Giles Farnaby's Dream Band was a collaboration between the early music ensemble St. George’s Canzona, Derby-based folk group The Druids, and Trevor Crozier’s 'Broken Consort'. They were backed by three jazz musicians: Jeff Clyne

Jeff Clyne

Jeffrey Ovid 'Jeff' Clyne was a British jazz bassist .-Biography:...

 (bass guitar), Dave MacRae

Dave MacRae

David Scott MacRae is a keyboardist from New Zealand, noted for his contributions in jazz and the Canterbury scene....

 (electric piano) and Trevor Tomkins

Trevor Tomkins

Trevor Ramsey Tomkins is an English jazz drummer best known for his work in a number of British bands in the 1970s, including Gilgamesh.His recorded several albums with pianist Michael Garrick in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

 (drums).

The album title is a pun on the piece ‘Giles Farnabys Dreame’ by the renaissance composer Giles Farnaby

Giles Farnaby

Giles Farnaby was an English composer and virginalist of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.-Life:Giles Farnaby was born about 1563, perhaps in Truro, Cornwall, England or near London. His father, Thomas, was a Cittizen and Joyner of London, and Giles may have been related to Thomas Farnaby , the...

.

The album largely consists of renaissance dance tunes played on a combination of early and modern instruments. This prefigures some of the work later undertaken by the Albion Band and Home Service

Home Service

Home Service are a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album Alright Jack, which is usually considered one of the finest products of the electric folk...

. It is chiefly notable for its experimental nature, demonstrating some of the diverse attempts at fusion at the time which resulted in sub-genres such as folk jazz

Folk jazz

Folk jazz is a broad term for music that pairs traditional folk music with elements of jazz music, featuring richly elaborated songs whose textures are rooted in both styles....

 and medieval folk rock

Medieval folk rock

Medieval folk rock, medieval rock or medieval folk is a musical sub-genre that emerged in the early 1970s in England and Germany which combined elements of early music with rock music. It grew out of the electric folk and progressive folk movements of the later 1960s...

. It is most similar in its sound to medieval folk and progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 bands like Gryphon

Gryphon (band)

Gryphon were a British progressive rock band of the 1970s, best known for their unusual Medieval sound and instrumentation.-Career:Multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey and his fellow Royal College of Music graduate Brian Gulland, a woodwind player, began the group as an all-acoustic ensemble that...

 and Gentle Giant

Gentle Giant

Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members. All of the band members, except the first two drummers, were multi-instrumentalists...

. The rarity of the album has made it the subject of enthusiasm for some collectors.

The song ‘Newcastle Brown’ was subsequently released as a single (Argo, AFW112, 1973).

The album was reissued as a CD in 2004 (Walhalla, WH90324, 2004)

Musicians

• St. George’s Canzona,
• The Druids
• Trevor Crozier’s Broken Consort,
• Jeff Clyne
  Jeff Clyne
  Jeffrey Ovid 'Jeff' Clyne was a British jazz bassist .-Biography:...
  
   (bass guitar)
• Dave MacRae
  Dave MacRae
  David Scott MacRae is a keyboardist from New Zealand, noted for his contributions in jazz and the Canterbury scene....
  
   (electric piano)
• Trevor Tomkins
  Trevor Tomkins
  Trevor Ramsey Tomkins is an English jazz drummer best known for his work in a number of British bands in the 1970s, including Gilgamesh.His recorded several albums with pianist Michael Garrick in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
  
   (drums).

Track listing

1. ‘The Hare's Maggot’
2. ‘Rufty Tufty’ / ‘Beau Stratagem’ / ‘Appley House’
3. ‘The Hole In The Wall’ / ‘The Chirping Of The Nightingale’
4. ‘Pastime with Good Company
   Pastime with Good Company
   "Pastime with Good Company", also known as "The King's Ballad" , is an English folk song written by King Henry VIII in the first years of the 16th century, shortly after being crowned. It is regarded as the most famous of his compositions, and it became a popular song in England and other European...
   
   ’
5. ‘Daphne’ / ‘Nonsuch’ / ‘Jack's Maggot’ / ‘Childgrove’
6. ‘Shrewsbury Lasses’
7. ‘Newcastle Brown’
8. ‘Helston Furry Dance
   Furry Dance
   The Furry Dance, also known as The Flora , takes place in Helston, Cornwall, and is one of the oldest British customs still practised today...
   
   ’ / ‘Picking Of Sticks’ / ‘The Butterfly’
9. ‘The Indian Queen’
10. ‘The Happy Clown’
11. ‘Ratcliffe Highway’
12. ‘The Twenty Ninth of May'
13. ‘The Black Nag’ / ‘Poor Robins' Maggot’ / ‘Greensleeves
    Greensleeves
    "Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of...
    
    ’
14. ‘Portabella’
15. ‘The Draper's Maggot’ / ‘Tower Hill’
16. ‘Mr. Beveridge's Maggot’ / ‘The British Toper’ / ‘London's Glory’