Steeleye Span - Hark! The Village Wait (RCA 1970) 24-bit/96kHz Vinyl Rip

Steeleye Span's debut is in many ways the heir apparent to Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief" released a year before. After that landmark recording, Ashley Hutchings left to form his own group that was to focus more on traditional music, contrasting with Fairport's more eclectic mindset. He formed Steeleye Span along with Maddy Prior, Tim Hart, and Gay and Terry Woods.
In spite of this lineage, "Hark the Village Wait" is a more tentative and timid affair than was "Liege and Lief", but also more consistent. The band does seem to be having a bit of trouble integrating the strong personalities, and the recording ends up being quite an anomaly in the vast Steeleye discography, being the only one of the first 3 to contain drums (albeit furnished by hired musicians) and the only one to include the Woods'.
The one aspect for which they are all on the same page is the desire to bring to life English, Scottish, and Irish traditional songs and dances, which they spell out clearly in "Calling-on Song". It is followed by their first rendition of "Blacksmith". The blacksmith, with his arsenal of masculine tools, symbolizes a sort of blue collar virility which attracts the protagonist. This type of sexual symbolism runs rampant in these traditional tunes, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, but the theme was to reappear frequently in Steeleye Span's interpretations. The band also selects the excellent "Blackleg Miner" and "Lowlands of Holland" and performs them admirably. Kenneth Levine, Progarchives.

The album's title refers not to the act of waiting, but to a "Wait". Waits were a small body of wind instrumentalists 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. Wikipedia

Track listing:

A1. A Calling-On Song

A2. The Blacksmith

A3. Fisherman's Wife

A4. Blackleg Miner

A5. Dark-Eyed Sailor

A6. Copshawholme Fair

B1. All Things Are Quite Silent

B2. The Hills of Greenmore

B3. My Johnny Was a Shoemaker

B4. Lowlands of Holland

B5. Twa Corbies

B6. One Night As I Lay On My Bed

Tim Hart: Vocals, electric guitar. electric dulcimer,
fiddle, 5 string banjo, harmonium
Ashley Hutchings: Electric bass guitar
Maddy Prior: Vocals, 5 string banjo
Gay Woods: Vocals, concertina, autoharp, bodhran
Terry Woods: Vocals, electric guitar, concertina,
mandola, 5 string banjo, mandolin
Gerry Conway: Drums on A2, A3, A5, A6, B1, B2
Dave Mattacks: Drums on A4, B4, B5, B6

Produced by Sandy Roberton and Steeleye Span