Hi there,

What do you think about the different acid/ folk rock scenes from everywhere which emerged in the sixties & seventies...Do you believe that some of them can fit under the prog category...if yes explain why.

I've never listened to the so called prog/folk music from Italy...I've only heard 'Tangerine' from France...However I've listened to many english bands as Pentagle, Mellow Candle, Fairport Convention...well it's not at all my cup of tea . Mellow Candle is just a f**kin hippy sh*t with gorgeous female vocals...Fairport Convention is real soft music despite that they are more rock than the previous one...I personnaly can't give the prog label for this kind of stuff...

To the contrary I think that the approach of many german psych/ folk groups enable them to be ranged under the prog category...more weird, medieval, mystic and experimental music than the english scene...these are powerful and deserve attention...Witthuser & Westrupp are my favorite with Ougenweide...SUPREME!!

Being as into psych as I am into prog an interesting factor here are the debut albums from Jefferson Airplane and Fairport Convention. Don't know how much cross pollination there was but the Airplane's first album was folk-rock only for them to go the psych route, whereas fairport's first album was psych ....and the rest is history.

There are many prog/folk crossovers today - look at Karnataka, Mostly Autumn and to a lesser degree Kate Price and Loreena McKennitt ( the last two have many influences - folk/new-age/prog/eastern). The same I don't feel can be said for the folk-rock of the sixties - the genres were more clearly defined - folk, as I have intimated at earlier, was more easily alligned with psych.

It certenlly depends on wich group. I don't think Fairport or Steeleye could be considered prog: They invented fol-rock, but never went prog. But some of the groups you mention could fit into the prog genre. The key is that prog shouldn't necessarilly mean 'weirdness'. It could be a more complex way of composing the drum part (folk drums are pretty straightfordward and it's difficult to apply complex rythms to it), or more complex song structures. Mellow Candle has very Jethro Tull-ish drums. Carol of Harvest (a german band, but in the English tradition) had long suites. Magna Carta were, for at least a couple of albums, prog, with the 'Seasons' suite and the the 'Lord of the Ages' epic. Loudest Whisper (a group a don't like) had some classical influenced tracks, as well as a two part record. There's one obscure group called 'Pererin' that featured a very moving Camel influenced guitar in a couple of clearlly prog instrumentals...

That is, it depends on which group we are talking about. Usually, most of these groups weren't pure prog, as many tracks remained primarilly folk. But those who dared beyond electrifying their instruments should be noted in any prog page or discussion.

There is a lot of fringe prog. Does it belong on this site?

We should raise the questions on the "Suggestion" thread and allow Max and the reviewers critique the sugggestion, privately or in an open forum and give us the final judgment. Is there any other equitable solution?

I can only recommend the english group "Fuchsia". Their first and only LP has been recently re-issued by an Italian label.

Try it!