The Original Sandy Denny

This album has had a few titles. You will find it in all sorts of guises. When I bought it, I had all the more Folky Sandy Denny albums already. North Star Grassman, Fotheringay, the first one. I didn't have Rendezvous at that time, or Old Fashioned Waltz. Largely due to a mortal fear of commercialism.

But this album seemed to come out of the ark.

First off was pricing. It was priced like a relic nobody is interested in, something ancient and unloved, and it still is. Whatever form you get this album in, it's always cheap as er.. chips I suppose.

Next it had some genuinely historical sounding material. "Been on the road so long" sounds like it was sung by Noah, or at the very least like a library recording from the East Anglian Folk society.. But once I got used to all that, I realised this is one of Sandy's best albums, and I would say there are one or two very fine songs on here....

Milk and Honey and The False Bride are the two best, whilst You Never Wanted Me is a chilling breakup ballad and there is a truly blood-curdling version of 3:10 to Yuma.

The False Bride is a song that can never have been sung so well. Sandy's voice is stunning. Her technique is beyond description and then you can add the understated emotion. For Sandy, drama is never dealt with through hystrionics, but with those intense moments immediately followed by sudden moments of faintness when she sounds like an uncertain 13 year old, wounded in love.

How it starts:-
"I once loved a lass, and I loved her so well,
And I hated all others who spoke of her ill,
And now she's rewarded me well for my love,
For she's gone and she's wed another."

In the wrong hands, folk songs like this can seem cloying and nostalgic. I've heard similar songs handled like council projects. Sandy, however, treats this song as though it happened to her, and never at any point are you left thinking... "hang on, she's a girl!". She has this ability to live the song. She is reminiscent of Maria Callas, great technique and a wonderful voice but also with emotions that seem genuine. By turns tender and ferocious.

In fact, despite her powerful voice, it is Sandy's tenderness that always stands out, and it's that which sets her apart. Emotion is handled as though she were trying her hardest to suppress it, rather than make a point of it, and I think it is this quality on it's own that sets her apart from all other singers in this genre.

Milk and Honey, too, is such a beautiful song:
Gold and silver is the autumn
Soft and gentle are her skies
Yes and no are the answers
Written in my true love's eyes......

It's a little bit wounded, I suppose, and parts are like the Old Testament. But if I had to pick 10 out and out Folk albums to save for the next life, this would certainly be one of them.