The Imagined Village is a sort of alt-folk collective, including some of the biggest names in the British folk movement, along with people from the pop and world music scenes (there is some overlap with membership of the Afro-Celt Sound System, but they are definitely different groups with somewhat different agendas) – they claim a degree of inspiration (for their name, if nothing else) from Georgina Boyes’ book of the same name, which I read and found deeply fascinating.
What I have heard from them has been consistently good, but this particular video from Benjamin Zephaniah is astonishingly powerful; in fact, I’d go so far as to say it feels positively Dionysian. I’d not heard of him before, but I certainly intend to hear more.
If you are not familiar with the ballad of Tam Lin, you can read up on it here – it’s critical to know the story to get the full power of the remake.
[edited to add: Mr. Zephaniah is a British writer and recording artist of Jamaican ancestry; based on what I’ve read so far, a comparison with Ishmael Reed might help American readers.]
sightless among miracles 