COMMONERS CROWN

Adding the drummer and multi-instrumentalist Nigel Pegrum to the band line-up on Now We Are Six changed the sound of the band significantly. Especially on Please to See The King and Parcel of Rogues, two absolutely stunning albums, the music was a pretty sizzling variety of electric folk, songs which were floating away on jagged fiddle ostinatos, distant dulcimer notes and archaic vocal harmonies.

None of these descriptions really matches this album. Although all of the songs have traditional origins, the fundament of the music is pure rock music - slowly stomping bass drums, surprisingly straightforward riffs, but always using some stylistic devices to stay in touch with the traditions.

At first there's the album opener Little Sir Hugh which welcomes the listener in a mildly uncomfortable fashion. Lyrically, it's a shocking tale of a child murder - musically, it lives on Rick Kemp's jolty bass guitar work and an absolutely catchy chorus, which could surely have been a single hit - were it not for the lyrics in which a mysterious lady feeds the young Sir Hugh with sugar and then stabs him to death. And these lyrics are even sung in a mild version: the story depicts the alleged circumstances of some centuries ago when Jews were accused of exerting ritual murders on young children. A hazardous topic which the band wisely decided to exclude from the album. This piece already reveals - and that's the amazing thing about this album and Now We Are Six - that Steeleye Span were now completely able to transform old folk songs into contemporary (and sometimes quite un-folky) rock pieces without changing the melodies and chord progressions too much. Noteworthy in this respect is especially the chiming guitar-and-fiddle 3/8 part which always comes up immediately after the chorus: slight vibes of ancient times, but clothed in contemporary robe.

Of course, the album also has the inevitable piece of traditional dance music which onBach Goes To Limerick is a considerably different take on a traditional dance tune since it grabs two different kinds of music (Baroque polyphony and a Celtic jigs) at the place where they intersect, which is the cascading melodics and the wish to superimpose independent counterpoints on a simple melodic bedrock. I especially enjoy the quiet 1-minute intro which is kind of a menuet played by Nigel Pegrum (oboe), Pete Knight (piano) and Rick Kemp (bass) and which mashes up fragments of popular Bach pieces in a humorously severe manner. Afterwards round it goes!

The long Long Lankin arguably is the pinnacle of the six-piece Steeleye Span line-up in which the dark ambience of ancient horror tales, Pete Knight's subtle arrangements and the multi-part art rock structure tie in that well with each other that you really don't know if that song is pop, rock, ancient traditional balladry or a part of some rock opera. Basically, the track consists of two parts made up of one traditional song by re-arranging its words a little bit. This allows the band to get some kind of variation between the gorgeous mid-tempo ballad frame (with Tim Hart's delicately finger-picked acoustic guitar) and the relatively heavy middle part. But at no place the song outstays its welcome, in spite of the huge amount of verses, because there's always a new little part somewhere inbetween, sometimes the drums intermit for a few bars. In total this is a perfect example how folk music can be adapted to song structures and arrangements which bear heavy relation to what is now called symphonic prog - but the basic slow 4/4 rhythm stays the same all the time.

The hunting song Dogs And Ferrets is the first of the really scarce songs on this album, only led by the wicked rhythm of the hammered dulcimer (which is really low in the mix) and the nervous harmony vocals which stumble around on this backing, only to be startled by some unexpectedly loud hammered dulcimer notes inbetween. This song is first question mark in my face, but still quite fascinating and intelligently arranged.

Unfortunately, the high quality of the first side cannot be fully maintained during the course of the whole album. And that ain't because of some simple pop fillers, but rather due to some songs which I don't really understand since their arrangements are so utterly sparse.

Galtee Farmer is based on a monotonous piccicato violin rhythm and features Maddy Prior singing a song about a horse which is sold multiple times until its original price is absolutely twisted, and meanwhile the galloping violin drone grows on and on. The whole song is totally dizzying because it turns around and around until you lose track of the course of the story. And, to add to the confusion, the carefully built up tension slowly ebbs away in the end, just after Tim Hart's electric dulcimer really comes in the forefront after lurking around really low in the mix for some minutes. This kind of song structure is totally creative, and perhaps the closest folk can approach avant-garde realms, but I simply don't get it.

Elf Call is a bit similar, but adds a whole band arrangement with a tight stomping backbeat, a really uncommon rhythm to accompany a carpet of vibrating electric dulcimer arpeggios and hard guitar power chords with. Again, the band gives the song a lot of resonance due to the huge backing vocals of Kemp, Knight, Hart and Johnson. But after one verse and one chorus the piece breaks down, only to start anew with the second verse, and after another chorus and another breakdown the band do a reprise of the first verse again. And, of course, each verse is already repetitive in itself. Then, surprisingly, the song itself already ends after hardly three minutes - the last minute consists of that very same dulcimer drone and the very same drum rhythm with some extra (but basic) bass licks added for good measure. This whole arrangement sounds a lot as if there was supposed to be a guitar solo in the end of a song, a solo which may have been deleted - or never recorded due to time restraints. Somehow this drum rhythm is just a bit too basic to keep me entertained for four minutes without a lot going on - even Richard Thompson's 1975 post-Fairport Pour Down Like Silver album, which completely lacks the participation of a guitarist who should actually overdub guitars on every song, features more 'action' throughout.

Demon Lover is graced with a really beautiful verse melody - and Steeleye Span do their very best to give it enough little tricky twists and (positively) unwieldy instrumental parts. The step from certain melodies on Hart & Prior's pastoral 1971 Summer Solstice record onto the quite beautiful verses is more than traceable, but why do they have to repeat the chorus that frequently? The chorus, at least in this arrangement, is pretty banal and not the best thing about this piece, somehow becoming the straw which breaks the camel's back in this situation.

Weary Cutters is another Maddy Prior multi-tracking extravaganza - it's sparse, too, but spawns a huge charisma and atmosphere all the way through. Basically it's an a-capella rendition of a lament of a girl mourning over the state pressing her partner to serve the navy. But, just like on The Weaver And The Factory Maid, Prior adds lots of immaculately performed harmony vocal tracks which tower above each other; in the end it might well be more than six feathery vocal tracks, and there's no wrongly sung note which could distract you from the dense mood. After these two minutes of contemplation the contrast to the album closer New York Girls couldn't be bigger - a boozy song about a man who tries to hustle a woman who then fills him up with alcohol and finally robs him. That story is similar to the famous Rambling Sailor song, as performed by the Albion Country Band and by Tim Hart, but set to a different tune. Somehow the band managed to make actor Pete Sellers play the ukulele and speak some gibberish on the track, and - astonishingly - the gruffly-strummed ukulele fits in extremely well with the bawdy vocals and the crunchy electric guitars. Interestingly, every male singer in the band sings lead on two verses of the song each while Maddy Prior (or, again, rather some Maddy Priors) provide(s) the chorus, which too helps making this song extremely entertaining.

Taken together, Commoner's Crown leaves too many question marks in my head, even after a lot of listens, to convince me to rate with four stars. It's a wee bit better than All Around My Hat, a wee bit less striking than Now We Are Six, but still an important and partially grand example of how progressive rock and folk songs can go together. A recommendation is up to the question if you like the band, especially Maddy Prior's bright voice, or the genre, but albums like Please To See The King, Hark! The Village Wait or Parcel of Rogues are certainly more striking in their immediacy. Still, about 40% of the album is - in my opinion - essential first class art/folk rock listening, and especially Little Sir Hugh might be a good choice to listen through in order to check if you might make friends with the progressive folk rock in general.

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