Before the Day Is Done: The Story of Folk Heritage Records 1968-1975

Overview

A small but prolific operation servicing Britain's northwest folk club scene, the Folk Heritage label was launched in 1968 by Alan Green, a former chemist-turned-record producer. Rather than focusing on the folk boom's increasing national popularity, Green chose to champion smaller regional acts, issuing limited-edition runs by respected but little-known artists like Parke, Penny Wager, and the Pendlefolk. Sessions were initially run out of his small D.I.Y. home studio in the Manchester suburbs, then later at a specially built studio in the Welsh countryside that he shared with business partner Gordon Davies. What Folk Heritage and its various subsidiaries (Westwood, Sweet Folk & Country, Midas, and Real) lacked in star power, they more than made up for in quality, and in subsequent decades, many of their releases have become near-mythic grail quests for discerning record collectors. Green died in 2000, and somehow his company's legacy had been allowed to languish in obscurity for much of the digital age. To the rescue comes Grapefruit Records with Before the Day Is Done: The Story of Folk Heritage Records 1968-1975, the beloved imprint's first comprehensive anthology. Amid its generous 68-song playlist are obscure delights like Michael Donald's charmingly rough-hewn "Visions of Cambria," Saga's "Ballad of a Falmouth Man," and Stuart Marson's expansive "Christmas and Tchaikovsky." Compiled and curated with great care, it's a worthy tribute to Green's vision and an appropriate final chapter for Grapefruit's marvelous U.K. folk trilogy, which began with 2015's Dust on the Nettles and 2020's Sumer Is Icumen In. ~ Timothy Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	08/19/2022
Label:	Grapefruit
UPC:	5013929191402
Rank:	62332

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Songs of Sunshine  -  Music Box
2. High in the Trees  - Christie Hennessy
3. Death and the Lady  -  Michael Raven and Joan Mills  - Joan Mills  - Michael Raven
4. Marcie  - Penny Wager
5. Sweet Sir Galahad  -  Folkal Point
6. Visions of Cumbria  - Mike Donald
7. Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye  -  Blue Horizon
8. Photographs  - Porter Cunningham
9. Lazy Day  -  Peregrine
10. She Moved Through the Fair  -  Harvesters
11. Cold Haily Rainy Night  -  Yardarm
12. The Old Woman's Lament  - Janet Jones
13. Butcher Boy  -  Spinning Jenny
14. Anathea  -  Oldest Proffession
15. Fanny Blair  -  Combine Harvester
16. Queen of Hearts  -  Gallery
17. The Two Butchers  -  Jovial Crew
18. You Keep Going Your Way  -  Young Folk
19. You Were There  -  Margaret and Ian
20. Three Drunken Maidens  - Drowsy Maggie
21. Retrospect  -  Saraband
22. Hedgehog's Song  - Geoff Smedley
23. Oats and Beans/Turkey Rhubarb  -  John & Christine
24. Hard Times of Old England  -  Taverners Folk Group

Disc 2

25. Matty Groves  -  Wayfarers
26. Dancers of Stanton Drew  -  Parke
27. Lord Lovell  -  Minor Birds
28. January Man  -  Paul & Glen
29. Old Pendle  -  Pendlefolk
30. Geraldine  -  Mabel Joy
31. Yesterday's Rain  -  Saga
32. Lark in the Morning  -  Blue Water Folk
33. April Come She Will  -  Macdonald Folk Group
34. Wild and Free  -  Stained Glass
35. Pretty Saro  - Rosemary Hardman
36. The Two Magicians  -  Horden Raikes
37. Land of the Old and Grey  - Mike Donald
38. Blackleg Miner  -  Bards
39. Summer Comes October (The Long and Lonely Winter)  -  Yardarm
40. Twenty Years  -  Michael Raven and Joan Mills  - Joan Mills  - Michael Raven
41. Travelling People  -  Young Folk
42. Mice and Old Clocks  -  Friends O'Mine
43. 4 + 20  - Jack Hudson
44. Cannily Cannily  -  Folkways
45. The Female Drummer  -  Oldest Proffession
46. All Through the Night  -  Peregrine
47. Icy Acres  -  Gallery

Disc 3

48. Close to It All  -  Saraband
49. Take Me for Your Friend  -  Raggerty
50. Connemara Cradle Song  -  Spinning Jenny
51. Grey October  -  Minor Birds
52. The Trees They Do Grow High  -  Parke
53. Ballad of a Falmouth Man  -  Saga
54. The False Bride  -  Harvesters
55. Heading for the Sun  - Rod Neep
56. Oh So Nice  -  Oddsocks
57. Christmas and Tchaikovsky  - Stuart Marson
58. All I Wanna Do Is Play Guitar  - Dave Lewry
59. A Week Before Easter  - Jancis Harvey
60. Snail  - Steve Rostron
61. What's the Point  -  Mug Band
62. The White Hare of Oldham  - Brian Dewhurst  -  Tom Tiddler's Ground
63. Elizabethan  -  Bards
64. Poll Miles  -  Stained Glass
65. Cruel War  -  Macdonald Folk Group
66. Once I Knew a Pretty Girl  -  Folkal Point
67. I'll Keep It with Mine  - Penny Wager
68. All the Good Times  -  Blue Water Folk

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Bards   Primary Artist
Spinning Jenny   Primary Artist
Saga   Primary Artist
Jancis Harvey   Primary Artist
Blue Horizon   Primary Artist
Stuart Marson   Primary Artist
The Stained Glass   Primary Artist
Music Box   Primary Artist
Christie Hennessy   Primary Artist
Saraband   Primary Artist
The Young Folk   Primary Artist
Gallery   Primary Artist
Oddsocks   Primary Artist
Brian Dewhurst   Primary Artist
The Wayfarers   Primary Artist
Folkal Point   Primary Artist
Combine Harvester   Primary Artist
Peregrine   Primary Artist
Michael Raven   Primary Artist
Jack Hudson   Primary Artist
Rosemary Hardman   Primary Artist
Parke   Primary Artist
Joan Mills   Primary Artist
Michael Raven and Joan Mills   Primary Artist
Janet Jones   Primary Artist
Mike Donald   Primary Artist
Minor Birds   Primary Artist
Mabel Joy   Primary Artist
Horden Raikes   Primary Artist
The Macdonald Folk Group   Primary Artist
The Taverners Folk Group   Primary Artist
Penny Wager   Primary Artist
Paul & Glen   Primary Artist
The Yardarm   Primary Artist
The Jovial Crew   Primary Artist
The Blue Water Folk   Primary Artist
The Pendlefolk   Primary Artist
Folkways   Primary Artist
Rod Neep   Primary Artist
The Mug Band   Primary Artist
Margaret and Ian   Primary Artist
Porter Cunningham   Primary Artist
Drowsy Maggie   Primary Artist
Geoff Smedley   Primary Artist
Steve Rostron   Primary Artist
John & Christine   Primary Artist
Dave Lewry   Primary Artist
Friends O'Mine   Primary Artist
Raggerty   Primary Artist
The Oldest Proffession   Primary Artist
Tom Tiddler's Ground   Primary Artist
The Harvesters   Primary Artist