The article as initially posted received comments and suggestions here, on Facebook and on The Band website. This is a revised version based on that. Thanks to all those who commented. Colin D, Hugh D, Les K, Bill M, Pat B all made important suggestions.
Americana … an introduction …
Slicing up music into categories reached its height late in the 20thcentury, as specialist charts proliferated … pop, rock, urban, R&B, folk, country & western, new country, Alt country, roots, country rock, musicals, soundtracks, metal, soul, dance, blues, Southern rock.
While it still existed, Tower Records at Piccadilly Circus was the champion. I was looking for a Dillards LP, and tried rock, then country, and finally spotted the sign Americana. Ah! That would be it. No, not there. So I asked, ‘Bluegrass.’ Yes, there it was.
‘I wouldn’t call it bluegrass,’ I said.
‘It’s got banjo. Banjo pickers are bluegrass.’
‘It’s not instrumental,’ I said.
‘That’s why it’s not in the instrumental section.’
‘OK … so if it has accordion, it’s polka?’
‘What?’
‘It doesn’t matter. While I’m here, I couldn’t find Bonnie Raitt.’
‘Where were you looking?’
‘Blues?’
He shook his head at my ignorance, ‘She has red hair and uses pedal steel.’
‘Not always …’ I protested, ‘OK, she always has red hair, but not always pedal steel.’
‘No redheads in my blues section. She’s in country.’
That was the first time I’d seen an Americana section too. The word Americana was first recorded in 1841, so long pre-dates its musical application, and like Victoriana probably originates in the antiques / collectables market. Patchwork quilts. Colt 45s. Brass spittoons. It has been applied to literature (e.g. Mark Twain), classical music (e.g. Aaron Copland), art (e.g. Grandma Moses), photography (e.g. Walker Evans) as well as popular music.
Robert Merrill’s Americana LP dates from 1965.
Don DeLillo called his first novel Americana in 1971.
What about music? I would say that the seminal records are The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan & The Band, Music From Big Pink by The Band, The Band (second album) and Sweetheart of The Rodeo by The Byrds.
When was the term first used? The first radio station to describe its content as Americana was KCSN in Northern California in 1984. I don’t know when The Band was first described as Americana, but I’d say the inclusion of Music From Big Pink was an afterthought. The towering single would be The Weight, from that album. But the towering single album would beThe Band (aka the Brown Album).
The first album with Americana as its title might be Columbia Country Classics Vol III: Americana. Artists appeared on several volumes … Marty Robbins got on most of them.
Vol 1 was The Golden Age (The Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff).
Vol II was Honky Tonk Heroes (Bob Wills, Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton).
Vol III’s Americana included Johnny Cash, Lefty Frizell, more Marty Robbins, Jimmy Dean, more Johnny Horton, Merle Haggard).
Vol IV was The Nashville Sound (George Jones, Barbara Mandrell, Charlie Rich, Johnny Paycheck, Tammy Wynette).
Vol V was A New Tradition (Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Poco, Asleep At The Wheel, Crystal Gale, Rodney Crowell).
I’d say the CBS Americana volume was truly “pre-Americana” with a strong focus on popular novelty Americana … Wolverton Mountain, Long Black Veil, El Paso, Big Bad John, Battle Of New Orleans, Pancho & Lefty, The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Don’t Take Your Guns To Town, A Boy Named Sue. We loved that album, and when my kids were early teens, it lived in the car permanently. However, I’d call it country and Vol V, “New Tradition” was much closer to what we now call Americana.
Wikipedia gives a list of artists we categorize as Americana:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana_(music)
It doesn’t include The Byrds, Lambchop, Little Feat, The Felice Brothers, k.d. lang, Simone Felice, Larry Jon Wilson, (all on my list).
It’s a wide list and includes many that grace my shelves Avett Brothers, The Band, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, J.J. Cale, Gram Parsons, Levon Helm, Buddy & Julie Miller, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, Steve Earle, Sturgill Simpson, The Decemberists, Hays Carll, Neil Young, Lucinda Williams
I’d argue over Pete Seeger (it’s folk), Van Morrison (not American, though I guess Tupelo Honey is a great Americana album, and His Band & Street Choir is a candidate), Van Dyke Parkes (a record title Discover America doesn’t qualify). Taj Mahal has recorded a lot that I’d call Americana, but also a lot that’s just blues, or just soul. Billy Bragg (on the list) is quintessentially English, even if he recorded a Woody Guthrie tribute album.
Canadian artists like The Band, Neil Young, k.d. lang fit in smoothly.
For me, Americana has to cross categories … not just blues, or just country, or just soul. Stuff like the Country Meets Soul CDs join together American categories, just as The Weight was covered by country artistes and soul artistes.
Anglicana …
My category. It’s not “British” but English.
As Americana can drift into straight country, much Anglicana drifts into straight English folk. The word has been used before. Show of Hands named an album Anglicana in 2000. Eliza Carthy’s 2010 album used it, and she described Anglicana as “Englishness as I feel it.”
Anglicana: Eliza Carthy 2010
Both are folk albums. Anglicana has Spiers and Boden as well as Martin Carthy contributing. That makes me place it in a folkier sense, though I do remember the fabulous sight of Billy Bragg and Martin Carthy playing back to back electric guitars, Status Quo style, with The Imagined Village. Eliza Carthy has to be in any list, but I’d go for her rockier stuff … Angels & Cigarettes or Neptune.
There is pre-history. For most of the 20th century, British vocalists sung mid-Atlantic, if not downright imitation American. It’s tempting to get hung up on singers who used an English accent like Noel Coward (posh) or those who sang in music hall cockney.
In popular music, David Bowie acknowledged Anthony Newley as the first major pop artist singing in a distinctive British style.
The BBC 4 programme on Bowie Before Fame (9 February 2019) came after this article was posted, and emphasised Bowie’s obsession with Anthony Newley’s voice and theatrical stage act with several film examples of Newley.
Tommy Steele reverted to Cockney very fast after the first couple. You’d never mistake Adam Faith for American. Anglicana is not just a Cockney accent though, or we’d have to include Max “Singalongamax” Bygraves.
Comedy and novelty cheerfully – that’s why we say “cheerful lovable Cockneys” – used British accents: Benny Hill, Kenneth Williams, Bernard Cribbins (Hole In The Ground), Mike Sarne & Wendy Richards (Come Outside, Will I What?). London accents come first, then Mummerset rustic as in Benny Hill comedy songs. The Vernons Girls did Liverpudlian before The Beatles on Funny All Over and You Know What I Mean.
Trad Jazz was a major seller in late 50s / early 60s Britain. Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Terry Lightfoot, Ken Colyer, Mike Cotton. The budget Golden Guinea series the Best of Ball, Barber & Bilk were huge sellers. The bands liked to add “New Orleans” to their names and while they were fond of New Orleans classics, they always had a strong air of beery Englishness. Chris Barber differed in being a major supporter and promoter of American blues musicians.
Lonnie Donegan started the skiffle craze while doing a section in the middle of Chris Barber gigs (he played banjo and guitar in the trad stuff). Lonnie Donegan, like the other skiffle artists, was definitely going for American(a) songs … The Battle of New Orleans, Alabamy Bound, Cumberland Gap, Muleskinner Blues, Pick A Bale of Cotton, but then he went English, and Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour leads into My Old Man’s A Dustman which is pure cheerful lovable Cockney.
Trad bands tended to be led by horn players, with trumpet the favourite. A lot of the horn sections graduated to soul bands later. There is a major connection with Anglicana and brass bands, or to having a horn solo, or horn backing. Brass bands relate to American marching bands, though we prefer to stand still to puff into tubas and sousaphones in England. In Bournemouth, the brass band which played intervals at football matches in the 50s and 60s was a posher Silver Band.
Trad had novelty offshoots, like The Temperance Seven, trying to re-create a 1920s jazzy cocktail swing with posh English accents (You’re Driving Me Crazy, Pasadena, Ain’t She Sweet). This is nostalgia / novelty rather than “Anglicana” as I am trying to define it. Winchester Cathedral by The New Vaudeville Band is a mid-60s manifestation of this style. The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band explored this area (as well as so many other areas).
Anthony Newley’s Strawberry Fair crosses that novelty line into jazzy pop, but then it takes a folksong theme and plays around with it and transforms it.
From outside England, The Beatles loom largest because of Liverpool accents, though that was interviews mainly – I can’t hear much Scouser in John Lennon’s Twist & Shout though there is a tingle in McCartney’s rendition of A Taste of Honey. The Beatles in their early days used to perform Ain’t She Sweet which The Temperance Seven had done, though so had Gene Vincent and Duffy Power.
Paul McCartney had a major music hall streak, and his songs with a music hall link are classic “Anglicana” – When I’m Sixty Four, Lovely Rita, Honey Pie, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. They’re also 1967 and after … post Beatlemania. I keep hearing horns in Anglicana records, and the nostalgic lyrics plus that incredible horn solo add Penny Lane. Note that Penny Lane dates from the whole Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band era, the Beatles strongest “Anglicana” phase. Honey Pie references the Temperance Seven / New Vaudeville Band mock-1920s feel.
The Beatles children’s songs, Yellow Submarine and Octopussy’s Garden would fit seamlessly (if The Beatles gave permission, which they won’t) on those BBC Children’s Favourites compilation albums, which are stuffed full of “novelty Englishness.”
‘David Bowie’ (Deram, June 1967)
The first full David Bowie album is a prime example and is a year ahead of The Beatles’ interest: David Bowie on Deram. You can get misled by words … The London Boys isn’t one of my first choices to demonstrate Anglicana, and The Laughing Gnome reminds me how much “Englishness” was a mark of novelty records. The album overall is strong Anglicana … Uncle Arthur has the lyrics. Maids of Bond Street?
Rubber Band has the classic brass band accompaniment, as well as lines about library gardens, scones and tea.
Move on to 1969 and the Philips label, and David Bowie still couldn’t think of an album title so called it David Bowie again. A suggestion came here for Letter to Hermione.
The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968
As with The Band, you can say The Kinks are the archetype, the defining band, and Waterloo Sunset sits with The Weight as the defining single, and The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society is the defining album. See my full review here. It’s stuffed with the best examples: Village Green Preservation Society, Village Green, Picture Book, Do You Remember Walter? Last of The Steam Powered Trains, Johnny Thunder, Sitting By The Riverside, People Take Pictures of Each Other, Animal Farm, All of My Friends Were There.
So many of their singles qualify: Sunny Afternoon, Days, Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Dead End Street, Autumn Almanac, Victoria. They didn’t stop there … Arthur: Or The decline & Fall of The British Empire, Preservation Act One & Two, try Have A Cuppa Tea from Muswell Hillbillies, Ray Davies’ Working Man’s Café … and to take us full circle, two albums entitled Americana.
UNCUT December 2020 issue:
Dave Davies: Apart from being an incredible influence, “The Band” felt like an American Kinks album in a way. It was folky, downhoe and very authentic sounding, the accordions and brass were muted, alost sad, but poignant.
Brass bands crop up in the background, and in the 1970s, The Mike Cotton Sound horn section (see trad jazz above) touredwith The Kinks.
The Hollies, contemporary with The Kinks, get an Anglicana mood in bith Bus Stop (written by 10 cc’s Graham Gouldman, such an English songwriter) and Jennifer Eccles.
The Small Faces have Ogdon’s Nut Gone Flake as the album, and Lazy Sunday as the single. Itchycoo Park has all the sound too, if not the lyrics.
The Who? There is stuff on The Who Sell Out and Tommy, but I never feel it’s their main thrust. Pete Townsend has praised the Kinks’ style so well, but maybe the Anglicana line is somewhere between The Who and The Kinks. Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand from The Who Sell Out is close. The concept of both Tommy and Quadrophenia is Anglicana, but I’m not sure the music is except for Cousin Kevin in the movie version of Tommy rather than the album version, but really it’s “musical”. Paul Nicholas plays Cousin Kevin, and Ann-Margaret, Nora, Tommy’s mother in that version.
I’ll take Bill M’s suggestion of Happy Jack for The Who.- like The Kinks it has that la-la-la chorus, and let’s not be picky (The Isle of Man where Jack lives is not England).
Unhalfbricking: Fairport Convention’s 2nd album
On the folkier wing, Fairport Convention consciously set out to do for English music what The Band had done for American, and I’d cite What We Did On Our Holidays and Unhalfbricking, though Liege and Lief and Full House veer over the folk side of the blurred line. Unhalfbricking continues the Kinks love of the suburban rather than the rustic, though we move up sharply in social class by the picture.
All the related bands … like Fotheringay, Strawbs, Steeleye Span and Sandy Denny solo are also in that area veering to folk.
Arnold Layne, Pink Floyd, 1967
Pink Floyd shouldn’t be anywhere near it, but Arnold Layne has the sound. See Emily Play too. Maybe it’s Sid Barrett rather than Pink Floyd.
Traffic? John Barleycorn Must Die is a traditional song, but as has been pointed out (thanks, Pat B) A Hole In My Shoe is probably closer to my Anglicana thoughts with Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush closest of all.
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight: Richard & Linda Thompson, 1974
Richard Thompson, but more Richard & Linda Thompson are major Anglicana artists. They like the brass band in the mix too. All their duo albums, but the big ones are Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight and Shoot Out The Lights. Richard Thompson continues to continue.
Linda Thompson’s Versatile Heart has no specific lyrical Englishness, but it does have that brass section.
Ralph McTell’s contribution goes well beyond the bleedin’ obvious: Streets of London which is also folkier than I’d choose. Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street adds a horn solo that brings it into the sphere (or would if Gerry Rafferty weren’t Scottish.)
Prog brings in a lot more – and I had ignored this, so many thanks to Hugh Dellar who made several great suggestions for examples on Facebook. Hugh suggested some late 60s tracks: Turquoise Tales of Flossie Fillett, The Idle Race’s Skeleton & The Roundabout. World of Oz The Muffin Man. My Facebook page has links.
The Muffin Man reminded me of Manfred Mann. Fiurst they made that Swinging London soundtrack to Up The Junction. Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James falls into the slightly snotty and hipper-than- thou area that the Kinks mined with Well Respected Man and Dedicated Follower of Fashion. A lot of their singles had a jaunty Anglicana swing to them, even when based on Americana like The Mighty Quinn. Ha Ha Said The Clown? The strongest is My Name Is Jack in 1968, even if the songwriter, John Simon, was American, as were the lyrics.
Mention of Paul Nicholas, an actor with hit records, led me to remember Dennis Waterman’s I Could Be So Good For You. It was a UK #3 hit in 1980.Waterman co-starred in Minder with George Cole, for which it was the theme song, and maybe the association helps as does the video. The brassy swagger gets it a place.
Hugh also chose Keith West’s On A Saturday, and I’ll add Excerpt From A Teenage Opera (aka Grocer Jack) by Keith West. Right year (1967) for early Anglicana, plus a lyric set in nostalgic turn of the century England.
The Alan Bown Set / The Alan Bown were one of the biggest live draws of the period, without having a hit record. Alan Bown was the trumpet player and bandleader (see trad jazz). The Magic Handkerchief is a contender. Toyland and Sally Green are others. They were at times a great soul band, but they shifted to … well, Anglicana.
The other major live draw in ballrooms was Simon Dupree & The Big Sound. There was no “Simon Dupree” but the band was based around the Schulman Brothers, Derek and Phil. They later formed Gentle Giant in 1970, another band suggested here. They had a hit in 1967 with Kites which would be my choice.
See my Facebook page for High Dellar’s several apposite suggestions in this “Toytown Psych” area. Miss Pinkerton by The Cuppa T (Deram 45 1967) was new to me and it’s perfect for the style.
I’ve written before on the link between Prog Rock and English folk … and it’s a link I discussed with the late John Wetton, himself a prime example of the style. John could explain it much better than me, but that sustained final word with playing around the note at the end of lines is a classic English folk marker, as well as a classic English prog rock marker. The prog links are many … Traffic has been mentioned. Jethro Tull’s rustic take on the blues goes in for starters.I saw them several times in their blues era, but flute is related to recorder and there is something so English about recorders. Exiles by King Crimson could be in there for lyrics … “a place by the sand … a military band blew an air of tranquility” and that comes from Bournemouth gardens where we used to paddle in the stream by the bandstand. Lyricist Richard Palmer-James spent his summer holidays in Bournemouth Central Gardens putting up lights for the evening candle displays within sight of that bandstand.
Robert Wyatt and Kevin Coyne are important. I’ve selected Robert Wyatt’s Shipbuilding (written by Clive Langer & Evis Costello) as covered by The Unthanks.
We should add a punk-Anglicana category … the Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Clash. Paul Weller solo. My problem, age-related, is that I fail to understand all those polls suggesting Never Mind The Bollocks It’s The Sex Pistols is one of the greatest albums of all time, so I’ll skip God Save The Queen.
London Calling by The Clash would be my representative. The Clash’s sleeve had a nostalgia reference to EMI late 1950s 7″ record sleeve designs. This is based on EMI Columbia’s classic sleeve.
Up The Junction: Squeeze 1979
Squeeze, Madness, Ian Dury & The Blockheads fit in their very different ways. I like Chris Difford’s later version of his Up The Junction even more than his original with Squeeze.
Two people have suggested XTC.
Two Tone (Madness, The Specials etc) is particularly English, though not all is Anglicana.
Ian Dury’s strong humour streak takes us back to those novelty English accented records of the late 50s / early 60s. I spent a week stripping wallpaper, painting and putting up jungle wallpaper before the birth of our daughter (our second child) and for the entire week I had a cassette player in there which gradually changed from black to spattered white and primrose, and all it played non-stop was New Boots & Panties so it’s an album I know by heart.
New Boots & Panties: Ian Dury & The Blockheads
I was stuck on what to choose for Chris Rea. Steel River adds English WW2 history, but I chose Stainsby Girls as having the requisite sense of nostalgia. I used to think it was Sainsbury’s Girls (working at the supermarket) until I bought a copy.
Eliza Carthy leads into Bellowhead – as mentioned Spiers & Boden were in her band. I think Britain Is A Car Park for combining a classic folk theme with raucous fun.
Billy Bragg crosses between Anglicana, punk and folk. Live, The Imagined Village, with Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy and Billy Bragg brought it all together. Let’s go for Hard Times of Old England – Billy Bragg, folk and a sitar. That’s England.
Neptune: Eliza Carthy – the CD inside the case
Bellowhead were the best recent additions. I wonder whether they escape the “Folk Anglicana” category because they rarely did original songs, but the volume and gusto compensate.
A London accent goes down a treat.
A bit of brass band in the background is another feature.
Lyrics with a touch of whimsical HP Sauce and Marmite help.
A jaunty rhythm rather than a straight rock rhythm counts.
I did a Playlist – and I also did a folk one with The Unthanks (especially their brass band one), The Imagined Village, The Transports, more Bellowhead, more Eliza Carthy, Spiers & Boden, Jon Boden, Fay Hield. That’s “Anglicana Folk.”
So twenty defining Anglicana songs …
Strawberry Fair – Anthony Newley
Rubber Band – David Bowie
Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
Village Green Preservation Society – The Kinks
Victoria – The Kinks
Lazy Sunday – The Small Faces
Arnold Layne – Pink Floyd
Who Knows Where The Time Goes – Fairport Convention
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight – Richard & Linda Thompson
Part of The Union – Strawbs
Salford Sunday – Richard Thompson
Stainsby Girls – Chris Rea
The Rose of England – Nick Lowe
Up The Junction – Squeeze / Chris Difford solo
We Are London -Madness
Britain Is A Car Park– Eliza Carthy
Versatile Heart – Linda Thompson
London – Thea Gilmore & Sandy Denny
Billericay Dickie – Ian Dury & The Blockheads
Fakenham Fair – Bellowhead
And nineteen more after comments …
My Old Man’s A Dustman – Lonnie Donegan
Winchester Cathedral – New Vaudeville Band
Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James – Manfred Mann
Penny Lane – The Beatles
Lovely Rita – The Beatles
When I’m 64 – The Beatles
The Muffin Man – World of Oz
Happy Jack The Who
Kites – Simon Dupree & The Big Sound
Sally Green – The Alan Bown
Excerpt From A Teenage Opera – Keith West
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush – Traffic
Miss Pinkerton – Cuppa T
London Calling – The Clash
Stanley Road – Paul Weller
I Could Be So Good For You – Dennis Waterman
Shipbuilding – Robert Wyatt / cover by The Unthanks
Hard Times of Old England -The Imagined Village
Suggestions for more are still welcome …
I know most of those – it’s a mighty fine list in my opinion – and I’m now going to go and check out the handful I don’t know. Thank you!
LikeLike
How about rustic-era XTC? Anything from English Settlement, Respectable Street or Bungalow spring to mind. The Wheel and the Maypole from their final album fills a spot as well.
LikeLike
Apologies for the fat fingers.
LikeLike
I think you could possibly add most of the night at the opera album by Queen. In fact, maybe the first four Queen albums. If we ignore the Italian styled bohemian rhapsody, we have songs like ‘bring back that Leroy brown’, ‘good company’, the coda to ‘march if the black queen’ and one other that reference directly English music hall and English jazz. And NATO ends with ‘god save the queen’
‘Songs from the wood’. By jethro tull also seems to me to suggest Anglicana.
LikeLike
Great playlists Peter. I don’t know all of them – which is always a sign of a good play list. I’d nominate for inclusion Roy Harper’s ‘When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease’. John Arlott’s phrase. The song is on the album Headquarters – a reference to Lords cricket ground.
I’d also nominate something by Mark Knopfler. Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing must fit the bill mustn’t it? But I’d choose ‘One More Matinee’ from Sailing to Philadelphia. Actually there’s loads of Mark Knopfler stuff – 5.15 am and The Trawlerman’s Song from Shangri-la might fit.
Great article.
LikeLike