Before they formed the seminal folk-rock group Steeleye Span, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior made two albums under the title Folk Songs of Olde England – Vol. 1, released in 1968, and Vol. 2, released a year later. In 1971 a further duo album came out: Summer Solstice, recorded concurrently with Steeleye Span’s Please To See The King. Not before time, the three have been re-released as a double-CD set, and for the listener accustomed to hearing Prior’s reedy voice with electric guitars behind it, they’re a revelation. On the first two albums, the songs are presented either a cappella or simply backed by Prior’s 5-string banjo and Hart’s fiddle, banjo and guitar; the third features friends Andy Irvine, John Ryan, Gerry Conway and Pat Donaldson, plus a string arrangement for ‘Dancing At Whitsun’ by Robert Kirby. The spare production is a beautifully sympathetic setting for the material, which represents the best of English balladry, from the bawdy ‘Lish Young Buy-A-Broom’ to ‘False Knight On The Road’.