Various Sumer Is Icumen In - The Pagan Sound Of British And Irish Folk 1966-75 (3-CD)

(Cherry Red Records) 60 tracks, digisleeve in gatefold box.

Grapefruit's 2015 3-CD compilation Dust On The Nettles, featuring several artists from the British underground, was widely praised, with a five-star review in the Times calling it "a delight from start to finish."
The long overdue follow-up Sumer Is Icumen In tightens the weave by focusing on the moment when traditional folk song and the burgeoning counterculture of the late sixties collided, thanks largely to seminal acts like the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Pentangle.
 As Martin Carthy of Steeleye Span noted at the time, the scene had a strong pagan feel, dark and elemental, and progressive folk bands like Dr. Strangely Strange, Comus and Third Ear Band (who performed with the Druids at the Solstice ceremonies at Glastonbury Tor) were active at the same time as folklorists like Mr. Fox couple Bob & Carole Pegg and friendly couple Dave & Toni Arthur, who championed the cause and danced naked in a coven led by the infamous Alex Sanders, "King of the Witches."
 Sumer Is Icumen In contains four hours of Albion anthems old and new, including three previously unreleased tracks ranging from Mike Oldfield and Marc Bolan to unsigned bands who recorded their demos in a barn. "Housed in a stylish clamshell box, it includes a 40-page booklet with track-by-track commentary, numerous band quotes and some very rare photos.
The result is a secret clearing in a dark, pagan forest peppered with evocations of corn gods, willow men, the bright Phoebus and other non-Christian deities; magical tales of demons, sorcerers, false knights and fairy queens. the myths, legends, and traditions of medieval England surrounding the May Queen, John Barleycorn, and the Green Man; paeans to nature and the rhythm of the seasons; fables of sacred stones, scarecrows, and buried villages alongside horror stories of purgatory, sacrifice, rape, bestiality, and murder.