Cousins puts a lot of the blame for the demise of the Strawbs to leaving A&M. From this fan's point of view things certainly went down hill. Cousins and the producers Rupert Holmes and Jeffrey Lesser in particular were at loggerheads and I would agree with Cousins that the Albums did not "sound" like Strawbs albums.
 
The Tom Allom period had produced five of my favorite albums of all time. Deep Cuts was a bitter disappointment.
There were some good songs on the later albums, "Cut Like a Diamond" being one of my favorites but I found the to be generally disappointing.
 
The bitter legal dispute that stopped the release of Heartbreak Hill was pretty sad.
 
Cousins seemed a lot happier leaving the band behind and moving into to radio.

Why do I always think of Ann Briggs whenever I hear the name Sandy Denny? Did the two of them ever collaborate?

sharke
Why do I always think of Ann Briggs whenever I hear the name Sandy Denny? Did the two of them ever collaborate?

I think she was just a big infulence on Sandy. Apparently her song "The Pond and the Stream" is a tribute to Ann Briggs.
Thanks for the reminder - I will probably spend this evening on Youtube looking for Ann Briggs songs.
 
 

I think I probably link them via Bert Jansch as well, Briggs was a huge influence on him. Googling around I discovered that Denny dated Jansch for a while (she also went out with Jackson C. Frank and Danny Thompson). 

Briggs was indeed a huge influence on the scene of the time. She also had a big effect on June Tabor, one of the greatest folk singers of all time IMO. Here's Briggs singing Blackwaterside, it's really beautiful.