“Time was when there might have been a debate about the identity of British Folk/Rock, but since the untimely death of the only other contender for the crown, Sandy Denny, in 1978, only one name can be considered, that of Maddy Prior.” (Mainly Norfolk)

As the calendar rolled over into 1978, it seemed unlikely that Maddy Prior would have ever ascended to the throne because Steeleye Span was falling apart. After All Around My Hat became the band’s most successful commercial release, they recorded the equally strong follow-up (Rocket Cottage) only to find that their audience had moved elsewhere. “Its unveiling coincided almost exactly with the arrival in the headlines of The Sex Pistols—while Steeleye were probably not regarded as ‘boring old farts’ by the punk tastemasters in quite the same way as more established stadium rock bands of the early Seventies, their association (albeit tenuous) with Jethro Tull, whom they had supported on an US tour, seemed to be a nail in their coffin as far as further commercial success was concerned, and the album was only a brief visitor in the UK album chart, to which Steeleye have yet to return.” (ibid)

Shortly thereafter, Peter Knight and Bob Johnson left the band and recorded an album of their own. While Steeleye filled the holes with top-tier replacements, the next album (Storm Force Ten) drew little attention. Though her primary means of musical expression was about to collapse, Maddy was still a highly respected vocalist and could have easily lined up collaborations with other British folk-rock musicians, as she had done with Tim Hart and June Tabor.

Instead of opting for the same-o, same-o, Maddy chose a path that no one expected. In May 1978, she released Woman in the Wings, an album consisting entirely of her own compositions, and followed it up a few months later with Changing Winds, featuring eight new compositions and two contributions from other songwriters. Since one of those songwriters happened to be her husband at the time, we can apply community property rules and make it 8 1/2 Maddy Prior originals.

Once a feminist, always a feminist.

This turn of events was shocking because no one knew that Maddy Prior could write songs. Her songwriting experience up to this point in the timeline consisted of partial credit for a few Steeleye group compositions. Even more surprises can be found in the songs themselves. One would expect that a novice songwriter would need some time to develop their chops, but it appears that Maddy had an innate talent for songwriting: her compositions on both albums are solid and sometimes exceptional, with strong motifs, memorable melodies and fair-to-excellent lyrics. This hidden talent was based on clear intent and an equally strong determination to write quality songs, as revealed in John Tobler’s commentary on Changing Winds:

The album again showcased Maddy’s songwriting skills, which clearly had been criminally underused during her time with Steeleye, a group with four other writers. While she claims to be in awe of the compositional art, she has clear ideas of how she insists on approaching it: “I have to start with an idea. I’ll very often have a beginning and know how the song will end, but if there isn’t an appealing idea, forget it.” Rather more tantalisingly, she adds: “My songs are in the first person, but they’re not always about me.”

Contrary to expectations, Changing Winds covers a range of genres beyond folk music, including rock, jazz, progressive, ballads and adult pop, all complemented by suitably diverse instrumentation and a full crew of solid musicians. The diversity of the album is also reflected in the subject matter, from the plight of the poor to old demon alcohol and various takes on relationship issues. The album is exceedingly well-balanced, with dark tales offset by plenty of humor.

You may wonder why this avid Jethro Tull fan is skipping Woman in the Wings, an album produced by Ian Anderson and featuring Ian, Martin Barre, Barriemore Barlow, John Glascock, Dee Palmer, and Shona Anderson, Ian’s wife. Christ, it’s almost The Great Lost Tull Album! My choice is really all about mood, and no, I’m not on my period. Woman on the Wings feels like a winter album, while Changing Winds is more summer-fall. I will review Woman in the Wings when the weather hardens my nipples.

And no, I will not post pictures.

*****

All songs written by Maddy Prior, except where noted.

“To Have and to Hold”: Whether it was pent-up artistic yearnings or a desire to throw caution to the wind, Maddy chose to open her second set of compositions with a song worthy of the ambitious arrangement it received. One could say that the song deals with the chasm between the haves and have-nots, but in a broader sense, the lyrics deal with human insecurity and two of Franklin Roosevelt’s four freedoms: freedom from fear and freedom from want.

The bare-bones opening verse-and-chorus is designed to grab the listener’s attention with an arrangement limited to piano, vocal, and brief guitar counterpoints. The main action involves the interplay between Maddy’s crystal-clear vocals and Chris Stainton’s exceptional mix of chords, counterpoints and percussive emphases on the piano, an exceedingly successful pairing. The musical setting ensures that Maddy’s opening message takes center stage:

In the dark continents of famine
The swollen-bellied children stare
But apathy defeats despair
Unfortunates in place and time
Surely someday the bells must chime for you

To have and to hold
The have-nots have always been told
Their day will come
So they sit and watch and wait
While fate fails to deliver
They sit and shiver through the cold light of day

Maddy wisely chose not to mention a particular famine, as there were several raging in Africa and Asia during the 70s. The interpretation of the line “Surely someday the bells must chime for you,” depends on how you identify “you.” If the “you” are the suffering, it’s a meaningless bit of hope, much like the thoughts and prayers that follow American mass shootings. If the “you” is the apathetic, it’s a John Donne-type warning:

Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Given the bleak picture painted by Maddy in the chorus, I’m going with my man Donne.

The second verse-and-chorus begins with greater urgency and intensity in the form of an assertive string arrangement conceived and conducted by Richie Close, coupled with booming drums and complementary bass. Maddy shifts the scene from the destitute to those in wealthier countries, where the bounty of a strong GNP has failed to trickle down to the have-nots. The verse also implies that the have-nots are more likely to be sent to foreign wars because the rich can always bribe or lie their way out:

In the mean lands of the plenty
In empty rooms everywhere
The sad-eyed lovers stare
At letters or at telephones
Praying for loved ones to come home again

After a dramatic reprise of the chorus, listeners are given a moment to reflect on reality during a calm instrumental passage combining synthesizer and pizzicato strings. The final verse speaks to the dangers inherent in have-not resentment. In a world where cards are stacked against you, bitterness can only eat you alive:

The waiting and the yearning
The burning turning inside out
The silent shout of need
Gentle tempting whispered greed
Will twist your heart and turn your head about

And apparently, resentment can make you do really stupid things like electing a billionaire who doesn’t give a shit about you.

The grand finale consists of two renditions of the chorus separated by a truncated instrumental passage. Additional power is supplied in the first pass with crashing syndrums played by Glyn Thomas, somewhat close to the sound of the gated drums that would dominate the 80s. The closing piece is slowed down a tad to enhance the majesty of the arrangement. Bravo!

“Pity the Poor Night Porter”: There are only three ways to properly follow an intense piece of music:

• Don’t follow it with anything.
• When “A Day in the Life” ends, wait a few seconds and surprise your fans with gibberish that they will eventually use to support the “Paul Is Dead” conspiracy.
• Change the mood from intense to comparatively relaxed.

Maddy chose door number three, offering up a song that falls somewhere between funk, soul, and soft jazz with a few departures to stop-time/double-time intensity. The arrangement is subtly complex and inventive, featuring multiple keyboards, various forms of percussion, a hot saxophone solo from Philip Todd, and a pair of female vocalists (likely Barbara Dickson and Sarah Deco) who support Maddy in the choruses with beautiful harmonies and soft background vocals.

The song is essentially a character sketch of the poor night porter, working all alone on the graveyard shift for minuscule remuneration and forced to deal with hungry and thirsty musicians and roadies who need to let off some steam after the show ends. Unlike the rebellious musicians who destroy hotel rooms and break bottles in the bar, Maddy expresses some empathy for the guy and the challenges he faces on a nightly basis, shrugging her shoulders in response to the less-than-stellar customer service:

Pity the poor night porter
When the band comes to town
Calling for refreshments
Ham and Cheese all ’round

Pity the poor night porter
When the road crew comes in
Calling for refreshments
Whisky, beer and gin

He’s sleeping in the corner
Hoping that the bell won’t ring
It’s been ringing for an hour
He can’t hear a thing

Instead of blasting the poor soul, she actually takes time to get to know him and his motive for securing a late-night gig:

He’s a quiet man in a quiet suit
Well-liked by his friends
A man that never borrows
And a man that never lends

Five kids in rented digs
Alice for a wife
He took a job at nights
To earn a quiet life

Of course, once he wakes up, he has some disappointing news for the revelers: “He’d give you anything you want/But the waiter took the key.” Oh, well.

Thankfully, Maddy has a sense of humor and the ability to transform disappointment into a great song.

Oh, by the way—if you’re interested, the Northcote Hotel and Restaurant is hiring a Night Porter! In addition to the £24,000/year salary ($32430.96 USD), you only have to work four days a week and the job comes with “comes with fantastic progression opportunities.” Perfect for night owls!

“Bloomers”: I am not a botanist, so when I first heard the song, I had no idea what Maddy was going on about. It wasn’t until I realized that a wallflower is not a flower (duh) that I understood that the roses, thistles and poppies were metaphors for women with different outlooks on life and romance. Allow me to attempt a translation:

• Rose: “Fine English rose in rich soil she grows/Old walls shield her from the wind that blows/Resulting cultivation supplied with every need/Seeking for a weed that’s of the right seed.” Young woman from the gentry educated in all the graces seeks a bad boy to provide guilty pleasures.
•  Thistle: “Proud purple thistle it’s wiser not to pluck/Growing where she can, she never waits for luck/Brought up in a hard school thistle down the wind/Raised on blunt words more sinned against than sinned.” Young woman with attitude from the wrong side of the tracks and abused by parents and teachers ready for all opportunities to get down and dirty.
• Poppy: “The vamp of vegеtation the scarlet poppy flirts/Laughs as she dancеs flaunting flimsy skirts/Tempting the senses with her milk white juice/Sensual opium determined to seduce.” I’m a slut and proud of it. 
• Wallflower: Independent wallflower careered through her youth/And caught unawares she turns to face the truth/Laughs at the battle of the sexes, but listens for the sound/Of strife and separation to declare the second round.” Virgin in need of partner with previous experience in areas she knows nothing about.

Maddy views all those stances as self-destructive, but as is often true with alcoholics, you have to go all the way down to the gutter before you can live an authentic life:

Stinking plants in the hedgerows
With grim grit will flourish
While nicely bred orchids
Wilt in the front window florist
But dark mother earth
Will catch them all up
And trample them back into the forest

After a semi-baroque intro from the piano, the rhythm shifts to urgency, echoing the alarm bells the maidens fail to recognize. Rick Kemp’s bass patterns draw much of the attention as he supplies a combination of melodic counterpoints and no-doubt-about-it drive in the four opening lines of the chorus. At that point, the tempo eases up with Rick still in command as Maddy delivers the closing lines over wordless background vocal support. I would love to hear a bass-only version.

“Acappella Stella” (Rick Kemp): The multi-talented Mr. Kemp made a major contribution to the album with this composition, writing a piece that features Maddy singing lead and multiple harmonies all by her little ol’ lonesome. The varied positioning of the vocal layers is exceptionally well arranged, creating cascades of Maddy’s beautiful voice all over the spectrum. My only complaint about the music is that I wish it had continued far beyond the measly one minute and forty-four seconds.

The lyrics form an ode to female independence in sync with the Second Wave Feminism of the era. What I love about the lyrics is the emphasis on beauty—not physical beauty per se, but the beauty of a liberated soul, free to be who she wants to be.

Acapella Stella she don’t need a man
Only the occasional one night stand
Never to rely on any handy man
She walks beautiful by herself

Acapella Stella she does everything
Baking her own bread and making silver rings
Doesn’t need a band although she loves to sing
She sings beautiful by herself

Acapella Stella you’re a world beating fella of a new kind
There’s no way to tell her she’ll be sharing an umbrella
When the rain starts she won’t mind

Acapella Stella beat you any game
All the girls around they seem to be the same
Now they’re liberated there’s no need to change
They look beautiful by themselves

Be thankful I did not contribute to the lyrics because I would have added a verse exposing insecure, anti-feminist men as dickless assholes who need to grow up.

“Canals”: This was one of the songs on the playlist we used to welcome guests to our wedding, along with The Seekers’ “I’ll Never Find Another You,” Ani DiFranco’s “Falling Is Like This,” Claudia Gomez’ “Nuestro Amor,” and Sade’s “No Ordinary Love.” All songs by women who “sing beautiful by themselves.”

Set to a graceful waltz rhythm augmented by a long held note on the third line of each verse that serves to forestall monotony, “Canals” is blessed with a remarkably beautiful melody that is restated several times in the arrangement and never becomes tiresome. Maddy’s vocal captures the dreaminess of the scene, where two lovers escape the bustle and spend a quiet, loving moment together.

We’ll take a long boat along the canal
Free from the road and the rail
We’ll sail along just the two of us
We’ll walk just the two of us
We’ll talk just the two of us together

We’ll take a long weekend my friend and me
Away from the car and the phone
We’ll roam alone just the two of us
We’ll walk just the two of us
We’ll talk just the two of us together

We’ll sit in the sunshine on a fine blue day
And watch all the world drift away
And stay alone just the two of us
We’ll walk just the two of us
We’ll talk just the two of us together

Taking full advantage of the lovely melody, rich chord patterns (C-Em-F-Am-D7, followed by C-D7-G-E7-Am-G-D), and a strong foundation built by the string sections, the musicians work wonders. John O’Connor and Doug Morter provide the guitar solos, making good use of the seventh chords to slip in a touch of the blues, while B.J. Cole’s pedal steel guitar swoops strengthen the song’s essential dreaminess. I love the fake stop in the action after the first restatement of the melody, where instead of completing the fade, a few healthy whacks on the drums introduce an extended, triumphant restatement of the melody to close the piece. A wonderful conclusion to side one.

“The Sovereign Prince”: You may find the title confusing because the main character in the song is Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, often referred to as “Gloriana.” Fortunate for you, your intrepid music critic thought to take a peek at the O.E.D.’s Middle English page, where I found this definition of “prince”: “(a) A ruler, sovereign; (b) ~ of engelond (grece, orange, portingale, troi, wales).” Better still, J. B. Black’s The Reign of Elizabeth: 1558–1603 quotes Elizabeth as telling one of her minions who dared to insist that she must get some rest, “Must is not a word to use to princes, little man.”

Now that we’ve exonerated Maddy of the crime of historical distortion, we can assess the longest track on the album.

The first four verses take us back to Elizabethan times, where we find the Queen admiring herself for the initiatives she launched that brought “spices back home to me” and “Treasure laden galleons/Lemons, melons and quince/Strange exotic cargo/Gift and garlands fit for the Prince” (i.e, ME!). She takes great pride in bringing Spain to its knees by destroying its fleet and showing the hated Catholic enemy who’s boss. Maddy gives her some credit for political acumen, but you get the sense that the praise is loaded with equal amounts of distaste: “And Gloriana rules with a woman’s wiles/Plays the coquette with politics and smiles/A computer for a brain in the body of a child/All temper and guile.”

Fast forward to the 1970s, where Maddy imagines the Queen (looking down from heaven, I suppose) having a hissy fit because pure English girls find vacationing in Spain a delightful experience:

And the girls on the beach
They are lying out of reach
They rub oil on their skins
And roll in the sand of hated Spain

And the girls in sidewalk bars
Drink their coffee, smoke their cigars
And laugh at the waiting maid
Who cowers afraid of the Prince

And Gloriana in stiff starched lace
With pearls in her hair and thunder on her face
Screams with rage: Has God left this place?
There’s no God in this place

Hey, lady, where the hell have you been? Nietzsche pronounced God dead as a doornail decades ago! Maddy provides additional examples of modern female heresy, and one set of no-nos in particular lands poorly with the Virgin Queen:

And the girls without the Church
Leave their lovers in the church
But seldom sleep alone
And think no more of Rome than a tourist town

And Gloriana sits slumped on the throne
Her head in her hands is weeping alone
Dreaming of the past and times that are gone
Dreams of time to come

Hey, lady, just because you couldn’t get laid, doesn’t mean we can’t get laid—and as far as consorting with Catholics is concerned, some of those Italian guys are seriously hot!

The underlying message is that attempting to cling to past glories and elevating yesterday’s heroes to iconic status moves us backward instead of forward, and those tendencies are particularly damaging to women who want to choose their future instead of being limited to a traditional role. You would have thought that Queen Elizabeth, of all people, would have recognized that, but it turns out that she wasn’t as insightful as nostalgia lovers would like us to believe.

While I admire the lyrical structure, the music is a bit over-the-top, over-produced and over-crowded. One could say that the majestic arrangement is itself an ironic comment on the monarchy itself, but I think a more restrained approach would have led to more satisfying results.

“Ali Baba”: This hot little number is the strongest rocker on the album (which is good), but the rapid pace of the vocals, the painfully delightful puns, the sudden stops encouraging a healthy ass thrust and the deliberately corny “Arabian music” all lead me to believe that if you replaced the musicians with the Kay Kyser band and brought in the Andrews Sisters, “Ali Baba” could have been a smash hit during the Swing Era.

Hmm. Maybe I should quit the EU and devote my energies to inventing my very own time machine. In addition to enriching the trajectory of modern music, there are a few world leaders I’d like to send back to the Mesozoic Era to enrich dinosaur diets.

The opening thrust combines Chris Stainton’s pounding piano and Doug Morter’s blues-heavy guitar riffs, foreshadowing the no-holds-barred music ahead. After a brief pause, Maddy launches her vocals, again handling the melody and harmony. Except for a few brief moments to give you time to take a breath between segments, the song flies under its own power up to the instrumental section. At that point, the rhythm changes to something more ceremonial, where Kevin Savigar takes center stage with a fair synthesized imitation of one of the double-reed instruments of Arabic music (either a mizmar, zurna or rhaita). Once Kevin has exhausted his bag of tricks, a powerful transitional drum fill takes us back to full-speed-ahead rock and roll, where Doug Morter takes over to deliver a ripping guitar solo. After Maddy completes the closing verse, the transitional stop is followed by an a cappella rendering of the chorus, with her lead and harmonic vocals backed by handclaps. The music is an absolute hoot, and if you find yourself unable to smile at least once during this song, you might want to have your physicians check for hemorrhoids.

The lyrics deal with the shift in global power that took place in the 70s, thanks to Western dependence on foreign oil. Unlike the millions in the West who damned OPEC all to hell for oil and gas shortages, Maddy took a neutral stance and added a historical perspective to place the event in context. It’s important to note that Ali Baba was the good guy in the story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” and Maddy sticks to that portrayal:

Ali Baba burning the midnight oil
He don’t fret and he don’t toil
But who will put out the light
Who can compete with those Arabian Nights?

She also goes so far as to paint a positive image of Arabian culture, displaying a gift for wordplay:

In the desert a nomad is no bad thing
Pitch your tent next to a Bedouin
But choose a good date to read your palm
And listen to the words of the desert song

Even more surprising, she views the Crusades from the Muslim perspective, turning the definition of “infidel” upside-down: “The Saracen swords fought the infidel hordes/Richard the Lionheart and the Christendom Lords.”

In the end, Maddy displays a certain admiration for their bloodless conquest of the West:

Conspicuous in purdah down Harley Street
The Sheiks of the desert got the system beat
But all the warriors of Islam
Never did win what the oil has won

Unfortunately, the hankering for crude has increased over the years, making it more likely that we will lose the real battle . . .  the battle for survival.

“The Mountain” (Sarah Deco): Sarah Deco’s biography is quite fascinating. As she notes on her website, “In my teens and early twenties, I wrote songs and toured as a singer-songwriter. I was lucky enough to be the support act for a time for the wonderful and long-lived folk rock band, Steeleye Span.” After concluding that phase in her life, she “worked in the field of mental health and personal development for several decades as an art therapist, group therapist, and psychoanalytic psychotherapist.” Sarah now devotes her efforts to the art of storytelling, spurred by her belief that stories are “absolutely essential in making sense of our experience in this complex world of ours.”

“The Mountain” is an early example of her gift for storytelling and her ability to create poetically economic lyrics to convey rich stories with emotional impact.

The arrangement and positioning of the various parts in the soundscape are simply marvelous, with Sarah on piano (to the left), the string arrangement spreading across the spectrum at the bottom and Maddy’s echo-enhanced voice placed at the top and back, as if she is singing from the top of the mountain that separates the two potential lovers in the tale:

Lady lives on a mountain
Lover lives below in the town
Every morning and night he calls to her
Calls to her to make the sacrifice

And the mountain is of his making
And she is still waiting for his love

This tantalizing opening is essentially a string of unanswered questions. What sacrifice is she expected to make? How is the mountain “of his making?” The situation becomes clearer in the subsequent verse-chorus pairing:

She tried so hard to reach the standards set for her
And to hide the feelings angels never have
But it was only his fear that stopped him getting too near
And only her shame that made her feel the same

And the mountain is of his making
And she is still waiting for his love

It would appear that the lady is struggling to meet societal expectations of women, while her lover is a traditionalist, afraid to get to know the real person inside the woman. The shame she feels is a classic case of self-deprecation in response to those expectations, and she beats herself up for having contrary feelings—the “Why can’t I be normal?” syndrome.

Following an instrumental rendering of chords and melody, with piano and strings joined by bright, tinkly sounds from the keyboard, our story ends with the two lovers unable to reconcile their differences: he wants a generic wife; she wants to be loved for who she truly is.

As day breaks over thе mountain
The mist clears and the icy slopеs dissolve
Mist made the mountain look so beautiful
But left so many problems unsolved

And the mountain is of his making
And she is still waiting for his love

Maddy’s vocals are breathtaking, moving from ethereal in the verses to heightened intensity in the chorus, with a strong emphasis on the line “And the mountain is of his making.” The melancholy mood expressed in the words and music is offset by the sheer beauty of the piece.

“In Fighting”: If you can imagine Ralph Kramden actually living up to his threat to send Alice to the moon—and you can be damned sure that Alice would fight back—you’ll appreciate this tale of marital misery:

I know you can take care of yourself
He said as he slugged her on the chin
No I can’t, she screamed at him
As she kicked him in the shin

Plates were flying everywhere
Cruel words fouled the air
The neighbours heard every word
But they were too far gone to care

The dark comedy continues “after hours of loving togetherness” (I suppose the heat generated by the argument made them super horny) when she tosses a teapot in his direction and adds a few digs directed at his masculinity (“But the insults went below the belt”). He responds in kind:

Not the crystal she pleaded
Anything but the cut glass
But it only proved incentive
And it hit the wall with an impressive crash

After a few more incidents of shared abusive behavior, “They shrugged in confusion/And fell exhausted back on the bed.” All through the song, Maddy inserts the chorus after each set-to, explaining why this mess of a couple will never make it work:

In fighting, in fighting
Starting a relationship at the end of an affair
In fighting, in fighting
Ruthless when you should be taking care

Aha! They were passionate fuck partners lured by the opposite’s sexual energy, using each other to get their rocks off while never bothering to connect as human beings. They should have realized that even the most perfect fuck is no guarantee that the provider of said fuck will give a shit about you. Practiced technique can be pleasurable, but it is no substitute for true love.

The arrangement ranges from restrained during the verses to intense during the chorus, allowing Maddy to play all three parts (he, she, narrator), giving her plenty of room to maneuver while highlighting the core message.

“Another Drink”: What’s this? Maddy sounds exhausted after all the hard work she put into this marvelous album . . . wait . . . I see her head is lounging on the bar . . . geez, she’s loaded!

Before I continue, I want to emphasize what Maddy said in relation to her songwriting approach: “My songs are in the first person, but they’re not always about me.” I doubt the powers that be would have honored her with an MBE if they thought she was a souse, so we can safely assume she’s playing a role here.

The music accompanying her binge is late-night bar, with brushes on the drum, jazz bass and a touch of clarinet. Maddy’s portrayal of a drunk is so realistic that it would be easy to believe that she’s in some dive instead of in the studio, and like all drunks, she’s determined to give up the sauce (or so she claims):

Happy hour highballs at half price
Tequila and vermouth without ice
Peanuts first to stimulate a thirst
A simple effective sales device

But I’m not going to take another drink
I’m never going to take another drop
I said it last night and the night before
But this time I’m really going to stop . . .

It makеs you fat and fuzzy in the head
And I’m sick of drinking alka seltzer every night before I go to bed
Lemonade’s fine with just a touch of white wine
So maybe I’ll drink that instead

Yeah, sure. I was lucky to have a mother who drilled the need for moderation when enjoying life’s naughty pleasures into my head when I was in my early teens. Some aren’t so lucky, and the lemonade with a touch of white wine will likely lead to another full-on binge.

*****

The punks may have prevented Changing Winds from achieving commercial success, but make no mistake—Changing Winds is a timeless album that revealed Maddy Prior’s hidden talent for songwriting and demonstrated her remarkable ability to lend her voice to multiple genres and styles. Double bravo!

And now that I’ve eliminated American musicians from consideration (see home page), I have more time to explore both Maddy’s work and the remaining albums in Steeleye Span’s discography.