Another Parcel of Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span, along with Fairport Convention, were the twin pillars of the British folk-rock scene. And like Fairport, Steeleye Span underwent frequent personnel changes. In fact, the only constant on these five albums from 1976 to 1989 are vocalist Maddy Prior and drummer Nigel Pegrum.While all five of these albums have their moments, 1976's ROCKET COTTAGE is the one must-own album. The vocal harmonies on "London" are breathtaking. The brief acapella "The Bosnian Hornpipes" is a pure delight. And "Sir James the Rose" is perhaps one of their best songs ever.With 1977's STORM FORCE TEN (the band's tenth album), Martin Carthy was back in the band. Also on board was accordionist John Kirkpatrick (who had worked extensively with Richard Thompson). The a capella piece "Sweep, Chimney Sweep" is amazing. "The Victory" is an engaging anthem that makes you forget that the song goes on for more than eight minutes. Carthy's acoustic guitar work on "Some Rival" is understated yet compelling.As one of this sets bonus tracks, Their 1977 Christmas single "The Boar's Head Carol" is included. The other bonus track is their 1978 single "Rag Doll," a cover of the Four Seasons' hit.The same lineup that produced STORM FORCE TEN was still intact for the band's first live album, 1978's LIVE AT LAST. It's a nice souvenir of what the band was like live. I especially like the energy in "Hunting the Wren."By the end of 1978, founding member Tim Hart announced this would be their last album. However, in 1980 Prior and Hart (along with the rhythm section of Rick Kemp and Nigel Pegrum) reunite with Bob Johnson (guitar) and Peter Knight (keyboards, violin) and Carthy and Kirkpatrick are out. They release SAILS OF SILVER. The band-written title track is a strong opening track. "My Love" is a lovely ballad. The spare "Marigold/Harvest Home" with Prior's lead vocal is my favorite track.The final album in this collection is 1989's TEMPTED AND TRIED. Tim Hart is out, leaving Bob Johnson as the band's sole guitarist. Also gone is bassist Rick Kemp, who is replaced by Tim Harries. The band also adds an additional percussionist in Martin Ditcham. Despite the loss of a key member, TEMPTED AND TRIED is a terrific album. It starts with the rollicking "Padstow." "The Fox" showed that the band could still put the "rock" in folk-rock. The fiddle-driven "Seagull" is a jaunty dance number. "Jack Hall" and "Reels: The First House in Connaught / Sailor's Bonnet" are sure to get your toes tapping.My only complaint with this collection (as with A PARCEL OF STEELEYE SPAN) is that the 8-page booklet is skimpy on details. It includes pictures of the album covers, track listing and band members and a few uncaptioned photos. However, the music contained in this collection (along with the previous compilation) provide the listener with almost everything they need by one of England's seminal bands. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED [Running Time - Disc 1, 73:08; Disc 2, 74:16; Disc 3, 74:13]

I've been on a mission to collect all of the early and middle work of this band, one of the finest of the British folk-rock revival era. This three-disc set complements two other sets, "Lark in the Morning" and "A Parcel of Steeleye Span", which include all of their first eight albums. This collection is comprised of albums nine through twelve plus their fourteenth. During this period there were several personnel changes and at least two breakups. One thing that remained constant, though, was Maddy Prior's distinctive voice. Although as a whole these five albums are not as consistently brilliant as their earlier work, there is still plenty of first-rate music to satisfy this fan."Rocket Cottage" (1976, ***1/2) is a bit over-produced and uneven, but earns an extra half a star for including two of their best songs ever, "London" and the relatively experimental "Fighting for Strangers". Also worthwhile are the brief but excellent a capella "The Bosnian Hornpipes" and the rousing "Sir James the Rose". Closing the album is the demo-like "The Drunkard", which is prefaced by some silly studio hijinks and rather sloppy version of "Camptown Races". The song itself, once it gets under way, is quite fine."Storm Force Ten" (1977, ****) is a significant departure musically and personnel-wise: gone are fiddler Peter Knight and guitarist/vocalist Robert Johnson; in their place are folk stalwarts Martin Carthy and accordionist John Kirkpatrick. This gives the album a decidedly folkier flavor than the last few albums, and Kirkpatrick's squeeze box is so virtuosic that we almost don't miss Knight's fiddle. Highlights: "Sweep, Chimney Sweep" (another a capella tour de force), "The Victory", and "The Black Freighter" (a.k.a. "Pirate Jenny") from Kurt Weill's "Threepenny Opera"."Live at Last" (1978, ****) is, as the name implies, the band's first live album, featuring the same lineup as "Storm Force Ten". Ironically, the band broke up just days after this performance. Highlights include the epic suite "Montrose", and "False Knight on the Road"."Sails of Silver (1981, ***) was their "reunion" album, and in my opinion more subdued and less inspired than most of their other albums. It carried a nautical and a bit of a "New World" theme and featured mostly original rather than traditional songs. Peter Knight is back in the fold on fiddle, too, though not featured as much as in prior albums. Still, there are highlights: "My Love" (one of the most beautiful songs they've recorded), "Gone to America", "Marigold/Harvest Home", and "Tell Me Why".For some reason the set skips over 1986's "Back in Line" in favor of 1989's "Tempted and Tried" (****), an energetic album which is somewhat of a return to form. Highlights include "Padstow", "Jack Hall", and "Two Butchers".Also included are two rare singles, 1977's Christmas single "The Boar's Head Carol" and 1978's rock n' roll cover "Rag Doll." All in all, it's a fine bundle of music that, with the other two aforementioned releases, mostly completes the first twenty years of recordings from this prolific and accomplished band.

The second Parcel Of Steeleye Span 3 CD collection is much more uneven than the first set. That probably has much to do with the first five albums on Chrysalis coming out from 1972-75 whereas this set was recorded from 1976-89. The first album, Rocket Cottage, still had much of the spark of the previous records. Storm Force Ten was where things got a bit shaky. A new lineup, including an accordion player, resulted in a much more conventional sound. They then released an oddly unexciting concert called Live At Last. I have several live collections recorded much later that sound much more lively than it does. They reformed (without the accordion) and recorded Sails Of Silver. For the first time they seemed to be trying for a commercial sound that now sounds a bit too 1980s. The final album, Tempted And Tried, contains more faux trad tracks that seem to be either new or updated. To sum it all up, if you can only afford one Span Parcel, get the first. Fanatics like me will probably want both.

I like Steeleye Span's work a lot, and this album provides a look at no less than five of their Chrysalis albums from years past. As the title says, this is "another" parcel; the original "Parcel of Steeleye Span" covered their first six Chrysalis albums. In these later performances, it seems to me they have gone a bit more experimental, and a bit harder rock, than in the earlier ones. Maddy Prior's singing is always a treat, though, and there are a couple of surprises (a Brecht/Weill number from Three Penny Opera sung in English in a decidedly odd translation from the German -- included twice, no less). Bottom line: overall I prefer the original "Parcel..." but I am pleased to have this album.

This second volume of Steeleye Span's Chrysalis albums covers the more troubled period of their career, when some critics turned against them, and the public largely ignored them - apart, of course, from a loyal and devoted fan-base. In retrospect, the critics were perhaps missing the point, and the public... just missed out!Rocket Cottage (1976) is panned in Rob Young's book "Electric Eden", but it's not a bad album, once you get past the opening "All Around My Hat" clone of "London". "Orfeo" has multi-tracked Maddy Priors harmonizing with themselves over a solid band backing, "Brown Girl" features one of her most heartfelt vocal performances, "Fighting For Strangers" has been rightly lauded as a brilliant mash-up of modernist, stripped down percussion and two ancient folk melodies (in different keys, just for fun), "Sir James The Rose" is a big murder ballad, built around a big electric rock riff, and the closing "Drunkard" revisits the mellow fade-out vibe of earlier albums like "Below The Salt". The remastering here brings out new clarity from the original studio recording, and takes some of the claustrophobic feel away from Mike Batt's typically dry mid-70s production. As I commented in an earlier review of the single album, I find myself listening to RC more than I do to All Around My Hat.Storm Force Ten (1977) was where things started to get really strange. The idea was great - John Kirkpatrick on concertina/melodeon, Martin Carthy back on electric guitar... but the result was an album I struggled to love at the time, if I'm honest. The production was extremely understated, and the treble almost struggled to get out of the grooves on the original vinyl pressing... as if punk rock had nicked all the high frequencies and there were none left for folk-rockers. This remastered edition fixes that problem to a large degree. OK, the cymbals on the drumkit still sound like they were recorded from under a duvet... in the next room... but the vocals and other instruments are now crystal clear. Listen to the notes in the group's throats on the acapella "Sweep Chimney Sweep". Elsewhere there are gorgeous arrangements on "Some Rival" and "The Wife of The Soldier", whilst "Seventeen Come Sunday" takes on new life, now freed from its lo-fi place at the end of Side 2 of the vinyl. Some of the songs are still a little hardcore "folk" (Treadmill Song comes to mind) but the goodies outweigh the baddies, and this combination of folk giants is thrilling.The live album "Live At Last" (1978) was a bit of a holding pattern, although the monumental 15+ minute "Montrose" is a huge achievement for any band to play live."Sails of Silver" followed in 1980 and, as with "Rocket Cottage" has received some criticism over the years. Again, I think this is unfair. It's an album of solid pop/rock songs, in a folk-influenced style, and should be taken on its merits. At the time I remember that Gus Dudgeon's production revealed Rick Kemp (bass) and Nigel Pegrum (drums) to be a really solid, tight rhythm section... something which had always been there live, but not always previously captured in the studio. Maddy's voice was on fine form and, of course, the album is now slightly poignant as the final recorded outing with Tim Hart in the line-up (apart from the 1996 live album "The Journey"). A special mention, too, to Peter Knight's glorious fiddle solos, especially on the saucy "Senior Service".Finally, for this collection, "Tempted and Tried" was released on Dover Records (a Chrysalis offshoot) in 1989, hot on the heels of the single "Padstow". As noted by other reviewers, the album "Back In Line" had been self-released by the band in 1986 and established them as something of an indie-folk band, so the move back to Chrysalis seemed a bit odd to me - and it turned out to be a one-off. Some of the songs are amongst the band's best - "Following Me", "Jack Hall", the chilling "Cruel Mother" and the irresistable instrumental "First House in Connaught/Sailor's Bonnet" which swirls around the dancefloor with the best of them. Between these highlights are songs that... just pass me by, I suppose. Not terrible, just not classics.So, an odd period, between being a Top 40 band in 1975 and their more recent status as respected Elder Statespersons of folk-rock. A sometimes awkward period, but with some stone-cold classics in there as well, all well-served by the respectful but revealing remaster on these CDs.I'm not sure what deal is with the wacky prices above, incidentally. I kept waiting until it appeared at under £20, which this collection seems to from time to time.

Excellent collection of the second five Chrysalis albums of Steeleye Span. The remastered sound is very good!

Takes me back 40 years - I remember buying Rocket Cottage when it first came out, and going to see them live when I was at University the same year.My only comment is that this remaster does not always sound quite the same as the original vinyl - or quite the same as my memory of the music I played repeatedly for many years. Maybe I just miss the scratches!

Not a new CD set, so likely to be bought by Steeleye fans. The group have evolved further since the Chrysalis days. I prefer the earlier work.

different style of music, folk with a difference