The Imagined Village Womad download

HERE

and HERE

The Imagined Village, what an amazing concept and an amazing band.
Simon Emmerson ( brainchild of IV and also from many musical projects including Afro Celt Soundsystem ) has just finished a question and answers stint over on TALKAWHILE ( drop by and you can read all the conversations )

From Wikipedia:

The Imagined Village is a folk musical project spearheaded by Simon Emmerson of the Afro Celt Sound System. It is designed to produce modern folk music that represents modern multiculturalism in the United Kingdom and as such features musicians from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The project led to the release of an album by various artists on Real World Records. Some of the tracks on it are modern re-interpretations of traditional folk songs. The title of the album comes from a book "The Imagined Village" (1993) by Georgina Boyes.

"The Imagined Village E.P." was released earlier in 2007, and is a remix of the album tracks. The 2008 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards voted "Cold Haily Rainy Night" as best traditional track.

( They have also won a " Hancock " award from Talkawhile due to be presented very soon. See TAW for details )

The most powerful imo ( and controversial to some ) track on this amazing album is Tamlin retold, featuring the lead vocals of Benjamin Zephaniah ( who I first heard of when I was 17, stoned and listening to Rasta ) , and joined by the backing vocals and fiddle of the eternally gorgeous Eliza Carthy. A reggae dub version of a very traditional folk song with some folkie fiddle thrown into the mix ! Whatever next :)



More Afro celt stuff HERE
Imagined Village official site HERE

And then of course " Cold hailey rainy night " everything folk should be ( taken from their live jools holland appearance and just pinging with incredible energy... )