Post Description

Steeleye Span's debut is in many ways the heir apparent to Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief" released a year before. After that landmark recording, Ashley Hutchings left to form his own group that was to focus more on traditional music, contrasting with Fairport's more eclectic mindset. He formed Steeleye Span along with Maddy Prior, Tim Hart, and Gay and Terry Woods. 
In spite of this lineage, "Hark the Village Wait" is a more tentative and timid affair than was "Liege and Lief", but also more consistent. The band does seem to be having a bit of trouble integrating the strong personalities, and the recording ends up being quite an anomaly in the vast Steeleye discography, being the only one of the first 3 to contain drums (albeit furnished by hired musicians) and the only one to include the Woods'. 
The one aspect for which they are all on the same page is the desire to bring to life English, Scottish, and Irish traditional songs and dances, which they spell out clearly in "Calling-on Song". It is followed by their first rendition of "Blacksmith". The blacksmith, with his arsenal of masculine tools, symbolizes a sort of blue collar virility which attracts the protagonist. This type of sexual symbolism runs rampant in these traditional tunes, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, but the theme was to reappear frequently in Steeleye Span's interpretations. The band also selects the excellent "Blackleg Miner" and "Lowlands of Holland" and performs them admirably. Kenneth Levine, Progarchives.

The album's title refers not to the act of waiting, but to a "Wait". Waits were a small body of wind instrumentalists employed by a town at public charge from Tudor times until the early 19th century. A village, however, would likely be too small to employ such a troupe, so the Wait referred to here was more probably the later Christmas Waits, as mentioned in the novels of Thomas Hardy. 

Track listing:
A1. A Calling-On Song
A2. The Blacksmith
A3. Fisherman's Wife
A4. Blackleg Miner
A5. Dark-Eyed Sailor
A6. Copshawholme Fair
B1. All Things Are Quite Silent
B2. The Hills of Greenmore
B3. My Johnny Was a Shoemaker
B4. Lowlands of Holland
B5. Twa Corbies
B6. One Night As I Lay On My Bed

Personnel:
Tim Hart: Vocals, electric guitar. electric dulcimer,
fiddle, 5 string banjo, harmonium
Ashley Hutchings: Electric bass guitar
Maddy Prior: Vocals, 5 string banjo
Gay Woods: Vocals, concertina, autoharp, bodhran
Terry Woods: Vocals, electric guitar, concertina,
mandola, 5 string banjo, mandolin
Gerry Conway: Drums on A2, A3, A5, A6, B1, B2
Dave Mattacks: Drums on A4, B4, B5, B6

Dit is een spot op verzoek! 

Extra Informatie:
Aantal Discs: 1xCD
Genre: Folk Rock, Folk
Format: FLAC (Tracks) (Vinyl Rip)
Year of Release: 1970 
Speelduur: 38 minuten
Cover: Front, Back en Insides zijn in de RARs verwerkt