Fotheringay

Apologies to anyone who checks in here regularly for my absence for a few days. This was partly sloth, partly some unexciting records being released 50 years ago, and partly because I’ve been writing other things.

Fotheringay was formed by Sandy Denny after her departure from Fairport Convention, essentially as a vehicle for her voice and songs, though also for her soon-to-be husband Trevor Lucas. It’s another album I used to have but sold. 1st editions are gaining in value, but mine was later.

I sold it because I rarely, if ever, played it; and I rarely played it because I didn’t get much out of it, even though it has quite a following. It was interesting to hear it again having recently listened to to some of the other ‘big’ folk albums of 1970, from Fairport Convention, Mr Fox, Trees, Steeleye Span and Robin and Barry Dransfield.

TL:DR I don’t think Fotheringay stands up especially well. It sounds more dated than early Steeleye, and the Dransfields, who stuck closer to ‘the tradition’; and it doesn’t have the kick of Trees or Shelagh McDonald or the strangeness of Mr Fox. Fotheringay is decent, tasteful, but unadventurous.

The strong point is Denny’s songwriting and vocals. Lucas’s songs less so: The Ballad of Ned Kelly is reminiscent of The Band, but The Band would have injected some life into it. The centrepiece of the album is Denny’s eight-minute version of The Banks of the Nile, and had she performed it unaccompanied as, say, Annie Briggs would have done, it would be fabulous. Unfortunately the rest of the band join in and detract from Denny’s performance rather than add to it.

On Spotify and YouTube.