Despite a series of expanded editions a few years back, SANDY DENNY’S solo post-Fairport Convention/ Fotheringay catalogue has been crying out for the lavish deluxe re-issue treatment for years. Long since hailed as the First Lady of English Folk, the mercurial Wimbledon lass’s solo career was all too brief, yielding just four fully-fledged studio albums before her premature death aged 31 in 1978.
As with her contemporary Nick Drake, however, it’s quality not quantity that ought to be measured when considering Denny’s reputation. Her debut, 1971’s ‘North Star Grassman & The Ravens,’ came on the back of the Fairports’ groundbreaking (and still exhilarating) ‘Liege & Lief’, her high-profile guest slot on Led Zeppelin’s ‘Battle of Evermore’ and Fotheringay’s single under-rated LP. Her stock was high (at least critically) and the album showed her establishing her singer/ songwriter credentials with Richard Thompson’s steady hand on the production tiller.
Despite the glossy packaging and airbrushed David Bailey cover portrait, 1972’s ‘Sandy’ didn’t hit the commercial heights, though it got her a lot of airplay and a round of rave reviews. It nonetheless contains several of her most sublime moments (It’ll Take A Long Time, The Lady, the remarkable a capella setting of Richard Farina’s Quiet Joys of Brotherhood) and remains her most highly-regarded solo outing.
‘73’s ‘Like An Old Fashioned Waltz’ was melancholic and introspective, edging steadily further from Denny’s folk roots. String arrangements played a central role and again the album contained several key Denny numbers (Solo, the magnificent At The End Of The Day), as well as a couple of surprises such as the unlikely jazz-flecked cover of The Inkspots’ Whispering Grass.
Denny’s solo career was interrupted by a brief, but fruitful return to the Fairport fold for the well-received 1975 set ‘Rising For The Moon’, although (in a pattern now well-established), it failed to reap major commercial rewards. With her husband Trevor Lucas occupying the producer’s chair, Denny approached her final solo LP, 1977’s ‘Rendezvous’ with the pressure on. The world had changed; punk and disco dominated the charts and with her Island Records contract shortly up for renewal, Denny needed to produce the goods.
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As a result, ‘Rendezvous’ has often been viewed as perhaps her least successfully-realised album. The lavish production that dominated ‘Sandy’ returned, along with strings from Harry Robinson (see also Nick Drake’s ‘River Man’) and guest slots from in-demand sessioneers such as Steve Winwood, John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick and even Junior Murvin.
In truth, though, ‘Rendezvous’ is no under-achiever. History has deemed her cover of Elton John’s ‘Candle In The Wind’ rather redundant, but the plaintive ‘One Way Donkey Ride’ and a densely-layered version of Richard Thompson’s ‘For Shame of Doing Wrong’ (re-christened ‘I Wish I Was A Fool For You’) are both notable, while the reggae-tinged ‘Gold Dust’ demonstrated that Denny was always keen to stretch out artistically. The reflective ‘No More Sad Refrains’, meanwhile, supplied a palpably poignant finale.
Aesthetically, these re-issues also have a lot going for them. There are a whopping 53 extra tracks (live takes, demos, out-takes) spread across ‘Sandy’, ‘...Old Fashioned Waltz’ and ‘Rendezvous’, along with sumptuous packaging, a generous selection of contemporary photographs and detailed sleevenotes from Nick Drake/ Richard Thompson biographer Patrick Humphries. All of which amounts to a high-quality re-issue campaign and a feast for all self-respecting folk/ rock fans.
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