TIM HART AND MADDY PRIOR – SUMMER SOLSTICE LP – Nr MINT ORIG UK STEELEYE SPAN FOLK

Tim Hart and Maddy Prior – Summer Solstice
(B&C Records  1971  CAS1035)
Matrix No’s: A2/B3 – UK Pressing

EJ Day Gatefold Sleeve in Excellent+ condition
– some wear to corners/edges & small light discolouration mark in bottom left corner

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Tim Hart (9 January 1948 – 24 December 2009) was an English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of British folk rock band Steeleye Span.

Madelaine Edith “Maddy” Prior, MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span.She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police drama Z-Cars. She was married to Rick Kemp and their daughter Rose Kemp is also a singer. She was part of the singing duo ‘Mac & Maddy’ with Mac MacLeod. She then performed with Tim Hart and recorded 2 albums with him before they helped to found the group Steeleye Span in 1969. She left Steeleye Span in 1997 but returned in 2002 and has toured with them in 2008/9 and 2013. With June Tabor she was the singing duo Silly Sisters. She toured with the Carnival Band in 2007 and with Giles Lewin and Hannah James in 2012 and 2013. She has released singles and albums as a solo artist, with these bands and in several collaborations. She runs an Arts Centre called Stones Barn in Cumbria which offers residential courses.

Summer Solstice is a 1971 album by Maddy Prior and Tim Hart. The album was recorded after the duo had joined Steeleye Span. The songs are mostly pastoral, with subtle understated instrumental accompaniment. It differs from the duo’s previous two Folk Songs Of Old England albums in its use of multitracking techniques (both on vocals and instruments), as well as additional flourishes of electric instruments on three tracks.

Track listing

All tracks (except 8 and 10) traditional, arranged by Hart and Prior.

1. False Knight on the Road (3:03)
2. Bring Us in Good Ale (3:51)
3. Of All the Birds (0:53)
4. I Live not Where I Love (4:25)
5. The Ploughboy and the Cockney (3:40)
6. Westron Wynde (0:27)
7. Sorry the Day I Was Married (1:29)
8. Dancing at Whitsun (3:40) (by Austin John Marshall, Copper Family)
9. Fly up My Cock (1:45)
10. Cannily Cannily (2:25) (by Ewan MacColl)
11. Adam Catched Eve (0:25)
12. Three Drunken Maidens (2:14)
13. Serving Girls Holiday (3:41)

Personnel

Musicians

• Maddy Prior – vocals
• Tim Hart – vocals, acoustic guitar (1,4,5,8,12), electric guitar (5), acoustic appalachian dulcimer (2,10,13), electric appalachian dulcimer (13), harmonium (2,5), psaltery (2), tabor (13)
• Andy Irvine – mandolin (10)
• John Ryan – string bass (10,12)
• Gerry Conway – percussion (1), bells (2)
• Pat Donaldson – electric bass (1,5)
• Robert Kirby – string arrangement (4)

Production

• Producer: Sandy Roberton
• Engineers: Jerry Boys, Roger Mayer, Vic Gamm
• Art Direction, illustration: Grahame Berney, Keith Davis
• Photography: Keith Morris