Several years in the making, The Imagined Village is a collaboration between a varied group of musicians (with roots in many different types of music, from traditional folk to bhangra), brought together by Simon Emmerson, who wanted to explore their musical roots and identity as English musicians. The group includes Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Benjamin Zephaniah, Chris Wood, Johnny Kalsi, Martin Carthy, Paul Weller, Sheila Chandra, Simon Emmerson, The Copper Family, The Gloworms, Tiger Moth, Trans-Global Underground, Tunng.
Their first performance was at Womad in 2007, after which a nationwide tour in November. 2008 sees a number of festival appearance, including Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival.
In the 2008 Radio 2 Folk Awards they won Best Traditional Track (Cold Haily Rainy Night), and were the winners of three Hancock Awards in 2008: Best Album, Best Original Song (Cold Haily Rainy Night) and Best Traditional Song (Tam Lyn Retold).