Wyrd Folk Classic Artist Profile

In the start of a series of features we will profile artists that have contributed significantly to folk music but have not received the widespread acclaim and popular appreciation they deserve.

Mr Fox                Check or Buy Mr Fox at Amazon UK

UK 1970 - 1972

The origins and formation

In the wake of the explosion in traditional folk music during the early to mid 1960s and its development into psychedelia and folk rock during the later period of the decade a number of artists matured and started to release albums in the 1970s.   This was a popular high point for folk music with Steeleye Span, The Strawbs, Fairport Convention and others selling well enough to chart highly with their albums and occasionally singles crossed over to the charts.  Married couple Bob and Carole Pegg from Yorkshire came originally from the starkly traditional style of folk and released two albums in the late 1960s as a duo 'He Came From The Mountain' and 'And Now It Is So Early - The Songs of Sydney Carter' (actually only commercial released after the demise of the band).    On the later album especially the form developed and started to move slightly closer to psychedelic popular music although still probably only appreciated by folk fans.  In was in 1970 that they decided to embrace the cross over concept pioneered through the 'Lief and Liege' album by Fairport Convention of a 'folk rock' sound and to realise this formed a band named after the traditional story of Mr Fox.

Building upon the core duo the following musicians were added:

Alan Eden - drums

Barry Lyons - electric bass

Andrew Massey - cello

John Myatt - woodwinds

The concept of the band was to take the strong affinity for the Yorkshire Dales and it's traditions and meld this to music similar to the roving artists of an earlier age who would place at community dances and chapels.  Although part of the emerging 'folk rock' sound the band was as can be seen from the musicians fairly untypical, with no guitar at all at first with woodwinds and cello playing key parts in the music.  Unlike Ashley Hutching's Steeleye Span who using conventional instrumentation with traditional lyrics and melodies, Mr Fox were always going to be a somewhat different proposition.   Bob and Carole Pegg were experienced having learnt traditional musician from traditional musicians in the Yorkshire Dales and directly from source musicians like Harry Cox, so the music embodied accurately the sounds of an earlier era and this is captured in their recordings as a musical time snap of the English past.

Like most artists of the time and still true of folk music, the live circuit could make or break a band.  Mr Fox having such unique music and instrumentation would never be a straight forward live band and so it proved.    Sometimes the complex fusion required to make the music work didn't come together and audiences expecting a more direct rock based sound would find it difficult to settle into.  Perhaps through over ambition the band became known for erratic live performances with occasional flashes of brilliance.  This hampered building a following of their own and without a strong management or record label to commercialise and package them, they remained an authentic if raw experience for many.  The band though knew they were doing something genuinely new and were excited at the possibilities they had even if they did not have any money, a sourcing of growing and continual tension.

Releasing the First Album

In common with many folk bands they were signed to Transatlantic who should have provided a sympathetic context for the music.  However by then Transatlantic was starting to struggle, Pentangle were increasingly fragmented and selling poorly in comparison to their early work and the sheer volume of niche albums issued by the label would slowly start to erode it's financial base.  Transatlantic typically like Island or Vertigo was a record label that had a following built on consistency and love of the music.  However they were not astute in popular music terms and did not have the acumen or resources needed to promote a band into the charts itself.  Indeed it's prime asset Pentangle had succeeded through having one of the best managers in the business rather than through record label promotions.

During 1970 the band recorded its first album which was almost done entirely live to two track stereo with some minor overdubs.  The producer like so many folk albums was Bill Leader and the album was released to reasonable if unspectacular sales and a feeling all around that the impetus and vision of the band had not been appreciated by the public.  As we now know from Nick Drake, many legendary artists are dismissed and overlooked in their life time and Mr Fox fall into this category.

Listening to the album now although using modern instruments it seems incredibly out of place with the 1970s and more like a product of the 1920s.  There are no concessions to rock music and to many the music must have sounded arcane, archaic and strange.  It is like beaming into a Yorkshire Dales band playing from the heavily accented traditional singing through to the non-conformist instrumentation.  The album was promoted by a doomed single of Dave Mason's song 'Little Woman' done stunningly and the lead track from the album on the flip.  Picking a cover version for the first and only single did not show confidence in the band and given that Traffic were also on the wane, it was not an auspicious selection.

However although not successful in the chart terms of other bands, the album stands as a masterpiece of folk music.  It's quick recording gives it an immediacy and directness that is missing from many.  The album does not base itself around guitar based songs instead they combine whistles, woodwinds, fiddle and harmonium sounding organ (which is the only polyphonic instrument).  The instruments weaves and dance around each other in enticing patterns with the combined vocals of Bob and Carole alternating often within the same song.  The rhythm section although a conventionally based rock one of drums and bass doesn't sound at all like the modern understanding of such.  Instead the drums play in rolling patterns upon the toms or skipping around the music playfully, a participant rather than backbone.  The bass does underpin the music but often seems to play a counterpart melody rather than a traditional pattern.  There is an innocence and delight in the music that seems unspoiled by progress and industry. The lyrics are stories from the Yorkshire Dales and seem to be other worldly, impossibly rural such as the following:.

'Walk in a valley that never saw the sun

step by the stones where the icy waters run

stand in a church where the village choir once sang

and all along the path way where the dead man used to hang'

Taken from 'The Hanged Man' about the death reflections of a newly hung man and his bodily absorption back into nature.

'The Gay Goshawk' is a doomy gothic drone that does have electric guitar (or similar) playing chiming chords at the start before the song goes into a complex pulsating traditional section.  In the songs there is much delicate melodic interplay that harks back to the Tudor era and may also be found in Amazing Blondel or Celebrated Ratliffe Stout Band from the same era.  Although the wrong choice for a single the version of Dave Mason's 'Little Woman' is quite stunning being driven by Carole's scything violin and a great rolling drum pattern that is almost military.  There is often an acknowledgement understated in the album that the times being spoken of are coming to an end and on 'Salisbury Plain' there is a wistful, depressed quality that speaks volumes and on 'Leaving The Dales' it is stated boldly.  On 'The Ballad Of Neddy Dick' we have a song that directly foretells the kind of accordion driven music Ashley Hutching's would go on to explore in his 'Morris on' series.  The last track 'Mr Fox' is a telling of the story also written by Roald Dahl.   For much of the song it is almost a solo piece by Carole with her vocal and fiddle supported by organ.  The song builds up tension as the story is revealed.  Carole's vocals are quite intense and if I may say this as a kind of complement, as one might imagine witches which may be appropriate to the music of course.  Indeed Toni and Davy Arthur took this element further in their traditional album entitled 'Hearken to the Witches Rune'.

The emergence of traditional English music

Interestingly Ashley Hutchings was originally going to be part of the band when the first line up of Steeleye Span fell apart and was credited as having co-wrote two of the albums songs.  Hutchings had been an original founder member of Fairport Convention and after releasing the seminal 'Lief and Liege' had left to pursue more traditional music of that style.  He formed the original line up of Steeleye Span who explored similar music to Mr Fox but did so with conventional band instrumentation.  When the second line-up of Steeleye Span was being formed with Martin Carthy added but without Terry and Gay Woods he abandoned plans to join Mr Fox and went back to them.  This left Bob Pegg very unhappy however perhaps it is indicative of the restless spirit of Ashley Hutchings.  Indeed after three albums with Steeleye Span before any major commercial success he left the second band he had co-founded and started to relentlessly champion traditional English music through The Albion Country Band formed as a one-off band at first to back his then wife Shirley Collins on her album 'No Roses' before turning this into the leading band of its type.  When this fell apart he formed The Etchingham Steam band as a stop-gap and then reformed his earlier band as 'The Albion Dance Band' under which band he found success.  This lineage matters as Mr Fox now sounds like a fore runner of these traditional bands and it is quite likely that Ashley Hutchings took a lot of Mr Fox to heart in his development of a purely English (rather than Irish derived) traditionally based folk music.

Moving Forward into the next phase

Although live problems persisted and the album didn't sell as hoped the band did continue although shedding the atmospheric work of Barry Lyons on cello and John Myatt on woodwinds for financial reasons.  Perhaps inevitably under such duress the marriage of Carole and Bob Pegg was under significant strain but somehow the band still came together to record a second album for Transatlantic in 1971.  This album was entitled 'The Gipsy' and although not as broad in instrumentation still found the band musically in rude health.  Each musician contributed more widely to the sound now and there was more overdubbing.  For example Barry Lyons went from just electric bass to also playing dulcimer and records as well as singing.

The second album started impressively with the twelve minute epic 'The Gipsy' which was a most atmospheric story with Bob's vocals and a sustained air of tension and expectation.  'Mendle' was a strange almost psychedelic track perhaps due to mixing but with a droning, hazy quality.  Aunt Lucy Broadwood was a whimsical vocal piece that now sounds like a comical and queasy form of rap.  'House Carpenter' introduced Bob Pegg playing acoustic guitar and wonderful extended instrumental sections led by tin whistle bound together by a lilting vocal from Carole.  'Dancing Song' was an accordion and fiddle based Morris dancing song that again was in the idiom further explored by Ashley Hutchings and John Kirkpatrick on their wonderful 'The Complete Dancing Master'

Listening to the last song on the album is very poignant as it effectively marked the end of the band.  It was a communally sung version of 'All The Good Times (Are Had and gone).  It tells at once of the changing environment, the lost of the rural  Dales and implied within it is the end of a musical era too.  The band would soon be no more.  If at the end of The Wicker Man instead of being burned in pagan sacrifice Sgt Howie had escaped and doomed the remote community to drought and starvation, you can imagine this song in the place of 'Summer Is A Cummin' In'  It is desperately sad and a fitting end.

Leaving behind Mr Fox

By the end of the band in only 1972 it is fair to say everybody was exhausted, both financially and bodily.  The impossible dream held by the band to champion English traditional music would pass to Ashley Hutchings but Mr Fox would not be forgotten and their influence would resonate onwards.  It is perhaps impossible to disentangle the end of the band from the end of Bob and Carole's marriage but thankfully this is a story that does just stop here.

Carole by now had a child and was living in London, busking and working but at the same time recording a solo album for Transatlantic under her new name of 'Carolanne Pegg' which was released in 1973.  This album was an evolution taking in Mr Fox styled folk (Sapphire) but also folk-rock, pop and even some country elements allowing in such new instruments as electric piano.  The album was cathartic and details Carolanne rebuilding her life and deciding where she wanted to go in future.  If an interest in magic had perhaps been implicit in Carole's earlier work it now was acknowledged on tracks like 'A Wtiches Guide To The Underground'.  The album almost reached the same point as Sandy Denny's solo work and prefigures Kate Bush to a certain extent.  After her solo album Carolanne formed a friendship with Graham Bond, the blues/jazz keyboardist who had a deep obsession with magic.  Together they formed Magus but Bond was unstable mentally and the partnership did not last.  Carolanne then traveled extensively in Mongolia before becoming a recognised academic in this field.  Carolanne now uses her original forename again and in the last year has talked of recording once more.

Bob recorded three albums on Transatlantic with Nick Strutt during 1973 to 1975 which pioneered using brass in a folk context and a concept album about ship building  before moving his musical efforts into education. He wrote two books on British and European customs and traditions during the early 1980s.  He developed the 'Roots and Flutes' story telling show which is performed in conjunction with youth drama projects.  In 1990 Bob moved to the Highlands of Scotland and released a wonderful solo album that spans his career in style and origin.  More information on Bob can be found at http://www.rhiannonrecords.co.uk/text/bpegg.html

The Legacy

Mr Fox made some of the most overtly traditional and English folk music at a time when electrification was increasingly the norm.  In their appreciation of traditions, folklore and the past they showed a continuity.  They also pioneered a darker, more stark music that was raw and authentic, an uncompromised voice amongst media overload.  With the passing of years we can see the band as central and pivotal to the emergence of traditional folk music.  By pioneering a very local, rural English folk music they were part of a small number of musicians creating a new form.  Traditional folk music in the UK until that point had drawn more from Ireland than England and the growth of Scottish Celtic folk music also was emerging.  Without any element of xenophobia Mr Fox showed that you can appreciate and have pride in your lineage and culture.  However ultimately the legacy of course is musical and we have a source of fantastic music for the future.

Buying Mr Fox

Both the Mr Fox albums were reissued on a double LP in 1977 and on a single CD in 1998.  The CD while excellent and utterly essential unfortunately misses out the excellent 'Mendle' which has been compiled separately on Transatlantic's 'Children of the Sun' double CD.  Both albums have been reissued in their entirety on the Italian 'Get Back' label and are available through record importers.

In 2005 both albums were reissued on the 'Join Us In Our Game' double CD set.

Carolanne Pegg's solo album was reissued on CD in 1998 but is often quite elusive.

The pre-Mr Fox duo albums and Bob Pegg's solo albums are often quite hard to track down, the best sources I know of are to be found within the web site by clicking here.

'All The Good Times' and 'Little Woman' were both compiled on the 'Lammas Night Laments' sampler compilation CDrs available through this web site.  To read more about these CDs please click here.

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Mr Fox - The Hanged Man

Mr Fox - Mendle