Sandy Denny: Rendezvous

FOLLOWING the Fairport Convention reunion that produced 1975's Rising For The Moon, Rendezvous was Denny's last LP before her death from a brain haemorrhage in 1978. Reflecting the physical and emotional deterioration of her alcoholism, the album nonetheless boasts at least one classic (the deeply moving 'I'm a Dreamer') and a slow, brass-band-assisted 'Silver Threads and Golden Needles'. Like the opening version of Richard Thompson's 'For Shame of Doing Wrong (I Wish I Was a Fool For You)', 'Gold Dust' rocks hard, making up for the regrettable stab at Elton's 'Candle in the Wind'. "When the music's playing, that's when it changes," Sandy sings on 'Dreamer', a demo of which is one of this reissue's bonus cuts. "And no longer do we seem like total strangers." That should be her epitaph.