Owl Service, The
A Tribute To Sandy Denny
The Owl Service is an English alternative folk music collective that was formed in 2006 by multi-instrumentalist Steven Paul Collins (who has led the band for its entire duration), and were named after the 1967 novel by Alan Garner. This release sees Steven Collins paying homage to the lady who started it all Way back in 1990, Collins was a teenage metalhead working in his local record shop when one day a colleague put Fotheringay's classic 1970 album on the shop stereo and a new musical landscape at once opened up for him. Discovering the music of Sandy Denny was the first step on the path that would eventually lead to the formation of THE OWL SERVICE some 16 years later. From her work with The Strawbs, through the three seminal 1969 Fairport Convention albums, the aforementioned Fotheringay record, and her diverse 1970s solo output, Sandy has remained a constant inspiration to Collins, and is one of the key influences on THE OWL SERVICE. The two songs covered here include a firm favourite in 'The Sea' by Fotheringay, and a song not actually written by Sandy but undoubtedly one of her best genre-defining folk-rock vocals, Genesis Hall by Fairport Convention. Both are fairly faithful cover versions which never stray too far from the classic folk-rock sound of the originals.