> Sandy Denny > Obituaries, Interviews and Articles > A Touching Tribute / The folk legend's music speaks for itself

A Touching Tribute / The folk legend's music speaks for itself

New York Newsday, 24 November 1998, by Stephen Williams

LISTEN, LISTEN: The Music of Sandy Denny. Saturday night at the Arts at St. Ann's series, St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn. A touching, intelligent tribute to one of Britain's legendary folk singers.

For the short time she was with us, Sandy Denny symbolized all that was pure and precise and harmonious about folk music.

Denny, who so eloquently interpreted the English folk tradition as a soloist and as an integral part of Fairport Convention, was a mystery wrapped in a marvelous, smoky soprano, embellished by wispy blond hair, a come-hither gaze and a tragic coda. She died in 1978, after falling down a flight of stairs at a friend's house. She was 31 years old.

Under the towering vaulted ceiling and the splendid stained glass of St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn Heights Saturday night, a terrific conglomeration of musicians, folk and otherwise, paid Denny a fitting and long-overdue tribute, capturing in nearly two dozen performances the art and atmosphere of Denny's superb songwriting.

Denny, who was born in Wimbledon, was like so many of her contemporaries on both sides of the Pond in that she started singing in public in folk clubs (in London, in her case) in the '60s. Her solo careers bookended her success with Fairport, in which she played and wrote alongside Richard Thompson and recorded four albums. The music was mold-breaking: Finely crafted and stylized, it combined haunting, traditional material with edgy rock and roll rhythms.

Denny went on to form a sequel to Fairport, called Fotheringay, with her husband-to-be, Trevor Lucas. During a hiatus in her career, she gave birth to her only child, Georgia. She returned to the stage in November, 1977, in a performance captured on an Island CD issued this year called Gold Dust. Six months later she was dead.

At St. Ann's, few words were wasted during the two-hour concert. Each singer came to the stage unintroduced, sang and left the stage. None of the songs was introduced. Peter Holsapple was apparently aiming to let the music speak for itself; it was the proper tack.

Holsapple, former leader of the highly respected db's, constructed an appropriate set list, mixing a couple of obscure compositions with Denny's standards, and a vocalist guest list that included R.E.M's Mike Mills, Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish, Robyn Hitchcock, Susan McKeown and ex-Bangles Michael Steele and Vicki Peterson.

McKeown nearly walked away from the rest with a stunning version of the traditional Fairport tune Tam Lin, a driving, spiraling song punctuated by the steely notes of Holsapple's piano and the inspired backing of his band, the Continental Drifters. McKeown's transparent vocals ricocheted off the stone walls of the church; the effect was electric.

On the other hand, Rucker couldn't get around the dirgelike Blackwaterside. He seemed to swallow some of the notes, and what he didn't swallow, the acoustics did. I don't know how the songs were paired with the singers, but he could've made a better choice. R.E.M.'s Mills was reedy but convincing on Denny's powerful ballad, It Suits Me Well, and Hitchcock contributed flavorful harmonica to the rousing Matty Groves.

Steele soared with the compelling North Star Grassman and the Raven, Susan Cowsill was suitably low-key on At The End of The Day, Amanda Thorpe was elegant but a bit distant on the encore, Farewell, Farewell. It is among Sandy Denny's best songs and a bittersweet epilogue to the evening.