Steeleye Span-Commoners Crown (1975)

Steeleye Span together with the Fairport Convention are the two great standards of British folk in their entire history.
Without underestimating the Convention, Steeleye Span knew how to evolve from folk to rock in a spectacular way, billing some of the genre's masterpieces for four decades
In 1974 Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson produced his album Now We Are Six and decisively influenced the band's progressive evolution towards more experimental terrain.
A year later they published Commoners Crown, a work as extraordinary as it is sublime, here the experience with Ian Anderson is so evident that at times the band sounds like Jethro Tull in its most folk rock vibe.
However the group goes further and include influences from classical and baroque music as in the theme Bach Goes To Limerick that perfectly combines the classic flavor with jigas so inspired by traditional Irish folk.
This is one of the high points of an album that shows a cohesion without any fissure and that shows an incredible balance between folk and rock, tipping the scales towards this last genre, which does not subtract any handicap, but rather enriches tremendously the result of a great album making it an absolute gem of English folk rock.