Fotheringay - Biography
By J Poet
Fotheringay was a seminal British folk rock band formed by Sandy Denny and her partner Trevor Lucas after Denny left Fairport Convention. Denny was already a rising folk star when she joined Fairport, having made a well received solo album The Original Sandy Denny (1967 Saga UK, 1993 Mooncrest) as well as an album with The Strawbs All Our Own Work (1973 Pickwick) although the Strawbs set wasn’t released until after Denny became famous with Fairport.
Denny’s vocals and songwriting were a big part of Fairport’s success and her three albums with the group, What We Did On Our Holidays (1969 A&M, 2008 4 Men With Beards), Unhalfbricking (1969 A&M, 2008 4 Men With Beards) and Leige and Lief (1969 A&M, 2008 4 Men With Beards) the record credited with jump starting the British folk rock movement.
Denny left Fairport in late 1969 and with future husband Trevor Lucas created Fotheringay. They only made one complete album, Fotheringay (1970 A&M, 1991 Hannibal) and while it fared poorly at the time, its an important album in Denny’s career with five Denny originals that have stood the test of time: “Nothing More,” “The Sea,” “Winter Winds,” “Peace in the End,” and “The Pond and the Stream.” The album won Denny the title of Britain’s #1 singer in that year’s Melody Makers poll.
Denny went on to a brilliant solo career after the band fell apart, and Lucas, Conway, and Donahue all eventually joined Fairport; Conway also plays with Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle.
In 2007, Jerry Donahue fund the tapes for the album Fotheringay was working on when Denny went solo, and put together Fotheringay 2 (2008 Fledg’ling UK.) Donahue, Conway, and Donaldson recorded new tracks for the tunes keeping Denny’s rough vocals, which include a chilling rendition of her own “John the Gun,” one of her best recordings of “Wild Mountain Thyme” and her take on the country standard “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.” The album shows the band blending British folk and American country a direction Denny never followed up on. Donahue did nothing to make the music sound contemporary, so it stands proudly with the first Fotheringay album as a document of what might have been.
