“Ashes Are Burning” by Renaissance

The title track of Renaissance's fourth album, 1973's Ashes Are Burning, pairs music by Michael Dunford, who at that point worked with the English prog outfit only as a composer, with words by Betty Thatcher. Annie Haslam takes the lead vocal. With the group between guitarists and bassist Jon Camp covering most of the album's guitar parts, the guitar credit on this track goes to Andy Powell.

The whole record was a deliberate turn toward acoustic ground, a way to lean into the band's folk leanings and stand apart from the electric-guitar heavies crowding the scene, and it was the first of their albums to bring an orchestra in on some songs. Dick Plant engineered it and co-produced with the band.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.