Few people in the world can lay claim to high praise from Bob Dylan, so here we go: Ashley Hutchings is the single most important figure in English folk rock. Before that his group Fairport Convention recorded some of the best versions of my unreleased songs. Listen to the bass playing on Percy’s Song to hear how great he is. Yes that was Bob Dylan and you can listen to that Sound Techniques recorded track here. Now we have that out the way and that you are listening to a classic Fairport Convention track we can tell you we had a great time visiting Ashley at his current rural home in the Peak District. The sun greeted us with perfect spring blue skies, so we took the risk of filming our interview outside amongst the birdsong and curious llamas (yes, llamas!) from the next field over. It was a risk worth taking and as idyllic as it sounds as we delved into Ashley’s expansive career at Sound Techniques, Chelsea.
It was Ashley Hucthings who along with his friend and guitarist Simon Nicol began the epic journey of Fairport Convention that continues today. From jamming above Simon’s Dad’s medical practice, a house called ‘Fairport’ to being described as the British Jefferson Airplane when releasing their debut album recorded at Sound Techniques in 1968, produced by Joe Boyd and engineered by John Wood. What followed with this solid production team, recording studio base and with the new vocalist Sandy Denny in place, is the unparalleled 3 album releases in 1 year: What We Did on Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking and the celebrated Liege & Lief (1969).
In 1969 Ashley left Fairport Convention and formed Steeleye Span with Tim Hart, Maddy Prior, Terry & Gay Woods which further explored the now hot territory of traditional British folk-rock that had been pioneered with Liege & Lief. Always moving and exploring, Ashley also formed The Albion Country Band (a 26 musician supergroup featuring old friends from Fairport Convention among many others) to back his then wife Shirley Collins on the album No Roses (1971). Using always Sound Techniques, Chelsea as a recording base, his next project again featured many old friends such as Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol but this time explored traditional Morris dancing, with the album Morris On (1972) produced by John Wood. If this wasn’t exhausting enough Ashley followed on with one of his career favourites (out of more than 90 albums so far!) with The Compleat Dancing Master (1973), fusing literature and ancient instruments with his modern vision. Special thanks to Stevie Horton at Iconic Music. You can visit Ashley’s official website here.
