“It’s something that I didn’t think I’d be doing again” is the first comment out of Annie Haslam‘s mouth about the revitalization of Renaissance, the legendary British prog-rock band she led to fame in the ‘70s. On such classically tinged art-rock milestones as Ashes Are Burning, Turn of the Cards, and Scheherazade & Other Stories, Haslam’s crystalline vocals blended with Michael Dunford’s deft acoustic guitar work and John Tout’s vivid keyboard flourishes on epic tracks brimming with invention and energy in equal amounts. Renaissance was a leading light on the ‘70s progressive rock scene, but since the ‘80s, their live activities have been sporadic, and the 2001 release Tuscany has been their only studio album since 1983’s Time-Line. “I kind of wound down my solo singing career in about 2002,” says the Bolton-born songbird, who now makes her home in Bucks County, Pa., “and started painting, which is my other love, just as much as singing. I’ve been painting nonstop since 2002 now. So I didn’t really have any interest in going back into music, I liked the fact that it was just me, and not a lot of other personalities to deal with. Then Michael Dunford contacted me in 2008, and before he opened his mouth, I just knew. He said, ‘Annie…’ I said, ‘No.’ [Laughs] And that’s basically how it started up again.”
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