Miriam Backhouse "Gypsy Without A Road" (UK Folk 1977)

This artist is a now obscure female folk singer whose sole album merged the traditional with subtle progressive influences. The album was produced by fellow musician Saffron Summerfield and has a clean, expansive sheen to the sound. It merges traditional songs such as 'John Riley' with a number of songs penned sympathetically for her. The album uses members of the Etheridge family on harmony vocals and guitar and on the lovely first song 'Far Away Tom' they add swooning strings. A highlight of the album is 'The Farmers Have Gone East' which has gentle guitar and a mellotron (a tape keying based instrument which foreran synthesizers and was used a lot on progressive rock records). This brings flute and sustained chords which are different and very attractive. The song is a mournful lament to poverty in the farming community and sounds remarkably current in it's lyrics. 'Dark Side of the Moon' is a jaunty folk guitar strummer and doesn't live up to it's title but this is redressed by 'Keys of Canterbury' which brings the traditional starkly up to date. The fairly short album is completed by the title song which has a sweet melody and an air of the wandering traveler. A classic song on which to finish a beguiling album. It was briefly reissued on CD by Vinyl Tap records in Yorkshire UK and is well worth looking out for.