After departing Fairport Convention in 1969, it didn’t take Ashley Hutchings long to come across folk duo Maddy Prior and Tim Hart and decide to form a new band with them and Terry and Gay Woods. The album was recorded and the band promptly imploded. But, Tim wasn’t going to be dissuaded as he felt that the band had a future, and managed to convince Martin Carthy to become involved. Martin was already a huge figure on the folk scene by this time, and had released numerous albums. With Maddy on vocals, Tim and Martin on guitars, Ashley on bass and multi-instrumentalist Peter Knight, they returned to the studio and cut this, the second album, which was released in 1971. Although they were at heart a folk group, they were also playing electric instruments to create a folk-rock sound, but what was unusual for any rock group is that they didn’t use drums or percussion.
Just to show that this was a new band out of the gate, they opened with the traditional song “The Blacksmith’, which had also featured on the debut album with a totally different arrangement. Listening to this album again many years after I first heard it I wasn’t surprised to find that it did seem a little dated, but that is only because they literally don’t make albums like this anymore. The guitars are reminiscent of Richard Thompson and it is interesting that although Ashley had left Fairport behind, he was still using some of the sounds, and of course after he left Steeleye borrowed some of the personnel for his own projects, something he has continued to the present day.
This 2016 reissue is a digipak with some interesting notes from Ashley, and I certainly enjoyed playing it again some 47 years on from when it was recorded. Steeleye were going to become an important part of the folk rock scene in the UK, and although this was their second album, this was where it really started.
