Folkal Point – s/t (Midas 1972)

Folkal Point was a wonderful acoustic folk group from Bristol, UK. They only released this sole album, but it’s a pure delight from start to finish. Folkal Point had one of the very best female vocalists I’ve ever heard in British folk, and that says a lot. Cherie Musialik (even her name is pure class!) had this upper-register vocal tone that was crystal clear, but she also had a very relaxed manner-of-fact way of singing. The material on this album is a combination of traditionals and cover songs. Check out songs like ‘Lovely Joan’, ‘Sweet Sir Gallahad’ and ‘Circle Game’, and cry of pure joy. ANY fan of traditional pastoral British folk will eat this stuff up! All the tracks are wonderful, and the instrumentation is just the way it should be on an album like this. The only drawback is that this album is extremely hard to find. Only 500 copies were pressed originally, and reportedly half of those were lost in a flood! Good luck finding one of those 500 copies, but thankfully the South Korean (!!) label ‘Merry Go Round’ took responsibility and re-released this rare masterpiece on LP in 2019. It sounds fantastic, and here you’ll also find liner notes and some pictures of the band. They all looked just as good as they sounded. Treat yourself with this album, while you put the kettle on and make yourself some fine hot British tea with a little sugar and honey. Mmmmm!