Where’d you draw the line between tribute and original thinking, between straight reproduction and progress? A tricky line to walk especially if the material you’re dealing with is as much loved as that of the late Sandy Denny. The Sandy Denny Project know that all too well. “We think we’re justified if we try,” they tell Simon Jones.
“Terrible what happened to Jerry Donahue,” says PJ Wright as we walk to Byfield Village Hall. “It put a full stop to Fotheringay, Gerry Conway (drums) and Pat Donaldson (bass) just didn’t want to carry on, I could understand, without Jerry, he was the driving force behind that second version of the band but it did leave Sally (Barker) and I a bit in mid air.”
It’s a fine April evening on the Northampton/Oxfordshire border, Byfield is a medium size gathering of houses, a pub, a shop and a petrol station clustered around the main road which runs from Banbury to Daventry so you could say it’s close to the Folk Rock belt, that almost mythical of areas which became the stomping ground of Fairport Convention and associated chums from back in the late 70s. Down the road a few miles, Cropredy is the annual gathering of the faithful every August. A place and occasion to recall and remember Sandy Denny among the people who know and defend her and her music with a passion be they on stage or in the crowd.
“Jerry’s able to communicate a little but he’ll never play guitar like he used to,” PJ shakes his head, “all he does now really is sit and look out on the sea.” Jerry Donahue suffered a stroke in 2016 from which he has never fully recovered, previously he’d reformed Fotheringay the band founded by Sandy Denny and her husband Trevor Lucas both of whom had passed on years before. However with the original rhythm section and canny choice of Kathryn Roberts keyboards and Sally Barker as vocalists and PJ as guitar slinger and Lucas approximation.
PJ laughs, “Approximation? Yeah I had done some of his songs at Cropredy. So I suppose there were similarities. But you had to be flexible because Fotheringay did covers as well.” Sadly that Fotheringay never officially recorded, though you can check them out on YouTube as they were filmed quite extensively on stage and in sessions. So you might ask, what has all this got to do with Byfield? On the other hand you might very well know. “The blue plaque is on the end of the Village Hall up there,” says PJ pointing. That blue plaque explains all. For it was here in the Village Hall that Sandy Denny gave her last public performance in April 1978, actually the 1st and no, it wasn’t an April Fool. Why Byfield? Simply because it was her home. She passed a few weeks later.
Now however it’s arguable that Sandy Denny is better known and certainly more celebrated than she ever was. Her albums have all been reissued, some several times, her recordings with Fairport Convetion have taken on legendary status and values, she’s the subject of several boxed sets, tribute sets based on her unfinished songs and former colleagues have toured her work notably ‘The Lady A Homage To Sandy Denny’ in 2012. And of course she’s never forgotten at Cropredy. As well as all that her daughter Georgia Lucas curates her mother’s possessions and memorabilia as The Sandy Denny Archive which besides being on line is sometimes a display at relevant junctures. To add yet more there are those who continue to play the music, some as straight tribute others who want to add their own interpretation and show how diverse her appeal can be. Josienne Clarke is another performer adding her own slant. It all helps to keep Sandy in people’s thoughts.
The next step in the story belongs to the BBC, Auntie has been much maligned of late, cut backs and an obsession with low budget reality shows, programmes/channels for ‘youth’ who don’t watch TV anyway, has meant much of its specialist coverage has suffered and none more so than music. To be honest it’s a case of find one show besides Jools Holland. However local radio has fared better and it was on their Music Day in 2017 when a whole raft of blue plaques were handed out – Denny’s fellow stylist Nick Drake was also awarded one- that Sandy’s memory was honoured by BBC Radio Northampton. To help jolly things along PJ and Sally being fairly local and having been in Fotheringay were invited to sing some of her songs. And thus the germ of an idea began to form.
“I’d always had a soft spot for Sandy Denny and indeed had sung her songs lots of times. Then I got the support slot with Fairport on their winter tour and that got me on stage with them again at Cropredy. They knew I could sing her material after all I’d been in Fotheringay so I suppose it all fell into place,” Sally Barker is chatting about the formation of The Sandy Denny Project. “I was in Iota with Marion (Fleetwood) and our first keyboard player Anna Ryder. The chaps had all played together in Little Johnny England. PJ was in Fotheringay with me so the whole group seemed a natural fit.”
It’s interesting you call yourself a Project.
“Yes, well that was deliberate because we don’t see ourselves as a tribute band, there are those playing around and about. We didn’t want to do that. I hope we keep her music alive and at the same time as retaining its spirit show how dynamic and adaptable it can be. I know some people might raise their eyebrows if we don’t play things the same way as she did on her Island albums but to counter that I’d say there is plenty of evidence to say that Sandy herself would never have kept songs the same had she lived.” Sally pauses, “I mean she sang jazz and swing numbers as well on those records… she could sing more commercial material as well. Her last studio album ‘Rendevous’ had lots of hints at the next road she might have travelled, some tracks were really experimental with orchestras. (The track Sally refers to is ‘All Our Days’ almost a pastoral symphony.) She covered pop material as well ‘Candle In The Wind’ and ‘Silver Threads & Golden Needles’ so she was well used to different styles.”
What do you think Sandy would have done career wise if she hadn’t fallen back in 1978?
“There are a lot of people who believe that she would have gone to America. I can see that, it’s logical, after all the music scene here had shifted and over there the audience for singer songwriters was still strong. Speculation is just that though isn’t it?” Indeed.
The Sandy Denny Project are gathered in Byfield for the annual Sandyfest, a concert for lovers of all things Denny which marks the anniversary of her final performance in the same venue. They’ve been organising the event for a few years and regularly selling it out. 2026 is no exception.
“It’s Sally’s baby really,” informs PJ “she does all the booking, tickets, everything…. the rest of us turn up and play. The audience is on a plate for us and it’s a great gig.” It’s a very relaxed affair indeed, the band run through a sound check that goes as smooth as silk, drummer Mark Stevens controlling matters from behind his drum kit with quiet authority, then piling side stage for a bite to eat and a drink where in the chat falls to more mundane matters, a succession of fans arrive, one bearing a particularly striking cream cake made especially for them wrapped in chocolate. The host for the evening checks in and the clock ticks on towards 7pm, opening time. I decide to have a wander and have a natter with the queue outside.
As you might expect the line is a long one, it snakes around the building and across the car park, there’s a bit of a muddle as this is only small and people keep driving on to it only to turn around and look for a space elsewhere. The blue plaque is popular, punters group round it and point their fingers upwards, selfies on the mobile phone. “We do get quite a few people asking us where the Sandy Denny plaque is,” says the bloke selling sandwiches in the local stores,”that’s the easy one. A bit more difficult is the house she lived in, obviously that’s still here but the people who live in it like a quiet life.”
“I’ve been coming to Sandyfest quite a while now,” one lady in the queue says, “I like the fact that you can bring your own food and drink and you meet up with others who you recognise from the last one. It isn’t a huge festival with thousands, it’s for people who really love Sandy Denny’s work and want to share thoughts or memories about her.” True enough, present this evening are a couple who were actually at that last gig back in 1978 some 48 years ago. They mingle in the gathering numbers before I can catch them to ask what they recall. “I’ll just put this on Facebook,” says another attendee after he and three others in the same party smiling broadly had their picture taken in the doorway of the Village Hall. Sandy Denny’s fans are an endlessly social bunch.
TSDP first line up, original keyboard player Anna Ryder far right.
Before you know it the hall is full and the lights go down. There is huge applause as The Project take to the stage, Sally on guitar and vocals, PJ lead guitar, Marion Fleetwood guitar/fiddle and vocals, Gemma Shirley keyboards and the engine room of Mat Davies bass with Mark Stevens on drums. A tight outfit they perform Sandy Denny’s work with skill and respect, a balance they need to maintain if they’re to fulfill their stated wish to show how versatile her songs can be. Marion Fleetwood has a past deep in jazz, she’s a wonderful singer and her vocal can be either soft or flambouyant enough to handle endless improvisation. She’d told me earlier that she relishes the chance to sing ‘The Lady’ as a loose piece of jazz. She does so splendidly, milking every twist and turn in both the melody and lyric, it’s quite remarkable. ‘Autopsy’ – one of the more obscure Fairport tracks which Sandy sung, on ‘Unhalfbricking’ if you must know, is presented as if it was a James Bond movie theme, a smart move as it makes the song far more enticing. ‘John The Gun’ rolls out the heavy armour and boosts the volume, it is after all an anti war number with heavy philosophy in the stark lyric, “if you should chance to meet me, as I wander to and fro, sad would be your day.” Fair pinned my ears back, it rocked that hard. ‘Rising For The Moon’ is done as it should be a racing melody and road weary lyric which shifts through the gears at pace, telling the life of a musician and the endless call of touring, onward to another gig in another place.
“We know that Sandy just didn’t sing original material or that of her friends but that she loved the work of writers like Bob Dylan and Richard Farina,” Sally considers. Which makes their version of the latter’s ‘The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood’ all the more incredible. The original on ‘Sandy’ was multitracked using the singer’s own voice to make it sound almost sacred yet ancient.The Project take that model and gently amplify it by using their trio of female voices to weave a harmonic blanket which envelopes the listener in hushed reverence. The hall was stone still and you could have heard a pin drop, at the close there was a huge whoop of approval.
Of course we got the familiar and expected those songs that everybody instantly knows are Sandy’s but this band isn’t scared to ring the changes and frequently rejigs the set list to include lesser known items such as the afore mentioned ‘Autopsy,’ ‘London’ is another, a song so obviously displaying a Sandy Denny lyric – home thoughts from abroad – handled so well by Thea Gilmore when released as a single by Island records back in 2012. The Project give their own distinctive version without every losing the poignancy of the words and roll along tune. Should you think such thoughts are too cavalier and that Denny’s songs are somehow untouchable then let your anxiety be calmed by the fact that TSDP are in regular contact with Sandy Denny’s daughter Georgia Lucas, who not only approves of what they are doing from afar – she lives in Australia – but when in England turns up at their concerts especially around Cropredy time. Obviously distance is no obstacle to communication in 2026 so Georgia joins in via mobile phone, there’s lots to talk about with a new Sandy Denny tome due later this year and the bespoke artworks she’s designed – including a drum centre for the band – swell the merchandise on offer. The time for the encore arrives and of course what else could it be but one song, ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’ which with Marion leading the assembled turns into a big singalong complete with arms aloft and swaying. Georgia has pride in her voice as she thanks everyone and sends greetings from Down Under. The link to Denny’s family shows how seriously The Project take their task and how much they think about representing her music with more contemporary guise.
“No one can ever know how Sandy would have progressed her music, so we try to keep it alive and relevant. I think we’re more than justified to try, we have musical and physical connections and we love her writing, if we didn’t we wouldn’t have formed the band.” Sally.
“We’re not all about nostalgia,” agrees PJ.
Though if any of this has picqued your curiousity then you can experience TSDP on two recordings, ‘SDP Volume 1’ and ‘SDP Volume 2’ – in fact the latter came before the former – “I know, but there you have it,” says PJ. One is studio and one is live, recorded at a gig In Liverpool and both prove TSDP as adept on stage as in the studio, what you hear is what you get and that is particularly important when you’re focussing on someone else’s body of work. Much of that is down to the production skills and tech knowledge of drummer Mark who as PJ rightly points out handles everything when it comes to the sound of the band, it may also have more than a little to do with the fact they’ve all played together in different combinations for many years. Pete Frame is no doubt preparing a Family Tree as I write these words.
Making my way back north through the night there is time to play both Sandy Denny and The Project on the car CD system. Somehow, I don’t know if it’s just me but driving back along empty streets and country byways suits the music. It’s rooted here and Sandy’s subject matter isn’t about speeding down some highway in a huge truck, love lorn, whiskey glass staring, throwing impossible shapes on a dance floor somewhere. It speaks of where she comes from, sitting on church yard walls, the sea, fast flowing rivers, wistful thinking, gypsies, carnivals… the list goes on. That her music should ever become like a museum piece is unthinkable. From everything I’ve seen, heard and experienced there are no more appropriate crusaders to taker her works forward than The Sandy Denny Project. Believe it.
www.thesandydennyproject.co.uk
