Est'd 1969/ Steeleye Span - folk-rock

By Narendra Kusnur

Album: Est'd 1969
Artiste: Steeleye Span
Genre: British folk-rock
Label: Park Records
Rating: ****

To celebrate its golden jubilee year, British folk-rock band Steeleye Span has appropriately titled its latest album Est'd 1969. Once again, it comes up with its trademark sound blending folk sounds with guitars and keyboards, using lyrics that narrate traditional stories, talk of life in the hinterlands or describe challenges of modern life.

Best known for albums like Please To See The King, Now We Are Six and All Around My Hat, the band has had regular line-up changes over the years, with early member Maddy Prior exiting and returning. She's very much on this album, sounding as magical as ever and getting assistance from some uncredited singers.

A surprise is lent by Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson, who plays his trademark flute on ‘Old Matron’. In another guest appearance, Sophie Yates dazzles on the harpsichord on ‘The Boy And The Mantle (Three Tests Of Chastity),’ a traditional ballad rooted in King Arthur's times.

Almost every song is adorned by Benji Kirkpatrick, who plays the Greek-originating plucked instrument bouzouki, mandolin and banjo, with Jessie May Smart on violin. The opening number ‘Harvest’ opposes the misuse of agricultural land, with the lines “And we'll roar out, roar out, roar out our harvest home” standing out.

The popular David Goulder folk song ‘The January Man’ goes, “The January man he goes around in woollen coat and boots of leather, The February man still shakes the snow from his clothes and blows his hands, The man of March he sees the spring and wonders what the year will bring, and hopes for better weather.” Beautifully sung and arranged, it ends with an infectious whistle part.

Other goodies include ‘The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter’, a traditional piece adapted with a neat guitar-driven intro, ‘Roadways’, based on a poem talking of a man’s journey, and ‘Domestic’, a progressive and anthemic piece which keeps changing its structure and tempo.

Est'd 1969 ends with an environment-preserving message, with a cappella, choir-styled harmonies on ‘Reclaimed’. Written by Maddy’s and former member Rick Kemp’s daughter Rose Kemp, it has the lines “Roots and time will move concrete and iron, And ivy and water will loosen any mortar, And all that man has built will crumble down to silt.”

Steeleye Span has consistently released albums, and rarely disappointed. It’s often been likened to Fairport Convention. Yet it remains quite underrated, having a cult following only among diehard followers of British folk,  folk-rock

As such, this 50th year celebration album is recommended both to old fans and newer listeners.