Before The Day Is Done - The Story Of Folk Heritage Records 1968-1975

As British folk music took off in the late sixties, Alan Green founded the label Folk Heritage with the purpose of releasing albums by musicians who were primarily from the north-west England folk scene.  The releases from the label and its associated labels (Midas, Sweet Folk & Country, Westwood and Real) were very limited, no more than 2000 copies and often 200 or less and were only available at the club where the performer was a resident.  Due to this, many of these releases are extremely collectible today.  Grapefruit Records’ Before The Day Is Done (their third collection of British Folk following Dust On The Nettles and Sumer Is Icumen) collects together sixty-eight tracks from these albums, covering a diverse range from pop-oriented folk and folk rock to singer/songwriters and more traditional folk.  Unlike the prior two collections, which contained selections of better known and lesser known artists, no one here became a household name (a few of the artists here, like The Minor Birds, Folkal Point, Parke and Music Box also have tracks on those releases), but having said that you would be hard pressed to find one bad track in the bunch and you will most likely find yourself scouring the internet looking for more songs from many of them.  Also included is an outstanding booklet loaded with details on all the bands and the songs.  There is so much good music here and it’s a crime that these entire releases are not easily accessible to the masses.  Hopefully the next step will be for someone to start reissuing some of these releases in their entirety (HINT HINT!!!)

(Grapefruit)