Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas which, when executed with precision, reap the most rewards. Such is Positively Folk Street, where Steve Knightley, once one half of U.K. folk and acoustic standard bearers Show of Hands, looks back to those initial influences, the ones that sparked up his dedication and desire to pursue a career in their footsteps.
As a callow youth, picking up a guitar in his teens, Knightley was of the right age to latch right onto the acoustic charm of early Dylan, principally The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. As he says, “I had no idea Dylan had drawn so deeply from our own folk tradition to shape many of his songs,” That point was hammered home as he then encountered Martin Carthy, at Sidmouth’s famous folk festival, hearing earlier “versions” of those self same songs. (Carthy was name-checked on the cover of Dylan’s breakthrough album, if not formally credited with any the songs or their arrangements, but the two of them have subsequently made up and remain friends.) On Positively Folk Street, Knightley celebrates both, with a selection of songs made famous by either.
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