The North Star Grassman and the Ravens [IMPORT] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Sandy Denny

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 7, 2005)
• Original Release Date: February 7, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Ume Imports
• ASIN: B0007Q6RS6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,425 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Digitally remastered reissue of her 1971 album includes the bonus tracks 'Late November', 'Walking The Floor Over You' (Nsg & Tr Sessions), 'Losing Game' (Nsg & Tr Sessions) & 'Next Time Around (alternate take). Universal. 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Denny's First Solo Album!, August 6, 2005

By	Morten Vindberg - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Sandy Denny's first solo album was recorded shortly after she had disbanded her group Fotheringay in late 1970. All Fotheringay members were present at the recordings of Sandy's album, so it's no surprise that quite many songs sound like Fotheringay. The opening song "Late November" was actually intended for a second Fotheringay album, that was never finished. Fotheringay did record the song and that version is included among the bonus-tracks. Though only one song , the great "Blackwaterside", is a traditional folk-song, there is a very folkish feel to many of Sandy's own songs. Especially on "John the Gun" and the title track.

Other songs are quite complicated, both musically and lyrically ( her lyrics at times are pretty cryptic ). "Next Time Around", "The Optimist" and "Wretched Wilbur" may be the easiest songs to get into, but eventually they are bound to grow on you.

Two tracks "Down in the Flood" and "Let's Jump the Broomstick" ( and 2 more among the bonus-tracks ) are rockers a little in the same vein as the "Bunch" project recorded in early 1972 with most of the same people, who are backing Sandy on this album. Among them the outstanding guitarist and song-writer Richard Thompson.

Though the album may sound slightly more dated than her other solo-albums, it's still a great album.

My favourites are "Blackwaterside", "Wretched Wilbur", "Crazy Lady Blues" and both versions of "Late November"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Crazy Lady Blues', June 15, 2008

By	Paul Ess. (Holywell, N.Wales,UK.) - See all my reviews

Even the much-maligned (by me) 'bonus tracks' on 'TNSGATR' are good. Unforced. Segueing with the album proper so you don't see the join. With no hint of that desperate lets-cram-any-old-garbage on, and watch the fans cream themselves at the very notion of 'previously unreleased'- there's usually a good reason why things are 'unreleased....'

The album itself is perfection. Soulful, powerful, lyrical, in fact everything you could want from a music, regardless of your preference or bias. This level of haunting beauty has 'broad' appeal.

Denny sings like a Guinnessed-up chorister. Her voice, (inspiration to every-one from Stevie Nicks to the criminally under-rated Gay Woods {!}) is sharp and worldly. You can sense her vibrancy as a person from the wacky but intense 'Brit Folk World'; a faintly Shire-type neverland, all festivals, 'herbs' and cider and she's magnificently supported by the completely heroic, (and fellow 'BFW' inhabitant) Richard Thompson, whose musicianship is faultless throughout.

I've always found the Fairports to be a bit deep (anti-shallow would be a better term) but Denny takes 'TNSGATR' to much murkier depths of moodiness and mystery. Each song has a beguiling darkness, and with Thompson in rich unison they take on an intoxication which almost induces light-headedness in the emotional listener.

It's not quite Joy Division, (though there are STARTLING similarities!) but we're certainly not dancing round the fertility pole on May-Day here. 'John the Gun' for example, could appear on a horror film soundtrack. Beautiful in all the right places, but violent lyrically with a violin part that'll rattle your sensibilities then prompt you to check the sleeve photos and have a good hard look into Sandy Denny`s eyes....

It's an album you have to listen to in it's entirety, you can't just play individual tracks. It blows an addictive breath across its completeness, and that voice....
Haunting and harrowing. You know she suffered, but you can't help celebrating. We're glad we've got the music, however morbidly disrespectful that sounds.

The only duffer is a bland cover version of 'Let's Jump the Broomstick', but that's brutal nit-picking.
'TNSGATR' is stinging, timeless music, and in this instance the dreaded phrase 'bonus tracks' doesn't bring you out in a stress-rash but it is in fact, an acute critical appraisal.
The whole album's a bonus.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of this artist's best, February 11, 2007

By	jblyn (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

Back when music came on vinyl albums with "sides" that you turned over to play, "Side Two" of this album got a workout on my turntable. It contains some of Sandy Denny's finest songs and finest singing, with two particular standouts, "Next Time Around" and the title song. On both, the qualities that those know and love in Denny come to the fore immediately---an earthy grit to her voice that is lovely rather than coarse, songs that defy any particular time and era to connect with the listener, combined with arrangements that enhance both these other traits. They're beautiful. The rest of the album is only slightly less arresting than those two songs, but "slightly" is the important word here. With the exception of a rather rote version of Bob Dylan's "Down In The Flood," Denny is in top-form throughout, ably assisted by long-time cohorts including Richard Thompson, Gerry Conway and her former husband Trevor Lucas.

Sandy Denny left this world far too soon, but the music she made still stands up today, for all seasons. Get this CD and listen....you won't be disappointed.