There are few records that can claim to have made a lasting impact on the world of music, but a handful of them have had Ashley Hutchings as one of the ingredients. After all, he was a founding member of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and the Albion Band, and if anyone deserves the title "inventor of folk rock" (folk rock used here to mean electrified folk music), it is he.

Ashley Hutchings could also be seen as the main architect behind the rising interest in traditional morris dancing in England (and elsewhere, I might add) over the last 30 years. Without him morris dancing would probably still be something enjoyed by a small circle, ridiculed by others. (ed. note: Morris dancing is an English tradition wherein men dress in bizarre costumes, wear bells and dance. Its history is obscure and cloudy... but it's lots of fun.)

This year's Cropredy Festival bore witness to this. 18,000 people cheered when Hutchings and his latest incarnation of a morris band gave them about 80 minutes of electrified morris music, including two dance teams. 30 years ago anyone attempting something like it would have run the risk of being booed off the stage.

It all started in Hutchings’ late Steeleye days. At the time, he often visited Cecil Sharp House, the home of The English Folk Dance and Song Society, to search their archives for material. One day he stumbled across a recording of William Kimber playing a morris tune. He loved it. It was melodic and had a simplistic charm to it. He asked for more recordings, but was told this was it. Asking whom he could contact to learn more about this music, he was told to get in touch with John Kirkpatrick, squeeze box expert and also a fine traditional singer.

Hutchings and Kirkpatrick hit it off musically, but still it came as a big surprise to Kirkpatrick when Hutchings declared his intention of making an album of morris music. And he was even more surprised when Hutchings declared that it would be an electric morris album. No one had ever heard of such a thing. Who would be interested in buying that? Kirkpatrick would soon be astonished by how many people actually were.

Morris On was released by Island as a mid-priced album with their HELP-suffix in 1972. Hutchings had gathered an all-star band including himself, Kirkpatrick, Richard Thompson on guitars, Barry Dransfield on vocals, fiddle and guitar and Dave Mattacks on drums. There were a few guests as well, most notably one Shirley Hutchings, better known as Shirley Collins. And for the first time in folk rock history there were dancers on an album. Ray Worman and the Chingford Morris Men performed morris dances. With bells attached to their legs and sticks in their hands, they can be heard on several tracks.

The album opens with a "Morris Call," at first just a fiddle, but soon the band is there with full force. And, yes, Hutchings was right: Traditional morris music works very well with drums, bass and electric guitar.

Morris On is an album filled with classic tracks. Of course there are the electric, but also sensitive treatments of a number of the classic dance tunes, like "Greensleeves" (not the song of the same name), "Shepherds’ Hey" and "Princess Royal." But it is also an album with a lot of good songs. Shirley Hutchings sings two of them: a majestic version of "Staines Morris," a song which the Full House lineup of Fairport Convention used in its shows, and a more subdued "Willow Tree." Kirkpatrick and Dransfield also supply a couple of songs: "The Nutting Girl" and "I’ll Go and List for a Sailor," both sung a capella, and the rather "dirty" "Cuckoo’s Nest."

Morris On is a classic album in every sense of the word. It has good songs and tunes, it is well played and produced, and it had a groundbreaking effect in musical circles. But still it was considered a one-off. Ashley Hutchings went on to form the Albion Band, first as the Albion Country Band, later as the Albion Dance Band, playing English dance music. Kirkpatrick continued as a duo with his wife Sue Harris and was also a member of Steeleye Span for a short period.

In 1976 it was time for Son of Morris On. But this time there was no Kirkpatrick present. Instead Hutchings used members from the Albion Dance Band and a few friends to make the album. So you get Simon Nicol on guitar, Phil Pickett on various pipes and woodwinds, Michael Gregory on drums, John Watcham on concertina and John Tams on vocals and concertina. Guests included Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, using her maiden name this time, and Ian Cutler. Dancing on the album are the Albion Morris Men and the Adderbury Village Morris Men, who also sing one song.

Son of Morris On is as fine an album as its predecessor, but since it all had been done before it did not have the same impact. In spite of this it still stands up well for itself almost 30 years after its first release. The instrumentals are as powerful as on the first one and there are plenty of good songs on it. "The Postman’s Knock," sung here by Carthy, could be considered a semi-classic, and with Hutchings working as postman in the 1970s in between bands, it could also be seen as a subtle joke on him. "As I Was Going to Banbury," sung by Tams, is another great track, a nonsense song ending with, "If you want any more you’ll have to sing it yourself."

It is also a varied album, with Carthy performing "Old Hog or None" solo on acoustic guitar and Tams and Collins performing an old broadsheet ballad as a spoken dialogue. And for Fairport fans there is a real gem, "The Happy Man," performed by the Adderbury Village Morris Men.

The only question is: Why did it take 27 years for the album to get a proper CD release?

You could joke and say that the gap between generations is often about a quarter of a century. Therefore it is suitable that Grandson of Morris On appeared 26 years later, in 2002. It was researched and put together by Hutchings with the invaluable help of Chris Leslie and melodeonist Simon Care.

In spite of it being based on music there are quite a few differences between Grandson of Morris On and the two first albums.

The first difference is the band. On both the original Morris On album and on Son of... you have the same backing band on almost all the tracks. Here there are a lot of different players. Neil Marshall and Jim Walker take turns at the drums; Jon Moore, Simon Nicol, Ken Nicol and Phil Beer share guitar responsibilities; and Simon Care is but one of seven featured melodeon players. Martin Brinsford, of Brass Monkey fame, features quite regularly on different instruments, as do Chris Leslie and Ric Sanders.

The second difference is the appearance of non-traditional tracks. There is "Le Halle Place" by Chris Leslie, a set with all three tunes; "Horatio," written by Dave Whetstone (one of the guests on the album); "Mr Thrill’s Song" by Hutchings and Bob Pegg; "Four Up" by Barry Goodman (another guest); and a sort of manifesto called "This is the Morris My Friend," by Hutchings and Care. It is the story of the Morris On albums, starting with, "In 1971 five lads got a notion to have them some fun / A record appeared which was called Morris On / It knocked people out and hit number one."

Overall, Grandson... is also a more acoustic album than the others. There are many tracks that do not feature any drums, but do not take this as criticism. It is still a very fine album. Had it been the first in a series it would have stirred up a sensation.

Luckily we did not have to wait another 26 years for Great Grandson of Morris On, as it was released in the spring of 2004.

The album knocks off with "At the May Day Celebrations," featuring the band that toured England in 2004 with Hutchings’ morris music shows. It is another "all-star band" with Roger Wilson on vocals and fiddle, Ken Nicol (Albion Band and now Steeleye Span) on guitars, Simon Care on melodeon and concertina, Hutchings himself and Guy Fletcher (Little Johnny England) on drums -- a band well worthy of performing songs from all the Morris On albums.

The whole band plays on more than half the tracks and they do a very fine job. When they get going you get the same feeling as with the first Morris On band.

There are guests on this album as well. John Spiers and Jon Boden perform a two-tune set, John Shepherd has a couple of solo keyboard pieces and joins the band at times, and Judy Dunlop does a very fine a capella version of "First Day at t’Mill", written by Mabel Harrison and Bernard Wrigley.

But still, the highlights of the album are the tracks with the full band. They are heavy, loud and a lot of fun. It feels like a true continuance of what started in 1972.

So which one do you chose? Well, to be honest, if you like this kind of music, all four are a must. In spite of the gaps between making these albums and the ever-changing lineup, there is a wholeness about this project. It is remarkable how Hutchings can make his version of morris music sound as fresh and innovative in 2004 as it did in 1972. That is a great feat. Here he has managed to create four true classics. Enjoy them all and remember what it says on the back cover of Son of Morris On: "This record to be played Loud."

There are three albums closely related to the Morris On series. In 1974, Kirkpatrick and Hutchings made The Compleat Dancing Master. For the project they brought along 28 guests, including Phil Pickett, Simon Nicol, Dave Mattacks, Sue Harris and Peter Knight. The ambition was to cover seven centuries of dance music in England and combine the music with excerpts from literature describing dance.

The result was a very varied album, with everything from the almost Morris On-like rock of "Haste You to the Wedding" to ""The Dashing White Sergeant/The Devil Among the Tailors," performed by viols, woodwinds and rolling drums. And best of all is Bernard Hepton reading Puritan William Prynne’s savage verbal assault on dancing, calling for it to outlawed.

In 1976, when Hutchings made Son of Morris On, Kirkpatrick collected four friends, Sue Harris, Martin Carthy, Martin Brinsford and Fi Fraser, to record an acoustic and more traditionally oriented morris album, Plain Capers. It came complete with notes on the tunes and the history of morris dance and its revival. It is an album for those who want to get behind the folk rock of the Morris On albums and find out more about how the music originally sounded.

Maybe it was his appearance on Grandson of Morris On that inspired Chris Leslie to record his own album of morris music, Dancing Days, in 2003. Over 15 tracks he gives us more than 25 morris tunes, both well known ones and hidden gems. The album is mostly Leslie by himself, sometimes double-tracked. But there are guest appearances by all present Fairport members and Mr. Hutchings turns up on one set. A fine low key album.