The Times They Are a-Changin'

Though they rose from the working-class town of Birmingham and were adept translators of the British folk tradition, the Ian Campbell Folk Group had more in common with American folk collectives like the Weavers, the Big Three, and the Kingston Trio than they did Ewan MacColl or Pentangle. Castle/Sanctuary's sprawling 62-track anthology The Times They Are A-Changin' covers the familial folk collective's prolific '60s period. The Ian Campbell Folk Group mined sparse traditional ballads like "The Unquiet Grave" and "Green Grow the Rushes" with the kind of authenticity normally reserved for an artist/scholar like A.L. Lloyd, but it was their more populist recordings and covers of some of the era's most noted works — Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," Gordon Lightfoot's "I'm Not Saying," the classic Bob Dylan song that serves as the collection's namesake — that brought them worldwide success. Whether it was political folk ("Death Comes Easy"), rustic instrumentals ("Rocky Road to Dublin"), or their own self-penned brand of fireside folk ("Remember Me"), Campbell and his rotating cast of musicians — including Dave Swarbick, Lorna Campbell, and Dave Pegg — made some truly soulful recordings, and it's about time that they received the deluxe treatment shown here.