Hi you may have already seen this, but here's more details about what's in the new Sandy boxed set.
Disc 1: Sandy’s earliest studio recordings with Alex Campbell and Johnny Silvo, and solo performances recorded for It’s Sandy Denny.
Disc 2: Sandy and the Strawbs; All Our Own Work, and recordings on the Swedish Fly Girls.
Disc 3: The first two Fairport Convention albums featuring Sandy; What We Did On Our Holidays and Unhalfbricking, plus previously unreleased alternative takes.
Disc 4: Fairport Convention’s Liege and Lief – the album voted ‘Most Important Folk Album of All Time’ by Radio 2 listeners and at number 58 in Mojo’s ‘100 Records That Changed The World’. Plus unreleased alternative takes.
Disc 5: Fotheringay and Fotheringay 2, plus alternative mixes.
Disc 6: Sandy’s first solo album; The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens, plus unreleased bonus and alternative mixes and Sandy’s performances on The Bunch’s Rock On.
Disc 7: The second solo album, simply called Sandy, plus unreleased and alternative versions. Also included is the Pass of Arms short film soundtrack.
Disc 8: 1974’s Like An Old Fashioned Waltz together with alternative and unreleased bonus tracks.
Disc 9: Sandy’s solo performances from Fairport’s Live Convention and Rising for the Moon, plus unreleased alternative versions.
Disc 10: Sandy’s final album; Rendezvous, plus unreleased tracks, alternative versions and b-sides.
Disc 11: Gold Dust: Live at the Royalty, recording of Sandy’s final concert at the Royal Theatre, London in 1977.
Disc 12: A collection of unreleased home recordings made between 1966-68.
Disc 13: A selection of early solo material including demos and live BBC sessions recorded during Sandy’s first stint with Fairport Convention.
Disc 14: A selection of Fotheringay material, much of it unreleased. Includes studio demos, alternative takes, outtakes and band rehearsals. Also contains Sandy’s solo performances from the Holland Pop Festival in Rotterdam in 1970.
Disc 15: Contains a collection of unreleased demos from The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens album, unreleased BBC TV performances and the first demos recorded for the Sandy album.
Disc 16: Unreleased demos for the whole of the Sandy album, plus many unreleased demos, alternative and acoustic versions of tracks that went on to form Like An Old Fashioned Waltz.
Disc 17: The first official release of many tracks from Fairport Convention’s Live At The LA Troubadour concert in 1974, plus 2 rare BBC interviews and unreleased BBC Session tracks.
Disc 18: Unreleased tracks and outtakes from Sandy’s final album Rendezvous alongside unreleased acoustic versions and demos. Also contains Sandy’s very last studio performance ‘Moments’.
Disc 19: A collection of demos recorded at home between 1974 to 1977, many unreleased. This disc ends with the last song she ever recorded; ‘Makes Me Think of You’.
It's not often that box sets like this come along; 19cds from the recordings made by the UK's finest folk singer; Sandy Denny. The set is, essentially, in two parts. The first is made up of all of her studio recordings with added bonus tracks and the second is made up entirely of outtakes, demos, rarities and live recordings. So far, around 100 unreleased versions have been discovered, many more are on CD for the first time. Many are acoustic demos, stripped down versions featuring Sandy on her own or with her guitar. Here are some of the key highlights:
Lord Bateman [demo]: A real discovery of a song known to have been recorded but thought to have been lost. It was at the very end of a reel labelled as `blank, Sandy's voice suddenly sprang out, unaccompanied. A band arrangement had been prepared earlier where Sandy had obviously envisioned editing the lyrics into a shorter version, but no vocal was recorded on those sessions, and this version is much longer and performed at a different speed.
Makes Me Think Of You: This is one of Sandy's final recordings and certainly her last original composition. Poignantly, the lyrics to the song are the final entry in her notebook. The demo was recorded some time in 1977 after the main studio sessions for Rendezvous had already taken place and was most likely a work in progress intended for the next album.
Moments (Acoustic version): An alternative version from Sandy's final studio session. Three arrangements were tried the first with a piano, a band arrangement with electric guitar, which was subsequently issued, and this acoustic version. This track is actually the final recording Sandy ever made.
She Moves Through The Fair (Acoustic version): Amazingly this track is cut in a single take, recorded live with Sandy on guitar; the arrangement was later overdubbed onto this sublime Sandy performance. You can actually hear Sandy tapping in time on the body of her guitar.
The Pond and the Stream [studio demo]: An excellent self accompanied demo from an early Fotheringay session reel. This is particularly special, as other than the album version no other version of this song survives.
Mr Lacey (Sandy lead vocal): There aren't a lot of outtakes or rehearsals from this period, but this great version with Sandy on lead vocal turned up. It's especially nice to have this as when Sandy rejoined Fairport she sang Mr Lacey during the 1975 tour, and although several bootlegs survive, until now there was no other high quality solo version.
The Way I Feel [original version]: This was the first song recorded by Fotheringay and was cut live in a single take at Sound Techniques. The song was later re-recorded with a slightly slower arrangement with Trevor Lucas on lead vocals, but this first version with Sandy and Trevor duet-ing on a powerful harmony vocal is surely definitive.
I'm A Dreamer (demo): An incredibly powerful and faultless take of one of Sandy's strongest songs, which like the best of her demos, stands alone as a complete performance. This demo is also much more finished than the previously issued version.
Dawn [Alternate version]: A really great discovery, of an alternate mix of this rare Sandy co-write with Jerry Donahue. This song really comes into its own with the acoustic arrangement and slimmed down production.
Candle in the wind (piano version): One of the real surprises on this set is how powerful and strong Sandy sounds on this song without the overdubs on the finished track.
Gold Dust: This original version of Gold Dust was intended as the finished title track to Sandy's fourth solo album. The song was subsequently re-recorded along with several other tracks for the album that was eventually released as Rendezvous. Sandy had not sounded as cutting edge since her early days in Fairport Convention.
Listen, Listen (demo): One of the earliest songs written for `Sandy' this demo recorded at Manor studios in Oxfordshire is a great opportunity to hear this well known song in an alternative version, here based around a piano melody, which would be switched to acoustic guitar on the final version.
Bushes and Briars [demo]: A haunting acoustic performance to rival the issued acoustic BBC version, but here sung with a lovely vocalise across the middle eight.
Whispering Grass [demo]: An excellent rehearsal of the Fats Waller song that outclasses the album version in performance and style; even without the Whispering Brass this performance has a more period feel to it than the finished one, and a superior vocal.
One Way Donkey Ride [acoustic version]: Cut in a single take this is simply one of Sandy's best songs and performances.
Wretched Wilbur [demo]: One of Sandy's cryptogram songs, originally entitled 'Seeds of Honesty' this acoustic demo is the definitive performance of this unusual song allegedly, and was found on a reel of demos for the North Star Grassman album.
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