The Imagined Village

by James Christopher Monger
Organized by Simon Emmerson of the Afro Celt Sound System, the Imagined Village project boasts an eclectic ensemble of musicians reinterpreting traditional songs through a modernist sieve. The talented cast of characters includes Emmerson, Billy Bragg, Tiger Moth, Johnny Kalsi, Sheila Chandra, the Copper Family, Paul Weller, Benjamin Zephaniah, Transglobal Underground, Tunng, Chris Wood, the Gloworms, the Dhol Foundation, and Martin and Eliza Carthy. The collective took its name from the 1993 book The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology and the English Folk Revival by author Georgina Boyes, and released its eponymous full-length debut on the Real World label in 2007.