead really opened my ears to the possibilities of English folk music. It didn’t need to be all pass-me-the-tea-vicar, village-fête-and-bowling-green boredom after all. That also helped to configure my ears correctly to properly appreciate the more traditional side of things. If you don’t like folk music, here’s a folk band for you.