By the time Sandy Denny, the young English singer, ended her concert at the Howff, Regent’s Park Road, in the early hours of yesterday, she had created an occasion which lovers of good contemporary songs, beautifully sung, will long remember and cherish. It was one of those happenings that critics dream of but rarely experience, when a good but hitherto erratic singer suddenly takes off, carrying her audience with her, on the kind of trip that singing is really all about. It was, in fact, Sandy Denny’s moment of truth.
When she first appeared in the folk clubs and on concert platforms Miss Denny was both over-praised and under-valued. Since then she has lived through many changes and uncertainties and has written a number of excellent songs. Now the uncertainties seem to be behind, and she has emerged with her own voice, spinning her own incantatory magic out of her modest, self-depreciating self.
In some of her songs at the Howff, particularly ‘Solo’, ‘No End’ and, and its own way, ‘Like an Old Fashioned Waltz’, talent became genius and there were glimpses of depths which few other singers have revealed to us.