All Around My Hat

Steeleye Span

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 27, 1989)
• Original Release Date: 1975
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shanachie
• ASIN: B000000E7L
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #194,394 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Black Jack Davey

2. Hard Times of Old England

3. Cadgwith Anthem

4. All Around My Hat

5. Gamble Gold (Robin Hood)

6. Wife of Usher's Well

7. Sum Waves [Instrumental]

8. Dance with Me

9. Bachelor's Hall

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of Their Best, December 23, 1999

By	Ronald D. Morley (Gobles, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In spite of the opinion of the editorial review that you'll find earlier on this page this album deserves greater recognition for its good points. This was my initial Steeleye Span purchase. I first heard "All Around My Hat" on KISW in Seattle, Washington late one night and immediately fell in love with Maddy Prior's voice (I've still got the tape of that original broadcast.) Purchase of the album the next day (sometime in 1975 if memory serves) proved to me that my initial impression was correct. Maddy's wonderful soprano comes through beautifully on this album and it will make any listener sit up and take notice.

If nothing else this album is a wonderful way to introduce others, particularly people with a rock'n'roll background, to English folk music. In spite of the adverse commentary of the editorial I find that this album stands up very well against other Steeleye Span albums (and I have all of them.) The lyricism of "Old England" or "Gamble Gold (Robin Hood)" is also to be found on other Steeleye Span albums, including earlier ones such as _Hark The Village Wait_, with it's wonderful, indeed haunting, version of "Dark Eyed Sailor."

Going to the other end of the spectrum is the strictly instrumental "Sum Waves (Tunes)." It's arrangement is simple, in keeping with the instrumentation, and certainly worth the time it takes to listen to it. In like manner "Cadgwith Anthem" is done largely a cappela (there are some horns mixed in for the last verse), hardly the overly orchestrated, poorly mixed tune that the editorial writer would have you believe make up this album.

Suffice it to say that this album belongs in any Steeleye Span fan's collection. Also, if you have no other Steeleye Span album, this is the one to have. If you're at all like me you'll end up with all the wonderful albums from this very talented, if much overlooked and misunderstood, group of eclectic Englishpersons. The music has held up extremely well with the passing years and I am sure that it will continue to do so.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine album for fans of British folk-rock, April 29, 2002

By	woburnmusicfan (Woburn, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This album sounds like a glossier version of a "Liege and Lief"-era Fairport Convention. Maddy Prior and whichever of the guitarists is doing the male lead vocals (my CD has lyrics, but no band or song credits) both have fine strong voices, and remind me more than a little of Fairport's Denny and Swarbrick. Although several songs have been decked out with orchestration, it doesn't overwhelm the band like on a Renaissance album. On "Batchelors Hall", the big wall of strings on the chorus makes the vocals seem fuller. The production is crisp, and the playing and harmonies are fine without being showy. I like my folk-rock to lean toward rock, and this album doesn't disappoint. "All Around My Hat", "Hard Times of Old England", and "Dance with Me" are all lively danceable tunes. "Black Jack Davy" is an adultery song reminiscent of "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" or "Matty Groves". "Gamble Gold" describes a fight between Robin Hood and his cousin, while "Dance with Me" cheerfully recounts an elf princess' attempt to seduce a knight. This is my first Steeleye Span CD, and it's given me a taste for more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great !, May 12, 2002

By A Customer

This was my first Steeleye Span album, and on first hearing Black Jack Davy I was enchanted. It`s a fine example of Bob Johnson`s talent for adapting a traditional tune in such a way that it is completely re-invented, given new life, but still manages to sound `traditional` and `authentic`. Wonderful. This is one album that I always listen to right the way through and never get bored with any of the tracks. If the `purists` don`t approve then no one is forcing them to buy/listen to it. British traditional music just HAD to be adapted to a rock format - it was inevitable, and frankly I think that most of Steeleye Span`s rearrangements of old songs actually sound much better than the original dry and stuffy old acoustic versions. That`s my opinion, anyway. The only reason there was no folk/ROCK back in ye olde tymes was because musicians didn`t have electric instruments.....
In response to an earlier reviewer, and to the best of my knowledge, Tim Hart sings lead vocal on Wife of Ushers Well, Bob Johnson on Gamble Gold, and Rick Kemp(bass player) sings lead vocal on Batchelors Hall. The first album that Peter Knight(fiddler) sang lead on, I think, was Sails of Silver(1980).