PLEASE TO SEE THE KING

As the Irish couple Gay & Terry Wood had left the group, the remaining trio set out to find suitable replacements, the first of which was rather evident with Martin Carthy, one of the most influential of the male singers with Davy Graham and Bert Jansch in the mid-65, before Donovan's rise to stardom. The second player came in later as obvious since Carthy was well acquainted and playing with the then-busy with Fairport Convention Dave Swarbrick, they headed for the second fiddle (figure of speech of course) Peter Knight, which only helped consolidate comparison with FC. BTW, no this is sophomore jinx y, not only is this almost as fine an album as Hark, but it's this line-up's first album, their second being the disastrous TMM.

Released on a subsidiary Charisma label B&C with a misleading medieval artwork on its sleeve, SS's second album is still a worthy folk and folk rock album, but it's hardly groundbreaking and certainly not musically medieval the way Malicorne, Ougenweide or Gryphon were in their respective cultures. There are some really good songs like the opening Blacksmiths (a fairly different version than on the debut album), the fun Boys of Bedlam (with its good banjo middle section), False Knight On The Road, Morning Lark etc. all of whom are little more than electrified folk, not even specifically folk rock, yet. Nothing groundbreaking, but pleasant, one step above what had been done in the 50's and 60's by the Collins sisters and Davey Graham. Of slightly more interest (prog-wise) are Cold, Hailey, Windy Nights (where Hutchings' excellent bass playing with Carthy's electric guitar - it sounds like a typically jangly Rickenbacker - are both awesome) and the album-closing Lovely On The Water that is probably the album's highlight. The absence of drums is not hindering the group's sound, but keeping them traditional.

Other songs, pulled from old catalogues and archives, are obviously chosen for discreet filling purpose, such as the Scot piece Prince Charlie Stuart (rather irritating fiddle trying to fill in for bagpipes) or the short The King (a capella). Unfortunately, one of the traps they can't avoid falling in now that they've got a violin player is these dumb jigs and here we get a medley of them, here the "Bryan And Money Hag" thingy and later on in the album Female Drummer; but worse was to come with the weak follow-up. So, with their second line-up (shall we say SS MarkII?), PTSTK is good folk album that's a worthy successor to Hark while failing to match its brilliance, it's also of limited interest in terms of progheads looking progressive folk, but it's much better than the downright weak Ten Man mop to come.

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