This band doesn’t cease to amaze me. The Mammals - Way Down the Old Plank Road, an American folk song
Lady Margaret. Someone I knew, who doesn’t much care for English folk music, didn’t like this song too much. I think it’s amazing, and shows how powerful simple rhythms (the stark banjo playing) and unison harmonies can be. I’m thinking I maybe hear a bit of sitar—the arrangement seems influenced by some of Pentangle’s renditions of other English folk songs. On this album (which is their first studio album) they also have a version of House Carpenter, though different from Pentangle’s.
Later on, after beginning with mostly covers, they hid their own protest songs which they wouldn’t be the Mammals without (including a timely one where Mike Merenda sings about gas that’s fifteen dollars a gallon!), and (part of?) Eisenhower’s farewell address set to music. Earlier on, Ruth Ungar sings Stairway to the Stars accompanied by a lone ukulele. Overall it is quite an eclectic album.
