Hark! The Village Wait
| Hark! The Village Wait | ||||
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| Studio album by Steeleye Span | ||||
| Released | June 1970 | |||
| Recorded | March 1970 Sound Techniques, London |
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| Genre | Electric folk | |||
| Length | 38:55 | |||
| Label | RCA, United Artists, Mooncrest, Chrysalis | |||
| Producer | Sandy Roberton and Steeleye Span | |||
| Steeleye Span chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |
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Hark! The Village Wait is the debut album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span, first released in 1970. It is the only album to feature the original lineup of the band, for they broke up and reformed with an altered membership immediately after its release, without having ever performed live. Hence, it is one of only two Steeleye Span studio albums to feature two female vocalists (Maddy Prior and Gay Woods), the other being Time (1996). A similar sound was exhibited years later when Prior teamed up with June Tabor to form Silly Sisters. Overall, the album's sound is essentially folk music with rock drumming and bass guitar added to some of the songs. The banjo features prominently on several tracks, including "Blackleg Miner", "Lowlands of Holland" and "One Night as I Lay on My Bed".
The album's title refers to not the act of waiting, but to a "Wait". A Wait was 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.
Over the years, the band have returned to the material on this album several times. On their second album, Please to See the King, they offered a new version of "The Blacksmith". On Back in Line they offered a new live version of "Blackleg Miner", and they offered a third variation on Present--The Very Best of Steeleye Span. On Time they reprised "Twa Corbies". "Copshawholme Fair" had two years earlier been recorded by Prior and Tim Hart on their album Folk Songs of Olde England Vol. 2. Copshaw Holm, otherwise known as Newcastleton, has been the site of a folk festival since 1970. Maddy Prior has lived nearby, just over the border in Cumbria, at "Stones Barn" for several years.
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