Salut! Live

Image: Jef Aerosol

It has been a remarkable labour of love undertaken by a writer for whom Sandy Denny's voice "touches the soul" each time he hears it.

More than 40 years after Sandy's untimely death at 31, Mick Donovan set himself the task of digging out clips of 100 recordings from the outstanding body of work bequeathed by one of the finest singer-songwriters the world has seen. Each was accompanied by a brief description and they can all be found at the Sandy Denny and Family Facebook group.

For his finale - assuming he does not get the urge to resume at No 101, Mick has chosen, as you might expect, Sandy's much-covered classic Who Knows Where The Time Goes, a rather special version as he explains below. I have chosen to let Mick develop the story of what he did and why he did it ... the clip also appears below

Image: Linda Fitzgerald-Moore

Eleven years is a long time, even in folk music. The article I reproduce below tells the story of the release of Fotheringay's 'lost' second album and dates from the end of 2008. I was living in Abu Dhabi and wrote this piece for The National, an English-language newspaper for which I was working and to which I still contribute. I researched and wrote the piece as a journalist; I am also, as any regular reader of Salut! Live will be aware, a fan.

I had largely forgotten about this feature until I noticed a day or two ago (the last week of April 2020) that members of the Sandy Denny and Family group at Facebook were nominating their favourites among the fabulous body of work left behind by a singer who possessed once-in-a-generation qualities. It was the idea of one of those members, Mick Donovan, and I posted a clip from the album, Denny's stunning version of Wild Mountain Thyme.

To my surprise, my post drew terrific feedback, more than 50 'likes' when I last looked. "She could have sung the phone book and it would have been beautiful," Mick wrote. "This has the bonus of being a lovely, lovely song." Another member of the Facebook group, Dave Pitchford, added: "Her work with Fotheringay was her best for me. I was fortunate to see the reformed Fotheringay a number of times. The music was an utter delight."

For all this great, much-missed artist's fans who stray to these pages, and in honour of Jerry Donohue, the former Fotheringay and Fairport Convention band member, who suffered a massive stroke in 2016, my original article appears below. Without Jerry, neither the album nor my article would have materialised and I thank him while hoping he has regained some of the quality of life that stroke took away ...

Jerry Donahue: by Enamelhead - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, at Wikipedia Commons

Forgive me for being late with this but, come to think of it, the timing is right.

On French news this lunchtime, amid generous and impressive coverage of commemorations on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, this song popped up. I realise the story may well be old news for some.

I noted with surprise today that I have not mentioned the late Jackson C Frank's gripping song, The Blues Run the Game, for three years (plus three days).

But yesterday, screening room number five at Picturehouse Central just off Piccadilly Circus resonated with the spellbinding mix of voice, guitar picking and song that makes this one of my all-time favourites. So why not share another listen?

The reason for my pleasant surprise at the cinema - actually one of two; I enjoyed A Star is Born much more than I'd expected to - is a dominant part of the trailer for Robert Redford's new film, The Old Man & A Gun, about the San Quentin jailbreaker Forrest Tucker. That suggests a great soundtrack. The film looks half-decent, too.

Over at the parent Salut! site, you will find a couple of reproduced articles of mine dealing with First World War anniversaries.

All I wish to do tonight, at the start of the weekend that marks the centenary of the Armistice ending the Great War, is to remind my few readers of two of the most powerful songs to be written about that conflict.