Track Listing

1. Corn Riggs
2. Love In Ice Crystals
3. Lyke Wake Dirge
4. Graveyard
5. Milk And Honey
6. Morning Way
7. Buffalo
8. Silly Woman
9. Liz's Song
10. Lord And Master
11. Old Boot Wine
12. Winter Is Blue
13. All My Friends Are Back Again
14. Rosemary Hill
15. Love Song
16. The Family
17. Queen Of The Moonlight World
18. The Herald

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2405 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Fantastic value for money...but you'll soon be spending a fortune on CDs!
I defy any newcomers to acid folk/prog rock/unclassifiable oddities to listen to "Gather in the Mushrooms" and not be seized by an irresistable urge to buy every album made by these artists. This wonderful compilation introduced me to Forest, Heron, Shelagh Macdonald (I couldn't stop playing "Liz's Song"), Vashti Bunyan, Lesley Duncan (her version of the self-composed "Love Song" knocks spots off the covers by Elton John and Olivia Newton-John), and the bizarre but fascinating Comus. It also includes the most convincing fake folk song ever written, Paul Giovanni's lovely "Corn Riggs" from "The Wicker Man".

Bravo, compiler John Reed and Sanctuary Records!

Best collection of this kind of music
Fantastic collection, truly wonderful... and i've bought quite a few of these recently. The spot is hit, absolutely, and the sleeve notes are easy to read and contains the following description of Al Jones which made me laugh out loud "so polite he made Nick Drake look hard".

What better way to start than with the faux-folk of Corn Rigg, the (in)famous song that accompanied a nubile Britt Eckland tormenting the virgin Edward Woodward so memorably in the Wicker Man.

The usual suspects are well-represented - it has become almost obligatory to include Vashti Bunyan and Comus. But the real joy lies in the gently obscure - Forest's "Graveyard" and a very traditional sounding young Sandy Denny singing like she was sitting in a folk club. Then a shy Mike Oldfield turns up backing his sister, whose strange warbling voice was very much of the era. Even Trader Horne sounds better than usual, with a would-be anthem "Morning Way". Gorgeous stuff.

The temptation for later generations is to smirk ever so slightly at the naive young people who produced this kind of music, which at the time had no particular label beyond the loose catch-all of "folk". But as the liner notes sagely point out, they represent a sort of pastoral very English dream that fit very well into the peace and love vibes of the hippie generation. What happens when the sun goes down in ye floral pastoral meadows is another matter entirely - step forward the jarring intensity of Comus. If you have not heard them before, the Herald gives you a fair slice of life a-la comus. The only pity is that the equally odd Jan Dukes de Grey is not represnted.

Buffalo's mellotron epic, by the way, actually fits in pretty well with the rest, as the band works itself up over buffalo, about as far removed from England's wildlife as you could get. Good Bert Jansch as well, his vocal quirks kept to a minimum and his guitar playing as sharp and fresh as a cheese grater... well, you'll see whati mean if you listen to "Silly Girl". Then there's the self-effacing Shelagh Macdonald whose career was ruined by a bad acid trip that drained her of any confidence. Gentle voice, and her best song ever, "Liz's song".


I'd say this is just absolutely brilliant, and especial kudos to the liner notes!! In this brutal world we now live in, of branding, hip-hop and an undertow of violence and disaffection in music this collection has a sort of "did it ever really happen" kind of vibe. But yes, it did, and thank goodness for that. Get hold of this as soon as you can. I love it.

thanks castle...
...for opening a new front in the reissue wars. We're well past the good stuff now in garage punk, sunshine pop and brit psychedelics, surely - but this seam sounds worth mining further.The real highlights are the least-known artists: Heron's sublime dark-pastoral'Lord and Master', Fresh Maggots impossibly tuneful 'Rosemary Hill',and Andy Roberts irresistable 'Moonlight World'. Add an obscure early Sandy Denny (Milk and Honey) which stands with the very best of her Fairport stuff, Lesley Duncans ethereal 'Love Song' (covered by Elton John ages ago), 2 spooky tracks from Pentangle and Spirogyra, the theme from The Wicker Man and Writing on the Wall's eerie Buffalo (more prog than folk really but who cares?)and you have a magnificent compilation - thoughtful, tuneful,gentle but sslightly unsettling, perfect for late summer (harvest-time?) evenings - and I haven't even mentioned Comus, Forest, and Vashti Bunyan. This really is a superb, fresh sounding compilation - docked one star only because it's only a single disc! Come on Castle, get to work on Vol 2 - and make it a double (at least)!