Critic's Review
Dave Thompson, All Music Guide
Dating from the folk giants' 1989 reunion, as they toured to promote the newly released Tempted & Tried album, Classic Rock Legends captures Steeleye Span operating without founding spirit Tim Hart, but otherwise in the mood to recapture all the energies and excitement of the band's "classic" incarnation 15 years earlier. The set itself offers a fair mix of old and new material -- five of the 12 tracks are drawn from the latest album, but there is no shortage of favorites, as "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" and a scything "Cam Ye O'er Frae France" echo back from Parcel of Rogues, while an admittedly shockingly jaunty "Thomas the Rhymer" fills the need for an epic amidships. There's also room for the band's two U.K. hit singles, in the form of a warm "Gaudete" and a positively triumphant "All Around My Hat." It's not a perfect album -- there's a tight '80s slickness to the playing that betrays the natural roughness of the songs themselves and, without exception, tempos have been sped up just enough to disrupt the familiar nature of the oldies. Indeed, there are moments (most profound during "Thomas the Rhymer") when the bandmembers seem to be racing one another to the end. But both players and (for "All Around My Hat") audience are in fine voice and the sound quality is as good as any live Steeleye document.
