Fotheringay - Fotheringay (1970)

I've absolutely adored Sandy Denny as a singer since I first heard her with Fairport Convention on a BBC World Service broadcast (could be The John Peel Show) in the early '70s. No voice comes close to matching hers in terms of timbral grace, inflectional majesty and interpretive incisiveness.

Here she is, singing her heart out with compelling ardour, on the only studio album recorded by Fotheringay, the folk-rock group she formed with her beau at the time and husband-to-be, Australian guitarist Trevor Lucas, just after leaving Fairport. Magnificently recorded with an emphasis on natural acoustics, it's one of the high achievements of British folk-rock in the '70s.