The third Steeleye Span album, Ten Man Mop opens with possibly the most beautifully sung number of their entire history, "Gower Wassail," which also makes a very strong case for the use of electric guitars in a traditional folk setting. "Paddy Clancy's Jig/Four Nights Drunk" was the group's first great electric adaptation of traditional dance, None of the rest is quite that good, highlighted by Maddy Prior's haunting performance on "When I Was on Horseback" (although the song drones on a little too long at six-and-a-half minutes), the delightful "Marrowbones," the riveting "Stewball," and the rousing reels "Dowd's Favourite," "£10 Float," and "The Morning Dew."
This powerful compilation includes legendary names from the folk rock sceneincluding the inimitable Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle and The Strawbs. Captured live in concert, these classic bands demonstrate just why the blend of folk and rock music has proved such a heady and enduring mixture.–by Amazon
With 63 tracks and a total running time of just under four hours, Dust On The Nettles examines the metamorphosis that British folk underwent during the late 1960s, when the influence of psychedelia and the counterculture saw the idiom being twisted into all kinds of new and exotic shapes, as the finger-in-the-ear folk clubs of yore were inexorably drawn into a brave new world of Arts Labs, free festivals and the nascent college/university circuit.