Hark! The Village Wait
Encyclopedia
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 studio 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 Blackleg Miner", "Lowlands of Holland" and "One Night as I Lay on My Bed".
The album's title refers to not the act of waiting, but to a "Wait
". Waits were a small body of wind instrument
alists 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.
Among the songs on 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.
The album was originally issued in the UK on RCA with the cover shown (above right). It was a one-off, and the cover for the reissue showed a silhouette of a town. It was issued on UK and US Chrysalis in 1975.
Guests:
Electric folk
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
band Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
. 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 studio albums to feature two female vocalists (Maddy Prior
Maddy Prior
Maddy Prior is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span.-Early life:...
and Gay Woods
Gay Woods
Gay Woods is an Irish singer. She was one of the original members of Steeleye Span.-Early years:Gabriel Corcoran was born in Dublin, a neighbour of her future husband Terry Woods . Gay's elder brothers shared Terry's love of hillbilly music and blues. Gay and Terry performed together in 1963 at...
), the other being Time (1996). A similar sound was exhibited years later when Prior teamed up with June Tabor
June Tabor
June Tabor is an English folk singer.- Early years :June Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP Hazards of Love in 1965. "I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I...
to form Silly Sisters
Silly Sisters (band)
The Silly Sisters is the name of the English folk music duo, formed by Maddy Prior and June Tabor. Initially they performed together under their own names, and as such released their first album, Silly Sisters, later taking this name as the name of their duo. As such they released a subsequent...
. 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 Blackleg Miner", "Lowlands of Holland" and "One Night as I Lay on My Bed".
The album's title refers to not the act of waiting, but to a "Wait
Wait (musician)
Waits or Waites were British town pipers. From medieval times up to the beginning of the 19th century, every British town and city of any note had a band of Waites...
". Waits were a small body of wind instrument
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
alists 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
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
.
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
Please to See the King
Please To See The King is the second album by Steeleye Span, released in 1971. A substantial personnel change following their previous effort, Hark! The Village Wait, brought about a substantial change in their overall sound, including a lack of drums and the replacement of one female vocalist with...
, they offered a new version of "The Blacksmith". On Back in Line
Back in Line
Back in Line is an album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span.This album, the band's 12th, was released in 1986, after a hiatus of almost 6 years. It was their first album without founding member Tim Hart, who quit the music business entirely...
they offered a new live version of "Blackleg Miner", and they offered a third variation on Present--The Very Best of Steeleye Span
Present--The Very Best of Steeleye Span
Present – The Very Best of Steeleye Span is an album by Steeleye Span, which is frequently mistaken for one of the band's many compilation albums. Although all but one of the songs had been previously released, the album is actually a collection of new studio versions of the songs involved...
. On Time
Time (Steeleye Span album)
Time is an album by Steeleye Span. The album was released in 1996, after a seven year hiatus. The impetus for the album was a 25th anniversary reunion tour the year before, during which most of the former members of the band performed together...
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
Newcastleton
Newcastleton, or Copshaw Holm is a village in the Scottish Borders, a few miles from the border of Scotland with England. The village is in Liddesdale and is on the Liddel Water, and is the site of Hermitage Castle.-History:...
, 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.
Among the songs on 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.
The album was originally issued in the UK on RCA with the cover shown (above right). It was a one-off, and the cover for the reissue showed a silhouette of a town. It was issued on UK and US Chrysalis in 1975.
Personnel
- Maddy PriorMaddy PriorMaddy Prior is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span.-Early life:...
(vocals), - Tim HartTim HartTim Hart was an English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of electric folk band, Steeleye Span.-Early years:...
(vocals, electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, electric dulcimerAppalachian dulcimerThe Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...
, fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, 5-string banjo, harmoniumHarmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
) - Ashley HutchingsAshley HutchingsAshley Stephen Hutchings is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band...
(bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
) - Terry WoodsTerry WoodsTerence 'Terry' Woods , is an Irish folk musician, specialising in playing the mandolin and cittern. He is known for his membership in such folk and folk-rock groups as The Pogues, Steeleye Span, Sweeney's Men, The Bucks and, briefly, Dr. Strangely Strange. Prior to being a founder member of...
(vocals, electric guitar, concertinaConcertinaA concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it...
, mandolaMandolaThe mandola or tenor mandola is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola , a fifth lower than a mandolin...
, 5-string banjo, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
) - Gay WoodsGay WoodsGay Woods is an Irish singer. She was one of the original members of Steeleye Span.-Early years:Gabriel Corcoran was born in Dublin, a neighbour of her future husband Terry Woods . Gay's elder brothers shared Terry's love of hillbilly music and blues. Gay and Terry performed together in 1963 at...
(vocals, concertina, autoharpAutoharpThe autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...
, bodhranBodhránThe bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...
)
Guests:
- Gerry ConwayGerry Conway (musician)Gerald Conway is an English folk and rock drummer/percussionist, best known for having performed with the backing band for Cat Stevens in the 1970s, Jethro Tull during the 1980s, and currently a member of Fairport Convention as well as his side projects...
(drums) - Dave MattacksDave MattacksDave Mattacks is a rock and folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician, and as a performance artist...
(drums)
Track listing
- "A Calling-on Song" (HutchingsAshley HutchingsAshley Stephen Hutchings is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band...
) - "The BlacksmithBlacksmith (song)"Blacksmith" is a traditional English folk song, also known as "A Blacksmith Courted Me". The song was noted down by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909 from a Mrs Powell. On that occasion it was sung to the tune "Monk's Gate", better known as the tune of "To be a pilgrim", the hymn by John Bunyan....
" (Traditional) - "Fisherman's Wife" (MacCollEwan MacCollEwan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
) - "Blackleg MinerBlackleg MinerBlackleg Miner is a 19th-century English folk song, originally from Northumberland ....
" (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 BedOne Night As I Lay On My Bed"One Night As I Lay On My Bed" is a traditional folksong.-Synopsis:A young woman lies in bed thinking of her lover. She hears him tapping at her window, asking to be allowed in. She warns him that her parents will hear them. He replies that they are sound asleep...
" (Traditional)