Steeleye Span - Good Times Of Old England: Steeleye Span 1972-1983 (2022)

A highly influential British band who helped deliver folk-rock to the mainstream in the mid-'70s, Steeleye Span have enjoyed a lengthy tenure at the vanguard of British roots music, innovating their country's traditional songs while adding a host of their own original material to its canon. Along with Fairport Convention, with whom they share many similarities, they are the most recognizable and enduring group to have sprung from Britain's late-'60s folk-rock movement. After a few fits and starts in the early '70s, the group hit their stride with inventive albums like Parcel of Rogues (1973) and Now We Are Six (1974), eventually finding significant U.K. chart success with the 1975 hit "All Around My Hat" and its accompanying album. Commercially, their star began to fade at the end of the '70s, though they managed to remain a popular touring act for decades to come, consistently experimenting with their sound and occasionally hitting new creative peaks with quality albums like Tempted & Tried (1989), Bloody Men (2006), and Wintersmith (2013), the latter of which returned them to the U.K. charts after a multi-decade gap. In spite of numerous lineup shifts, Steeleye Span have remained remarkably consistent and prolific during their career, with founding member Maddy Prior at the helm for nearly all of it. Sounding as robust as ever, the group celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2019 with a new album, Est'd 1969, and a lengthy U.K. tour.