Album: Various artists, Three Score Years and Ten (Topic Records)

"Seventy years of the oldest independent label in Great Britain," it says, with truth on its side, the label being Topic and the three score years and 10 being the time they've taken to record the folk music of these islands.

It's a themed, non- chronological seven-disc set and it comes (for about £50) handsomely bound with words and pictures in abundance. Which is apt. If there is one thing about folk music which distinguishes it from any other musical form, it's the priority it gives to the narrative voice. Go not gently.