Ed Sheeran spotlights Allan Taylor’s long-overlooked 1978 folk album

Ed Sheeran’s praise has pushed Allan Taylor’s 1978 folk LP The Traveller back into circulation, turning a long-overlooked record into a fresh talking point for listeners, collectors and labels. The album was cut at Impulse Studios, released on Rubber Records and later earned the Grand Prix du Disque de Montreaux for best European album, yet it spent decades far from the mainstream conversation.

Sheeran, who has sold 200 million records worldwide, found the album in a New York second-hand record shop and singled it out as a favorite. That kind of star endorsement can change the market overnight: an old pressing suddenly looks desirable again, copies become harder to find, and a back-catalog title that once lived in the margins can re-enter public life with a new audience attached to it.

For Allan Taylor, the renewed attention lands at a moment of personal retreat. Born on 30 September 1945 in Brighton, England, Taylor has spent about 60 years on the folk scene and said on 27 March 2026 that he was retiring from the road because of ongoing health problems. He had already completed his final European tours last year and cancelled planned UK gigs, closing a touring chapter that stretched across generations of folk audiences.

The Traveller sits near the center of that career. Taylor’s official discography traces a path from Sometimes and The Lady in 1971 to The American Album in 1973, then The Traveller in 1978, followed by Roll On The Day in 1980, Circle Round Again in 1983 and Win Or Lose in 1984. Recorded with Geoff Heslop and Taylor himself at the controls, the 10-track LP carries the kind of detail collectors prize when an album is rediscovered decades later.

That matters because delayed recognition changes the economics of an artist’s work. A record once known mainly to dedicated folk listeners can suddenly attract new streaming attention, renewed press interest and a rush on second-hand copies, while the artist’s catalog gains a second life without the usual machinery of a new release. Taylor’s official site calls him a premier performer on the European folk scene, and Sheeran’s discovery has now given one of his most celebrated records a late and very public return.