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Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk
In the late 60s and early 70s the inherent weirdness of folk met switched-on psychedelic rock and gave birth to new, strange forms of acoustic-based avant-garde music. Artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Incredible String Band, Vashti Bunyan, Pearls Before Swine and Comus, combined sweet melancholy and modal melody with shape-shifting experimentation to create sounds of unsettling oddness that sometimes go under the name acid or psych folk.
A few of these artists—notably the String Band, who actually made it to Woodstock—achieved mainstream success, while others remained resolutely entrenched underground. But by the mid-70s even the bigger artists found sales dwindling, and this peculiar hybrid musical genre fell profoundly out of favour. For 30 years it languished in obscurity, apparently beyond the reaches of cultural reassessment, until, in the mid-2000s a new generation of artists collectively tagged ‘New Weird America’ and spearheaded by Devendra Banhart, Espers and Joanna Newsom rediscovered acid and psych folk, revered it and from it, created something new.
Thanks partly to this new movement, many original acid and psych folk artists have re-emerged, and original copies of rare albums command high prices. Meanwhile, both Britain and America are home to intensely innovative artists continuing the tradition of delving simultaneously into contemporary and traditional styles to create something unique.
Seasons They Change tells the story of the birth, death and resurrection of acid and psych folk. It explores the careers of the original wave of artists and their contemporary equivalents, finding connections between both periods, and uncovering a previously hidden narrative of musical adventure.
A few of these artists—notably the String Band, who actually made it to Woodstock—achieved mainstream success, while others remained resolutely entrenched underground. But by the mid-70s even the bigger artists found sales dwindling, and this peculiar hybrid musical genre fell profoundly out of favour. For 30 years it languished in obscurity, apparently beyond the reaches of cultural reassessment, until, in the mid-2000s a new generation of artists collectively tagged ‘New Weird America’ and spearheaded by Devendra Banhart, Espers and Joanna Newsom rediscovered acid and psych folk, revered it and from it, created something new.
Thanks partly to this new movement, many original acid and psych folk artists have re-emerged, and original copies of rare albums command high prices. Meanwhile, both Britain and America are home to intensely innovative artists continuing the tradition of delving simultaneously into contemporary and traditional styles to create something unique.
Seasons They Change tells the story of the birth, death and resurrection of acid and psych folk. It explores the careers of the original wave of artists and their contemporary equivalents, finding connections between both periods, and uncovering a previously hidden narrative of musical adventure.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
368 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 1, 2011
This book may be the closest to my life but I have to read it first to be sure.
Feb 25- Well this, it turns out, is in large part NOT close to my life because so many European bands never got breaks in the US and there are only a few new acts with whom I'm familiar.
I am a huge fan of Incredible String Band ... & proud of it. They achieved what Jeanette Leech aptly calls "godhead" status in 1968, 69 -70. There are 13 albums in their catalogue, not all in print, and if anyone is interested, the best reissues are on FLEDGLING Records.
I haven't finished the book yet, but, yesterday, I was so touched by a new psyche folk artist's development, it actually brought tears to my eyes:
snip:
Before the many there were the few. Three groups - In Gowan Ring, Stone Breath and The Ididerod - predated the intense interest in modern psychedelic folk music that would blossom in the early 21st century...
The first was...In Gowan Ring founded in the early 90s by the sole constant member B'eirth. He was born Bobin Jon Michael Eirth and raised in the Mormon faith; his great, great, great, grandfather was Wilford Woodruff, the fourth Prophet of the Mormon Church. As a child he performed in musicals, and cites this early theatrical experience as a significant influence on his music...
B'eirth's adolescence proved to be an unforgiving time. "I went through a pretty intense period of angst," he recalls. He stopped acting in rebellion against his childhood before being sent to a series of psychiatrists, and then to the Mercywood Sanitorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "It was like a scam," he says. "The insurance would pay for it, and they'd just get all these kids that weren't going along with things and put them into the mental hospital."
On leaving Mercywood, then Mormonism, and then the family home, B'eirth began to search for "something more interesting". He devoured esoteric literature, philosophy, existentialism and folk music...He became intrigued by the different tonalities and the variation between different musical systems...
Making instruments came next..."It's an empowering thing," he says...
Making music followed but it didn't come easily. "It was a long incubation, really," ...B'eirth tried to find it through tape experiments: improvising recording to tape, and reflecting back. "You have to work to translate it. It's a lot about trying to capture these fleeting moments of inspiration when you're tapped into something like that."
B'eirth worked specifically on pinning down this 'translation' for three years from 1990-93. "Gradually the music became more and more structural and less ethereal," he says. "It was a slow crystallisation of the visions and things." ...
B'eirth knew he had got Love Charms right in terms of the visions in his head: "It felt like an arrival of some kind, where it had become real," he says. But the reaction elsewhere was mixed. "I remember someone saying that it sounded like Celtic music played at half speed. It was in an in-between place. It wasn't rhythmic enough to be music played at bars, and it wasn't experimental enough to be John Cage music".
One piece of press proved to be educational - a positive review that compared the record to The Incredible String Band "when they were great". B'eirth didn't know who the String Band were, so he went to a music store and tested out a CD. "After making the record I made, and then hearing The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter ... I just remember crying in the record store. It was like being an orphan and then realising you have a father. I don't mean that in a arrogant sense, but what I though I was doing with Love Charms was totally new, and what I was looking for didn't have much of a reference. It was different after that".
__._,_.___
Feb 25- Well this, it turns out, is in large part NOT close to my life because so many European bands never got breaks in the US and there are only a few new acts with whom I'm familiar.
I am a huge fan of Incredible String Band ... & proud of it. They achieved what Jeanette Leech aptly calls "godhead" status in 1968, 69 -70. There are 13 albums in their catalogue, not all in print, and if anyone is interested, the best reissues are on FLEDGLING Records.
I haven't finished the book yet, but, yesterday, I was so touched by a new psyche folk artist's development, it actually brought tears to my eyes:
snip:
Before the many there were the few. Three groups - In Gowan Ring, Stone Breath and The Ididerod - predated the intense interest in modern psychedelic folk music that would blossom in the early 21st century...
The first was...In Gowan Ring founded in the early 90s by the sole constant member B'eirth. He was born Bobin Jon Michael Eirth and raised in the Mormon faith; his great, great, great, grandfather was Wilford Woodruff, the fourth Prophet of the Mormon Church. As a child he performed in musicals, and cites this early theatrical experience as a significant influence on his music...
B'eirth's adolescence proved to be an unforgiving time. "I went through a pretty intense period of angst," he recalls. He stopped acting in rebellion against his childhood before being sent to a series of psychiatrists, and then to the Mercywood Sanitorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "It was like a scam," he says. "The insurance would pay for it, and they'd just get all these kids that weren't going along with things and put them into the mental hospital."
On leaving Mercywood, then Mormonism, and then the family home, B'eirth began to search for "something more interesting". He devoured esoteric literature, philosophy, existentialism and folk music...He became intrigued by the different tonalities and the variation between different musical systems...
Making instruments came next..."It's an empowering thing," he says...
Making music followed but it didn't come easily. "It was a long incubation, really," ...B'eirth tried to find it through tape experiments: improvising recording to tape, and reflecting back. "You have to work to translate it. It's a lot about trying to capture these fleeting moments of inspiration when you're tapped into something like that."
B'eirth worked specifically on pinning down this 'translation' for three years from 1990-93. "Gradually the music became more and more structural and less ethereal," he says. "It was a slow crystallisation of the visions and things." ...
B'eirth knew he had got Love Charms right in terms of the visions in his head: "It felt like an arrival of some kind, where it had become real," he says. But the reaction elsewhere was mixed. "I remember someone saying that it sounded like Celtic music played at half speed. It was in an in-between place. It wasn't rhythmic enough to be music played at bars, and it wasn't experimental enough to be John Cage music".
One piece of press proved to be educational - a positive review that compared the record to The Incredible String Band "when they were great". B'eirth didn't know who the String Band were, so he went to a music store and tested out a CD. "After making the record I made, and then hearing The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter ... I just remember crying in the record store. It was like being an orphan and then realising you have a father. I don't mean that in a arrogant sense, but what I though I was doing with Love Charms was totally new, and what I was looking for didn't have much of a reference. It was different after that".
__._,_.___
May 3, 2021
This book starts in mid 50s Britain when 18 year old Shirley Collins heads for London and Cecil Sharp House to get her hands on the songbooks from Sharp’s epic song gathering project, then picks up the Critics Group scene which heralded the folk revival and eventually the path into folk rock and psychedelic/acid folk in the late 60s and early 70s. By starting right on the cusp of this explosion in interest and experimentation, Seasons They Change doesn’t really explore traditional folk’s roots, its themes or its cultural significance at the point its 20th century revival was born. Rob Young’s Electric Eden - very much a Britain-focused piece of work - traces the ‘silver chain’ of folk back past Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending, Cecil Sharp and William Morris to Blake and beyond, the main thematic element being our attempt to rediscover eden (“A time locked pastoral heaven”) in a world ravaged by industrialisation. Electric Eden therefore places what the experimental musicians were doing in the 60s and 70s in a wider context within British history (he gives far more time to artists such as Ashley Hutchings, The Watersons and the Collins sisters for example, who were fascinated with traditional material). Without this context, Seasons They Change feels less focused and more like an exploration of anyone who was doing anything remotely ‘out there’ and off the path of mainstream music. With diversions into electronica, noise, ambient and other esoteric backwoods, the folk link in the narrative can sometimes seem a bit tenuous. The upside to this is that the book’s scope is far broader than Electric Eden - indeed it doesn’t stop in the mid to late 70s when the original revival petered out, but pushes on through the 80s and 90s (a folk music wasteland, although Leech still finds a fair bit to talk about) and into the second revival, with Weird America and Free Folk. Where earlier chapters had alternated between Britain and the US, the second part of the book stays for longer Stateside (with occasional trips back over the Atlantic to catch up with what Alasdair Roberts is doing). It’s here that I started to lose a bit of interest. The second wave of artists were very much influenced by the British folk revival (Incredible String Band are *always* cited as an influence, and Vashti Bunyan’s rediscovery and second shot at recording is famously attributed to the encouragement of Devandra Banhart, among others), but there is nothing in the music or the narrative that speaks of the rediscovery of eden which so preoccupied and drove the 60s folk music revolution in Britain. That of course is just a matter of my personal preference for 60s and 70s music over more modern psychedelic folk - it’s all brilliantly written, well researched, thoroughly immersive, and I can guarantee no matter what music you’re into, this book will introduce you to at least one brilliant album that you’ve not heard of - even if it was recorded 60 years ago…
June 22, 2017
Another 3.5 star read. Exhaustively researched but relatively simple - Leech traces psychedelic/acid/freak folk from ca 1965 to 2010. She goes through band history & albums chronologically & geographically. I was only passingly familiar w most of the 60s stuff and beyond Current 93 and Animal Collective wasn't too familiar with the contemporary musicians either.
Gripes - maybe a little theorizing on why this obscure and admittedly dated sound came back into vogue 40+ years later? Something to do with the rise of internet music and the ease of locating the most obscure albums?
Also - where's the discography? Would have loved to have a chronolgical list of the of the author's fave albums.
Beyond those gripes, the book is a success as I learned about a subculture I knew very little about & it made me want to listen.
Gripes - maybe a little theorizing on why this obscure and admittedly dated sound came back into vogue 40+ years later? Something to do with the rise of internet music and the ease of locating the most obscure albums?
Also - where's the discography? Would have loved to have a chronolgical list of the of the author's fave albums.
Beyond those gripes, the book is a success as I learned about a subculture I knew very little about & it made me want to listen.
September 2, 2019
For anyone interested in knowing more (a lot more) about the path from classic and psychedelic folk to freak folk and New Weird America this is pretty much an essential book. Its pages share the kind of solid information you only get from well researched books. My only problem is that I loved the first half and became a bit bored once it turned to the folk revival bands, but that's clearly a matter of taste. For anyone that enjoys both the original bands and their 21st century followers this should be a one of a kind book.
August 4, 2013
Folk music is a very broad church. From traditional purists like Ewan MacColl to folk-rock acts like Fairport Convention to folk-tronica and all shades in between, Folk Music has something for everyone. One of the most elusive strands to pin down is Acid or Psychedelic Folk. Yet that is what author Jeanette Leech attempts to do in Seasons They Change. That it is a noble failure is more to do with the nature of the music and the author's basic premise than any lack of research. Because this book has been exhaustively researched.
Starting in the 1950's and early 1960's, Leech traces Folks revival on both sides of the Atlantic through artistes such as Shirley Collins, Davy Graham, Annie Briggs, Bert Jansch, Jackson C Frank and many others. But it is not until the arrival in the mid 60's of the Incredible String Band that the term Acid Folk starts being used. The psychedelic elements that found their way into folk music made for some strange, disturbing and beguiling music. It also made for some unlistenable tosh, but you can say that of any musical genres.
Leech has assembled a formidable history of her chosen subject and if her descriptions can be a little florid at times, you can forgive her because the detail is amazing. She has tracked down and interviewed countless obscure acts who at times made only one album before fading away. It has certainly given me a whole host of new music to listen to, much of which is available on Spotify.
The high point of Psychedelic Folk was the late sixties and by the early 70's the music industry's focus had shifted. Acts were dropped by labels and folk music once more became unfashionable. Leech attempts to trace a line of continuity through independent, self recorded artistes, but the links are tenuous and their influence on later musicians debatable.
Music come and goes in waves. What ebbs one decade, flows once more in another. Folk music resurfaced in the late 90's under various guises, but Leech is mainly concerned with so-called Freak Folk, which she sees as the natural successor to Acid Folk. Acts such as Devendra Banhart, Circulus, Espers, Tunng and the like took the music and retooled it using new sensibilities and modern technology, while drawing inspiration from the previous generation of psychedelic folk musicians. Again Leech interviews a vast array of artistes, but the new generation is harder to pin down and even harder to label.
So, a fascinating and informative read which, if you want, will lead you to a wealth of great music. It is a flawed book but a brave attempt none-the-less to pin down an elusive genre.
Starting in the 1950's and early 1960's, Leech traces Folks revival on both sides of the Atlantic through artistes such as Shirley Collins, Davy Graham, Annie Briggs, Bert Jansch, Jackson C Frank and many others. But it is not until the arrival in the mid 60's of the Incredible String Band that the term Acid Folk starts being used. The psychedelic elements that found their way into folk music made for some strange, disturbing and beguiling music. It also made for some unlistenable tosh, but you can say that of any musical genres.
Leech has assembled a formidable history of her chosen subject and if her descriptions can be a little florid at times, you can forgive her because the detail is amazing. She has tracked down and interviewed countless obscure acts who at times made only one album before fading away. It has certainly given me a whole host of new music to listen to, much of which is available on Spotify.
The high point of Psychedelic Folk was the late sixties and by the early 70's the music industry's focus had shifted. Acts were dropped by labels and folk music once more became unfashionable. Leech attempts to trace a line of continuity through independent, self recorded artistes, but the links are tenuous and their influence on later musicians debatable.
Music come and goes in waves. What ebbs one decade, flows once more in another. Folk music resurfaced in the late 90's under various guises, but Leech is mainly concerned with so-called Freak Folk, which she sees as the natural successor to Acid Folk. Acts such as Devendra Banhart, Circulus, Espers, Tunng and the like took the music and retooled it using new sensibilities and modern technology, while drawing inspiration from the previous generation of psychedelic folk musicians. Again Leech interviews a vast array of artistes, but the new generation is harder to pin down and even harder to label.
So, a fascinating and informative read which, if you want, will lead you to a wealth of great music. It is a flawed book but a brave attempt none-the-less to pin down an elusive genre.
February 22, 2016
Folk music, along with its plethora of variant prefixes, is a genre that is difficult to tame into any sort of worthy chronological retrospective. Its origins, often shrouded by the mists of early history, compete with the improvisational and collaborative nature of folk musicians to thwart any but the most stubborn researcher from unraveling the stories, the relationships, and the inspirations behind those timeless sounds. Freelance writer and music historian Jeanette Leech, armed with a blazing passion for her subject, tackles a small "slice" of the genre that is often referred to as "acid" or "psychedelic" folk.
Given the somewhat simultaneous origins of acid folk in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe, the author ping-pongs across oceans and borders as she narrates the emergence of the style through the music of outfits such as The Incredible String Band and The Holy Model Rounders. While the larger known artists are discussed and often referred back to, the vast majority of Seasons is devoted to the lesser-known musicians and their obscure bodies of work. Therein lies the real treasure!
Leech sticks to the obscurities as she traces the downfall of psychedelic folk in the '70s through to its ultimate resurgence as experimental, or "freak", folk of the '90s and the 21st century. Contemporary bands such as The Iditarod and Animal Collective are put into perspective with their conscious and sub-conscious influences of decades earlier until the author closes the book ruminating on what the future may hold for the nebulous genre.
While the book contains innumerable references to bands and albums, it is not organized into a traditional "discography" or chronological reference. The reader will have to make an effort to mine the text for "want list" additions, though a convenient index of artists does make the task rather simple. Most of the albums mentioned by the early progenitors of acid folk are long out of print and only had minuscule press runs, so prepare yourself for a bit of sticker shock.
Seasons They Change is well-written and thoroughly-researched, although a good number of direct quotes of artists are culled from secondary sources. Leech, in describing the sound and style of the many albums she mentions in the text, often takes on the hyperbolic prose of an indie music reviewer - which may or may not induce a little bit of eye-glaze, depending on your tolerance for such things. Ultimately, though, fans of the more experimental side of folk music will want to digest the wealth of information contained within.
Given the somewhat simultaneous origins of acid folk in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe, the author ping-pongs across oceans and borders as she narrates the emergence of the style through the music of outfits such as The Incredible String Band and The Holy Model Rounders. While the larger known artists are discussed and often referred back to, the vast majority of Seasons is devoted to the lesser-known musicians and their obscure bodies of work. Therein lies the real treasure!
Leech sticks to the obscurities as she traces the downfall of psychedelic folk in the '70s through to its ultimate resurgence as experimental, or "freak", folk of the '90s and the 21st century. Contemporary bands such as The Iditarod and Animal Collective are put into perspective with their conscious and sub-conscious influences of decades earlier until the author closes the book ruminating on what the future may hold for the nebulous genre.
While the book contains innumerable references to bands and albums, it is not organized into a traditional "discography" or chronological reference. The reader will have to make an effort to mine the text for "want list" additions, though a convenient index of artists does make the task rather simple. Most of the albums mentioned by the early progenitors of acid folk are long out of print and only had minuscule press runs, so prepare yourself for a bit of sticker shock.
Seasons They Change is well-written and thoroughly-researched, although a good number of direct quotes of artists are culled from secondary sources. Leech, in describing the sound and style of the many albums she mentions in the text, often takes on the hyperbolic prose of an indie music reviewer - which may or may not induce a little bit of eye-glaze, depending on your tolerance for such things. Ultimately, though, fans of the more experimental side of folk music will want to digest the wealth of information contained within.
April 30, 2013
A friend bought this for me as a gift and I'm quite thankful. I meant to buy it when it was first published, but it became one of those books on my list that I hadn't quite got round to buying.
Is it *the* definitive acid/psychedelic folk book? Who knows - if it isn't, it's pretty damn close, for my money. Leech had a daunting task - first to try and define psychedelic folk music, then to try and trace it's roots and various branches into the present day. She did an admirable job and this book makes for an interesting read and a good reference tool (though my only small complaint would be that I wish a relevant discography for all of the acts mentioned was included).
I was already a fan of the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Comus, The Holy Modal Rounders and Devendra Banhart - but Leech introduced me to loads of artists and bands, both British and American, as well as a few European acts: In Gowan Ring, Stone Angel, Tir Na Nog, Loudest Whisper, Bonnie Dobson, Pat Kilroy....the list goes on.
Hell, she even got me to reassess Joanna Newsom, whom I'd dismissed as a warbly novelty (what with the harp and all). I've been checking out Newsom's "Ys" album and I'm enjoying it (still getting used to the voice, however).
If you've got any sort of interest in psychedelic music, or British/American folk - or the combination of the two, I would recommend "Seasons They Change". Be warned, though, if you're like me--it'll cost you, as you'll soon be trying to track down and purchase a lot of the albums Leech has spotlighted.
Is it *the* definitive acid/psychedelic folk book? Who knows - if it isn't, it's pretty damn close, for my money. Leech had a daunting task - first to try and define psychedelic folk music, then to try and trace it's roots and various branches into the present day. She did an admirable job and this book makes for an interesting read and a good reference tool (though my only small complaint would be that I wish a relevant discography for all of the acts mentioned was included).
I was already a fan of the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Comus, The Holy Modal Rounders and Devendra Banhart - but Leech introduced me to loads of artists and bands, both British and American, as well as a few European acts: In Gowan Ring, Stone Angel, Tir Na Nog, Loudest Whisper, Bonnie Dobson, Pat Kilroy....the list goes on.
Hell, she even got me to reassess Joanna Newsom, whom I'd dismissed as a warbly novelty (what with the harp and all). I've been checking out Newsom's "Ys" album and I'm enjoying it (still getting used to the voice, however).
If you've got any sort of interest in psychedelic music, or British/American folk - or the combination of the two, I would recommend "Seasons They Change". Be warned, though, if you're like me--it'll cost you, as you'll soon be trying to track down and purchase a lot of the albums Leech has spotlighted.
August 11, 2014
An extremely well-researched and highly readable study of psychedelic folk music. My highlighter pen has almost dried up because I have been picking out so many new, unheard albums to check out from within the text.
March 10, 2025
Great 7/10
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