Jon Boden: All the Stars are Coming Out Tonight

M Magazine interviewed Jon Boden last week:

‘The future of folk is hanging in the balance, and is in danger of turning into just another branch of the performing arts… passively consumed by the audience rather than being a participatory social art form,’ warns Jon Boden, ex-frontman, composer and arranger with Bellowhead. 

As a leading light in the British folk scene, over the years he’s added to our nation’s canon while also exhuming forgotten works for contemporary audiences. 

It’s an endeavour that has seen him pick up many plaudits along the way, not least from the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, which has bestowed him with 12 statues for his efforts.
Since Bellowhead’s official split last year, Jon’s been working on the follow-up to his 2009 solo album Songs From the Floodplain,  with the stunning results landing on 6 October. 

Called Afterglow, it’s a concept album – and part of a trilogy inspired by post-apocalyptic literature and a post-oil future.

Post-apocalyptic and post-oil were very much in the air in the late 1970s. You can find them, for instance, in Jethro Tull's 1979 LP Stormwatch, which is the darkest and least remembered of their folk-rock trilogy.

All the Stars are Coming Out Tonight is my Sunday music video. It comes from Boden's new album Afterglow.

I have chosen it, not only because it sounds good, but also because Boden told M Magazine:

Literary inspirations were many and various! After London by Richard Jefferies is a touchstone...