Folk music
in the US is viewed as an innocent, pastoral indulgence with roots in rural
life. Its lilt between twittering energy
and melancholy not for everyone, there was, however, a time when it reached the
heights of popularity—Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon & Garfunkel, Carly Simon,
and others big names of the 60s and 70s counter-culture movement. In England, however, folk music has added
dimensions. Celtic history forever
lingering in the background, the music can likewise have pagan undertones—the
spirits of forest and meadow tucked into the melodies and lyrics. Bringing together a folk band and the
counter-culture movement in England in the early 70s, Elizabeth Hand’s Wylding Hall (2015, Open Road Media) is
not only a beautifully written piece of nostalgia, but also a story about the
essences of an age past that still haunt the bucolic reaches of England’s
countryside.
Flower
power with dark undercurrents, Wylding
Hall is written in documentary format.
Akin to VH1’s Storyteller
series, the novel steadily rotates through the recollections of the members of
Windhollow Faire and the making of their smash hit album Wylding Hall. Some just
teenagers when they joined the band, one magical summer in the deep countryside
of England at a worn down manor changes their lives forever. Freedom, music, poetry, and a little hashish
in the air, the light and joy of creation is offset by the shadows of Wylding
Hall. Amidst the fun, unexplainable
events offset what could be the greatest summer of their lives.
