Biography
In the mid-1960s, siblings Michael Raven and Jon Raven—both folk singer/scholars—joined Derek Craft to create the folk trio the Black Country Three. The group’s name alludes to a stretch of the English midlands framed by Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Staffordshire. In 1966 the threesome cut their self-titled debut album for Transatlantic, interspersing a handful of contemporary numbers, among them a version of a Bob Dylan piece, with pieces drawn from the traditional repertoire. Although the ensemble enjoyed success, it remained together for little more than two years. Across four decades the Raven brothers sustained careers as recording artists and performers while also working as authors, each producing extensive writings on the history, folklore, and music of the Midlands.