Steeleye Span are staples of the British folk-rock scene. Sometimes more folk, sometimes more rock, always with music that makes you want to tap your foot and – if you are of that disposition – dance along to.
The Span seem to have had a late-career resurgence of sorts, which has coincided with a new fire in the band. A lot of that is no doubt down to new and young band members. Jessie May Smart joined on fiddle/violin in 2014, Alex Kemp (son of vocalist Maddy Prior) joined temporarily on bass in 2015, Andrew Sinclair took over the bass in 2016, and finally multi-instrumentalist Benji Kirkpatrick (son of former Steeleye member John Kirkpatrick) brought a ton of versatility when he joined in 2017.
The line-ups of Steeleye Span has always had some fluctuation, and there has always been a stem of hardened experience to steer the new blood right. The current band has a great mixture of that, with members across all ages from their 30s to 70s. Seeing the children of previous members join the band tells us something about its longevity, but also about the feeling of family that runs at its core.
Est’d 1969 is the second album with the current incarnation of the band (32nd album overall). The title is really just a declaration of when the band started – they were “established in 1969.” In other words, 2019 is their 50th Anniversary.
This album largely taps into the band’s tradition of taking traditional folk songs and giving them the Span treatment.
The album opener Harvest is a great example, as well as one of the stand-out tracks on the album. The tradition of singing home your harvest is an old one – you would celebrate the completion of hard work, but also curse a bit at the parson who wanted his share of the harvest.
We cheated the parson
We’ll cheat him again
For why should a blockhead have one in ten?
A lovely song which goes through several different passages, ending up being quite the adventurous take on the traditional folk song Harvest Home.
Old Matron is another highlight, being a huge ballad topped off with a show-stealing flute solo courtesy of their old friend Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull).
Anderson and Span go way back, as Anderson produced their 1974 album Now We Are Six and brought Tull with him to back Maddy on her solo album Woman In the Wings four years later. This is however his first appearance on a Span album.
The song The Boy And the Mantle is a traditional Arthurian tale of the type that the band does so well these days. The epic and funny story about the Mantle Veritas tests, which was put forth in court to test whether someone had been faithful to their spouse or not – ebbs and flows with a lot of musical drama.
Internationally famous harpsichordist Sophie Yates performs beautifully on this track, providing some of the album’s most poignant moments.
The final track Reclaimed continues the family connections. It is written by Rose-Ellen Kemp (the daughter of Steeleye’s Maddy and Rick), and is a reminder that all things must pass and that nature will triumph in the end. A song celebrating the extinction of mankind? Well, in a way, but from the perspective of nature finally getting its own back. Accompanied by Steeleye, it does not sound so bad.
The album is definitely more mellow and back-leaning than the previous effort Dodgy Bastards (2016), which had a lot of fire and thunderous performances. This has always been the case with Steeleye – one album will rock a bit more, the next will be more folky and chill. For that reason, even though I will often prefer the energy of Dodgy Bastards to the more relaxed ambience of Est’d 1969, the album has its own identity and there are moments I want this and nothing else. Everything has its time and place, and the change of gear was fully expected.
The album is of a high level, with some songs being momentous peaks. The performances are competent and skilful throughout. This is great!
If anything, there is a sneaking concern that the last two albums have mostly consisted of old traditional songs and re-recordings of old material. The new, original material is scarce. They did lose the master songwriter Peter Knight earlier in the decade, but they should still be more than able to come up with new material. Maybe they haven’t been interested, and fair game if not. The albums they have done have also been solid, so this is far from a crisis, but it would be really good to see coming efforts focus a bit more on new and original material again.
The fact that Steeleye Span still sound so vital after all these years (and personnel changes) is an amazing achievement. Enjoy them while we have them.
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