A LABOUR of love, some five years in the making, Imagined Village has come to fruition at a good time.

Folk, finally, thankfully, surprisingly, is cool. And people have woken up to the fact that world music can include, yes, even English music.

So Simon Emmerson, formerly of Afro Celt Sound System, and ex-Essex agitpropster Billy Bragg, both now very much rooted in West Dorset, bring a stellar, multi-cultural collection of highly-talented musicians translating old songs for a 21st century audience to a town that epitomises the symbiosis of tradition and modernity.

Bragg, resplendent in costermonger-style pearly suit, sings of second-homers, foot and mouth and the tyranny of Tesco.

Martin Carthy, meanwhile, has a ball on John Barleycorn, and ebullient daughter Eliza is an absolute star throughout, obviously revelling in the project.

Emmerson's Pilsdon Pen, a pulsating paean to the Iron Age hill fort overlooking Marshwood Vale, is followed by a nature quiz involving audience participation - and some gentle barbs from Bragg at his birdwatching collaborator.

Emmerson's mock indignance at the too-trite dismissal of twitchers as anoraks could just as easily apply to the bearded sandal-wearing cliche of your traditional folkie.

But Benjamin Zephaniah's version of Tam Lyn shows that Imagined Village are determined to achieve their stated aim of giving English folk music the kind of kick-start that followed the Fairports' hugely influential Liege and Lief nearly 40 years ago. They may just pull it off: I do hope so.