Off The Beaten Track: The weird world of medieval folk rock
Folk music has always had a historical feel to it. After all, it is folk that is the music of the people, originally written around campfires and in the corners of pubs where the prying eye of a wider public did not cast its suspecting eye. Some folk music, though has a more specific part of history at its centre, particularly medieval folk rock.
The genre combines traditional early music, as heard in the Tudor courts and medieval castles of yore, with more contemporary sounds of folk and rock. Whether it be through the singing of the myths and fantasies of our ancestors or merely employing the use of old traditional instruments, medieval folk rock is one of the most interesting and peculiar musical genres out there.
Medieval folk rock looks to have its origins in the 1960s, when bands began to incorporate medieval and Renaissance instruments into their songs. The Scottish folk outfit The Incredible String Band included flutes and mandolins as well as Eastern instruments like the oud and the sitar on their albums The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion and The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.
Then John Renbourn began to cover a number of early English music songs on his 1968 record Sir John Alot of Merry Englandes Musyk Thynge and ye Grene Knyghte and 1970’s The Lady and the Unicorn. Renbourn played in Pentangle, whose work was largely comprised of medieval-inspired folk songs.
Along with Pentangle, perhaps one of the most significant outfits to incorporate medieval music into their own was Fairport Convention. Their 1969 album Liege and Leaf combined the style and textures of traditional British and Celtic folk songs with the late 1960s modus of electric rock and roll.
With Pentangle and Fairport Convention (as well as Steeleye Span on occasion) making a name for themselves with their unique take on medieval folk, a “heyday” of the genre ensued in the first half of the 1970s. Pentangle released Cruel Sister in 1970, an album comprised entirely of versions of traditional songs, and it was around this time that more mainstream bands began to explore the wonders that British and Celtic mythology could bring to one’s own creations.
We simply can’t forget about Led Zeppelin and how Jimmy Page and Robert Plant both delved into their ancestral past to write songs like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ from Led Zeppelin VI, featuring recorders and mandolins. So too did Black Sabbath stray from their doomy metal sound on tracks such as ‘Embryo’ and particularly ‘Orchid’ on their Master of Reality album.
Medieval, fantasy and mythological musical stylings were soon adopted by progressive rock bands, and they were slowly drawn away from folk-rock and into the arms of outfits like Yes and Rush and heavy metal groups such as Iron Maiden in the latter part of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s. While prog-rock drew in millions of adoring fans, it always felt like medieval had found its home in the acoustic and (briefly electrified) hands of folk musicians.
Still, there has always been a place for medieval folk rock since that initial decline following its short-lived success. It virtually disappeared in the 1980s as a genre, but a few enthusiasts have kept the candle burning, including many 1990s acts in Germany, like Faun, Corvus Corax and Shandmaul.
Nowadays, rather than medieval folk rock being a particular genre worldwide, it’s more common that bands will merely incorporate medieval and traditional instruments into their own musical creations rather than actively seek to recreate versions of traditional songs themselves.
In 2020, the Australian trio Dandelion Wine opened up on how they incorporate medieval music into their own works. Multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Albanis said, “I have always been fascinated by all things medieval. I’ve played guitar for a billion years and always wanted a lute. I started picking up other instruments [too], first mandolin and then Appalachian dulcimer, hammered dulcimer and bell cittern. I have a bowed psaltery too.”
As for why there seems to be an appeal to the music of yore in a modern age, Albanis said, “I think it’s partially about evoking a world without the digital distractions of now – there’s absolutely a magical component inherent in these kinds of instruments that is different to what can be achieved with modern instruments.”
He added, “I think that part of it is that medieval music is the root of most European music. Of course, you can trace it back even further, especially to the middle east, but the roots of modern folk and classical and, by default, rock and electronica are all there.”
So medieval folk rock takes inspiration from the castles and courts, and taverns of days long gone and reappropriates them under the banner of the 20th and 21st Centuries’ most significant musical genres, rock and folk. It might not be everyone’s cup of ancestral tea, but it’s certainly a refreshing historical trip through the sounds of our past.
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