Last year, East Anglian duo Honey & The Bear (Lucy and Jon Hart) released Away Beyond The Fret, which was also one of our Featured Albums of the Month. It was a captivating album that our reviewer Danny Neill summed up perfectly in the closing lines of his album review:
That they have captured such profound personal moments within an album that also incorporates folklore, history, nature, superstition, and awe-inspiring tales is a remarkable thing indeed. They live it like they sing it, with open minds, ears and hearts.
Taking on a timeless classic like Sandy Denny’s ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes‘ is a daring undertaking; it’s one of Denny’s most well-known and most-loved songs. What’s remarkable is that the lyrics may suggest someone looking back on life with the wisdom they’ve picked up with the passing of time, but this was among the first songs that Denny wrote. It was one of the home-recorded songs to appear on a 1966 home demo tape; she was just 19 years old.
Sad, deserted shore
Your fickle friends are leaving
Ah, but then you know
It’s time for them to go
It’s not just the lyrics that strike you…it’s that voice as well. In 2012, BBC 4 televised the documentary Fairport Convention: Who Knows Where the Time Goes?, during which Thea Gilmore referred to Denny as the “voice of heartbreak”. For all these reasons, to many singers, the song is a behemoth.
Thankfully, this has not deterred Honey & The Bear. The arrangements gently carry the song, lending Lucy’s beautiful rendition a certain magic. Rather than try to precisely emulate the original, they give the song a perceptive personal quality that works incredibly well. That they received a seal of approval from Sandy’s daughter speaks volumes. The video was filmed before the duo’s show at Folkeast 2024 in the gorgeous landscape of The Glemham Hall Estate near their own home in Suffolk.
Lucy and Jon shared:
Its such a timeless classic by Sandy Denny and has been recorded by so many incredible artists some people might wonder why we would release a cover of ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes?’
The story of our connection with this song started in the vacuum of lockdown. It was suggested to us by one of our weekly livestream viewers as one to try. It just resonated with us straight away, and strangely, at that time, we were not familiar with the original. We quickly learnt how important it was, as many of our listeners were Fairport and Sandy fans. We adore the original, but whenever we have played another artist’s song, we have always tried to give it a Honey & The Bear twist, so that’s exactly what we have done here and it’s been a firm favourite with our live audiences ever since. Sandy’s daughter listened in one week from Australia and we were thrilled to get a message from her, we probably needed that approval to make sure it was ok.
Who Knows Where The Time Goes is released this Friday, 6th September.
Pre-save: https://ditto.fm/who-knows-where-the-time-goes
Lucy and Jon have plenty of live dates coming up, details of which can be found on their website here:
https://honeyandthebear.co.uk/gigs