Steeleye Span "Hark! - The Village wait" 1970

I started off liking All Around My Hat and Commoner's Crown more than this album, but the more I listen to this album the more it becomes my favorite Steeleye Span album. As the reviewer noted above, the dual vocals of Gay Woods and Maddy Prior are amazing. The songs themselves are wonderfully arranged traditional songs. I don't easily tire of this album, whereas AAMH and CC are perhaps a little played-out for me now. - Jon LOriginally released by British RCA, this debut album by Steeleye Span's original lineup -- Ashley Hutchings (bass), Tim Hart (electric guitar, electric dulcimer, banjo, harmonium, vocals), Maddy Prior (vocals, banjo), Terry Woods (mandola, mandolin, electric guitar, vocals), and Gay Woods (vocals, concertina, bodhran) -- barely made it out the door before Gay and Terry Woods exited. This was probably the best singing edition of Steeleye Span, with Gay Woods and Maddy Prior melding beautifully on tracks like "Dark-Eyed Sailor" and "My Johnnie Was a Shoemaker," and Terry Woods adding some realistic coarseness on "The Hills of Greenmore." The sound is fully electric here (with superb playing on the epic "Lowlands of Holland"), if not as aggressive or well crafted as later albums -- Hart, Hutchings, and Woods comprise a good core band, and Gerry Conway and Fairport Convention's Dave Mattacks sit in on drums. - AllMusic Review by Bruce Edertrax:

01 A Calling-on Song 02 The Blacksmith 03 Fisher'man's Wife 04 Blackleg Miner 05 Dark-Eyed Sailor 06 Copshawholme Fair 07 All Things Are Quite Silent 08 The Hills Of Greenmore 09 My Johnny Was A Shoemaker 10 Lowlands Of Holland 11 Twa Corbies 12 One Night As I Lay On My Bed

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