Consumer Guide Album

Sandy Denny: Like an Old Fashioned Waltz [Island, 1974]
Five years ago, Denny sang lead with the progenitors of English folk-rock, Fairport Convention. Soon, however, she left-to-pursue-her-own-career. The group remained interesting enough to hold a following, but never broke through artistically or commercially, and although credible observers believed Denny had the stuff to become one of the finest women singers in the world, she didn't. One four-minute masterpiece on this otherwise sluggish album--the opening cut, written by Denny, called "Solo"--deals obliquely with these losses. Now one hears that Fairport and Denny are regrouping. And so are Steppenwolf and John Kay. C+