Sandy (Remastered)

While Sandy Denny’s first solo album was very much an outgrowth of her time in Fairport Convention, 1972’s Sandy is where she came into her own as an artist. Though the personnel here is drawn from the Fairport family—with whole-hearted guitar work from Richard Thompson and production by Trevor Lucas, Denny’s collaborator and future husband—it also incorporates heroes of American music. The country-tinged “Bushes and Briars” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” both feature pedal-steel veteran Sneaky Pete Kleinow, while “For Nobody to Hear” sports a robust arrangement from New Orleans R&B genius Allen Toussaint. The album works well when it pushes Denny’s voice outside the context of traditional British folk, but even in the most rollicking moments her voice always carries the proud and unnerving sentiment of ancient Scotch-Irish balladry. “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” shows her mastery of that form, but Sandy succeeds because its author refused to simply replicate past traditions. She took the ancient bearing of that music and made it personal, as evinced by “The Music Weaver,” a proud songwriter’s autobiography told in a graceful epigram.