Sandy Denny
The North Star Grassman and the Ravens

THE REVIEW

The debut album of what can be described as the greatest singer-songwriter of all time was released in 1971. That year, the band that made her famous, Fairport Convention, was struggling with Angel Delight, only to partly recover with the concept album Babbacombe Lee. The decline of Fairport during those years was not coincidental; it was marked first by the departure of Denny herself and then by Richard Thompson, who, after the splendid Full House, went on to embellish this The North Star Grassman and the Ravens with his guitar intricacies.

The album mainly consists of ethereal and very introspective ballads written by Denny; departing from this framework are the beautiful reinterpretation of Bob Dylan's “Down in the Flood,” the martial “John the Gun,” and the light and deliberately shabby “Let's Jump the Broomstick.” But it is the splendid ballads that dominate the album: Late November is without a doubt one of the most beautiful songs ever written by Denny, full of a sublime pathos only partially dampened by the arrangements; to fully appreciate its beauty, I recommend listening to the acoustic versions recorded for the BBC. “Blackwaterside” is a well-rearranged traditional piece, a song of great charm perhaps superior to the already splendid version by Bert Jansch, which was later plagiarized by Led Zeppelin in their debut with “Black Mountain Side.” The melancholy title track “The North Star Grassman and the Ravens” is also very beautiful in its measured progression, as are “The Sea Captain,” delicate and introspective, “Next Time Around,” suggestive and spectral, and “Wretched Wilbur,” enriched by beautiful string arrangements. The album closes with the beautiful “Crazy Lady Blues,” the true quality of which can once again be appreciated in the sparse and magnificent versions from the BBC. If a critique must be made of the album, it should be noted that some tracks appear slightly over-arranged (a fact reiterated by the bonus tracks of the remastered 2005 edition, apart from the splendid “Next Time Around” devoid of strings), and, in some cases, there is the feeling that the musical accompaniment pales in comparison to Denny's majestic vocal interpretations.

Although it is not at the level of the subsequent album (Sandy), nor that of the first three Fairport albums recorded with her, in light of the excellent quality of the vocal performances, as well as the compositional level of the material, this must be considered a refined album that is indispensable for those who love great music.