Hark! The Village Wait

Infobox Album |
Name = Hark! The Village Wait
Type = Album
Artist = Steeleye Span


Released = 1970
Recorded =
Genre = Electric folk
Length = 38:55
Label = Chrysalis
Producer =
Reviews = * Allmusic 3/5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:y7fozfhheh2k link]
Last album =
This album = "Hark! The Village Wait"
(1970)
Next album = "Please to See the King"
(1971)

"Hark! The Village Wait" was the 1970 debut album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span. The album is the only one to feature the original lineup of the band, as they broke up and reformed with a slightly altered membership immediately after its release, without having ever performed live. Hence it is one of only two Steeleye Span albums to feature two female vocalists (Maddy Prior and Gay Woods), the other being "Time" (1996). A similar sound was exhibited years later when Prior teamed up with June Tabor to form Silly Sisters. Overall, the album's sound is essentially folk music with rock drumming and bass guitar added to some of the songs. The banjo features prominently on several tracks, including "The Blacksmith", "Copshawholme Fair", and "Lowlands of Holland".

The album's title refers to not 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.

Over the years, the band has returned to the material on this album a number of times. On its second album, "Please to See the King", they offered a new version of "The Blacksmith". On "Back in Line" they offered a new live version of "Blackleg Miner", and they offered a third variation on "Present--The Very Best of Steeleye Span". On "Time" they reprised "Twa Corbies". "Copshawholme Fair" was previously recorded by Hart and Prior on their album "Folk Songs of Olde England Vol. 2" two years earlier. Copshaw Holm, otherwise known as Newcastleton, has been the site of a folk festival since 1970. Maddy Prior has lived nearby, just over the border in Cumbria, at "Stones Barn" for several years.

Highlights of the album include the a capella "A Calling-On Song" (the first of many a capella pieces the band recorded), "Blackleg Miner", "Dark-Eyed Sailor", and "The Lowlands of Holland", which used variant lyrics from the most common version of the song.

Personnel

*Maddy Prior (vocals),
*Tim Hart (vocals, electric guitar, electric dulcimer, fiddle, 5-string banjo, harmonium)
*Ashley Hutchings (bass)
*Terry Woods (vocals, electric guitar, concertina, mandola, 5-string banjo, mandolin)
*Gay Woods (vocals, concertina, autoharp, bodhran)

Guests:
*Gerry Conway (drums)
*Dave Mattacks (drums)

Track listing

#"A Calling-on Song ("Traditional")
#"The Blacksmith" ("Traditional")
#"Fisherman's Wife" ("MacColl")
#"Blackleg Miner" ("Traditional")
#"Dark-Eyed Sailor" ("Traditional")
#"Copshawholme Fair" ("Traditional")
#"All Things Are Quite Silent" ("Traditional")
#"The Hills Of Greenmore" ("Traditional")
#"My Johnny Was A Shoemaker" ("Traditional")
#"Lowlands of Holland" ("Traditional")
#"Twa Corbies" ("Traditional")
#"One Night As I Lay On My Bed" ("Traditional")