Say what you will about my musical knowledge (limited and hampered by a constant case of musical ADD) but I’m still on the discovery end of English folk rock.  Oh sure, Light In The Attic’s Michael Chapman releases are gangbusters, but that’s where my toe dip ended … until now. Drag City just put out this bizarrely amazing album by English folk trio Tony Caro & John and I am astounded by what it does to my perception of the genre. I imagined English Folk to all fall in to the Pentangle mold with just a hint of renaissance and a lot of acoustic string plucking (forgive me if my knowledge of Pentangle’s sound seems aptly unresearched) but Tony Caro & John sound like they we’re riding the wave of the early surf rock kids. There’s a real sort of 60s engine rev to this song that plucks it right out of the dark void of my proconceived notions and makes it one of the best oddities I’ve heard in awhile. Every music person I look up to adores English Folk, and Tony Caro & John seem a dynamic representation of why that is.

Tony Caro & John’s highly sought after album All On The First Day was recently reissued by those geniuses over at Drag City.

Tony Caro & John - Forever and Ever