Marianne Faithfull – North Country Maid

Marianne’s second folk album North Country Maid has been remastered from the original tapes by the Grammy nominated Andrew Batt who also provides detailed sleeve notes which Marianne contributed to before her passing in January 2025.

Where Marianne’s first folk album Come My Way, had largely been compiled from music of the American folk revival, her second, released in April 1966 was built around songs from the British Isles. Rightly hailed as Marianne’s finest LP of the 60s, North Country Maid conclusively established her as an artist with a unique stylistic approach, and many of its songs (such as ‘Scarborough Fair’) were not yet the established folk/pop standards they would soon become. Featuring emotive interpretations of songs by contemporary folk writers like Cyril Tawney’s ‘Sally Free And Easy’, Bert Jansch’s ‘Green Are Your Eyes’ and Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, the album also includes traditional material such as the title track and ‘She Moved Thru’ The Fair’, which is one of the few songs Marianne performed throughout her life; it even appears on her final release, the 2025 E.P. Burning Moonlight. The album was produced by Mike Leander, and arranged by Jon Mark, who also played acoustic guitar. He was joined by newcomer Michael John Taylor on second acoustic guitar, Big Jim Sullivan on 12-string and various traditional Indian instruments, Danny Thompson on bass and Alec Hutchison on harmonica.

Format – LP