A founding member of the Incredible String Band, Clive Palmer sustained his engagement with Scotland’s folk traditions through solo work and his groups the Famous Jug Band and Clive’s Original Band. In 1999 he rejoined fellow Incredible String Band founder Robin Williamson for a United Kingdom tour and two duo albums, At the Pure Fountain and Just Like the Ivy—their first joint activity in more than thirty years. The pair had initially met amid the British folk revival of the early 1960s. Several selections from their 1963 appearance at the Edinburgh Folk Festival appeared on a Decca multi-artist compilation. After establishing the Incredible String Band in 1965, they continued performing as a duo until multi-instrumentalist Mike Heron joined, at which point the trio recorded its debut album. Elektra owner and producer Joe Boyd later observed, “they were taking Scots songs that hadn’t necessarily made the trip over the Appalachians and playing them as if they had.” Palmer departed the group soon after that release and relocated to India. Upon his return to the U.K. he assembled the Famous Jug Band alongside vocalist Jill Johnson, guitarist Pete Berryman, and jug player Henry Bartlett; the ensemble issued its only album, Sunshine Possibilities, in 1969. The following year Palmer launched Clive’s Original Band with banjo player John Bidwell and percussionist Mick Bennett, whose first record, Spirit of Love, came out in 1971 and was succeeded in 1972 by Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart. In 1978 he contributed guitar to Pete Berryman’s album And Guitar.
