Today is the anniversary of English singer/songwriter Sandy Denny’s untimely demise. Here she is in 1969 as a member of Fairport Convention with a mysterious recording of ‘A Sailor’s Life’, a song that (in its released version with fiddler Dave Swarbrick) more or less started ‘British folk-rock’, the genre that never quite goes away. This version is mysterious in that the standard tale for years was that Swarbrick joined the ‘Vench in a studio and instantaneously created a magic improvised duel with lead guitarist Dicky Thompo. But then this acetate of a presumably earlier version recorded without Dave turned up 30 years later. Happily, it’s also sensational.
Dicky Thompo on TV this weekend
I’m aware that there have been very few posts about the Thompmeister recently, so to address that, let me give the AW a heads up about a Fairport Convention docco on Sky Arts some time this weekend. Mrs H tells me Sky Arts is now ‘free’ for a period.
