Sandy Brings Out The Tears por Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1973

Sandy Brings Out The Tears 
Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1973 
"SANDY DENNY really draws 'em out", exclaimed Al Stewart, surveying the sea of well-known faces who had assemble at the Howff to see Britain's number one lady in a classic reunion with her old concert promoter Roy Guest last week.
And Sandy, as erratic a songwriter as she is performer, gave what was probably her finest concert ever.
Those who have followed her career closely were virtually reduced to tears and Anthea Joseph was screaming that after such a night she ought never to play with backup musicians again.
And that's how good it was.
It would be easy to say that Sandy has discovered a magic writing formula that will be manifested on her forthcoming album, but such an elusive commodity as magic can never be pinned down to something as specific or tangible as the passing of an album.
She opened with two classic tracks and never looked back. Both 'Late November' and 'It Suits Me Well' are woven within that simple basic chord framework that characterises all her songs. Simple songs but the imagery is so rich and Sandy's voice keeps everything in reserve as she boils up her nautical brews...and sends them gushing into the audience without ever drowning her ballads in the way that Procol Harum do with Salty Dog and Whaling Stories. At the same time she is still very much a folkie...she enjoys telling a tale, almost down to a narrative over two chords and with that delightful folk edge to her voice that is so characteristic of her style.
Her songs are of chance confrontations, usually reflective, and of freedom as in 'The Music Weaver' but it was a song I have not heard before called 'No End', packed with irony and emotion that really caught the attention, with the narrative serving as the right kind of expletive.
She moved across to twelve string guitar and proved once again that you should never try and tune a twelve string between a humorous break before she was sufficiently satisfied to tackle 'Bushes And Briars', 'The Carnival', an outstanding song from her forthcoming album, and 'The Sea Captain'.
But her forte these days is the piano and when she returned, she did so with a vengeance to deliver an outstanding song called 'Solo', more direct and without the elliptical imagery of some of her other work.
Then it was time for 'John The Gun' and how she attacked the piano, throwing her head back from the voice mike to alter the tenor of that beautiful voice. 'Like An Old Fashioned Waltz', the title track of her new album, completed the show but she was back, fidgetting tentiatively at the piano as the heat became unbearable. Should she try her Fats Waller song...go into her night club bit? She made her excuses about not having learnt it satisfactorily but 'Till The Real Thing Comes Along', though short and simple and totally unlike Waller, was Sandy's blues on a night when her strengths were exposed more significantly than they have ever been.
© Jerry Gilbert, 1973.