Who likes folk music for total pussies?

Well, I do, and at the moment I can’t get enough of Dando Shaft. The Shaft – as I’ve been affectionately referring to them as for the last few minutes – emerged in the U.K. around the same time that Pentangle and Fairport Convention were busy birthing and abandoning various incarnations of folk rock. Dando Shaft, however, injected a significant amount of the San Francisco ethos – if not the sound – into their songs, making a delicious California cheeseburger out of the mess their peers left behind. The conclusive and often gooey evidence of this distinct approach is all over their self-titled second album, which was released in 1971 on RCA/Neon. “Coming Home to Me” opens the record with layers of acoustic guitars, a spare rhythm section, and a vocal duet that’s pure Englishness still surprises me every time I put on the record. More remarkable than this Haight-Ashbury ensconced Englishness, however, is the oft mentioned “unique” quality of Polly Bolton’s voice. This seems to be a polite euphemism for what might more accurately be referred to as an unadulterated lisp. I sometimes imagine that the volatile emotion in her voice, especially on the gorgeous “Riverboat,” is a result of growing up in a time before every elementary school had a speech therapist on staff. I’m sure those crumpet munching little monsters in post-war England’s blackboard jungles were cruel. Oh so cruel. But, as they say, that (alleged) loss was Dando Shaft’s (and our) gain, and together they created an album that – even at its most derivative – is rendered interesting by a mere well placed backing vocal or unexpected melodic turn. This is a considerable feat, and it should have secured the band a more prominent place in the history of U.K. folk rock, for there is a significant amount of musical knowledge to be gained from an intimate engagement with this album. It is fitting, then, that the final line of the final song (“Prayer”) implores: “Teach me how to grow.” I believe that we, in our explorations of these vast musical landscapes, seek growth, and who better to teach us to grow than the Shaft? Damn right.