Prog Folk....? Is there a thread..?

There are a number of topics about Folk, and there might be one in the public fora dedicated to Prog Folk (I've rather wanted to do one specifically on Progressive Folk). The Prog Folk team have a specific one for evaluation, but it's in a Collab zone.

if you want to recommend a band for PA inclusion, then one should use the Suggest New Bands forum: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=1 See THIS.

For general discussion purposes about Prog Folk, then a new topic on all things Progressive Folk would we nice (maybe to be done in General Music Discussions since the Prog fora are intended for discussion about music already included in the Prog Archives database).

That said, The Albion Band was suggested for Prog Folk, the folkies thought it better for prog related and it was rejected for Prog Related.

See: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=66536

I don't really know the history of the Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span additions to Prog Related, but it may be that those bands were considered to be more historically significant when it comes to Folk Rock. It may be that a stronger case was made for those additions (the argument and level of support can be important as well as the music) and it may be that Prog Related was considered more exclusive by the time The Albion Band was suggested for Prog Related. Hugues called it more of a related-to-Prog Related band. I'm not that familiar with The Albion Band. Not that it will be re-evaluated, but which album by the The Albion Band would you consider most progressive, and particular tracks?

With Fairport Convention, I find Liege and Lief a good fit for Prog Related. I find that quite progressive in part, and I think the band has some psychedelic qualities, such as on the debut and What We Did on Our Holidays, that edge it closer to Prog Folk bands such as Pentangle (I hear similarities between those two bands and personally consider The Pentangle to be one of the most important bands in prog Folk). And Sandy Denny worked with the Strawbs which gives it some more prog relation.

As for Steeleye Span, I would say that Hark! The Village Wait is quite progressive, and Please to See the King has psych elements that make it rather interesting.

Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention have a musical and personnel relation to The Albion Band, but being related to Prog Related bands wouldn't provide a strong case. Anyway, I'm not that familiar with The Albion Band.

I think if we had open voting on, say, Prog Related, it might well lead to a very overloaded category. And I'm not sure that it would work well for Prog additions. That said, I would like to see more involvement from the membership in the process. When I was on the Eclectic team, and now that I'm part of the Proto-Prog and Prog-Related additions people, I did/do try to take into account the opinions of people. I'm more of a big-umbrella person than many. Personally, though, I'd be more interested in what people say about the music than just how they vote. We've done open votes before, and even if it hasn't meant that those would be included, I haven't found the results illuminating. Too often people vote with their guts without having really delved into enough of the music and with not enough familiarity with the categories at PA. Even reading through the long threads on controversial ones, you see that there is often not a good enough consensus and people are talking past one another. Often one sees far too black-and-white thinking in such topics and ignorance becomes apparent. One would need system so that one is confident that the voters are sufficiently informed voters (have done their research and thought it through carefully before voting). For now, I think having teams is the best way (I do wish albums were tagged by genres) and the least likely to be abused. Also, I wonder if there's even enough general interest here for open voting to work well.

Coming to decision can be a very time-consuming process, and frankly I wouldn't trust everyone in an open vote to put the time into thinking about it and familiarising themselves with the music, related music, and categories enough before voting. Of the general membership, I would tend to trust those people the most who have put lots of time into responding to topics in Suggest New Bands (not just on ones that they knew already, but such topics get very little interest from the general membership most of the time -- at least unless it's a really big name).

Edited by Logan - May 21 2019 at 13:19

Thanks Ken, that's very insightful for me.

When talking Prog Related and Proto Prog proposals, influence is considered to be an important factor, and Steeleye Span's influence on Tull, and relationship with Ian Anderson, and such considerations are considered to be an important ingredient in an evaluation. I didn't know about the direct relationship, but I have certainly heard similarities between music by Tull and Span. Had Jethro Tull and Steeleye Span combined, they might have called it sTULLeye something or other... Erm... yeah...

I'm loving "Lay Me Low". I'm going to look for Rise up Like the Sun.

A while back, I'd suggested Offa Rex, any movement on that?  Only one release so far, but it enjoyed great success and hopefully they will do another.  

Thank you, Logan.  I know it takes a really long time, just seeing this thread made me think of it....they pretty much took The Pentangle/Fairport sort of thing a little farther down the line, or at least in a different way and, of course, much later, helping keep this sort of music contemporary.  I think they did a darned fine job of it, being a big fan of Prog/Electric/Folk.

Yes, Olivia Chaney's vocals are ethereally beautiful.  There are a couple of live in studio videos of them, fun to see the band.  Glad you've been enjoying them, Logan.  

OH, no need to apologize...we know everyone here does this on a volunteer basis...it just reminded me that I hadn't seen anything in a while.  You all do a great job at what you do!  

Snicolette wrote: OH, no need to apologize...we know everyone here does this on a volunteer basis...it just reminded me that I hadn't seen anything in a while.  You all do a great job at what you do!

Offa Rex has been added.