I first heard this cover of a traditional folk song via the 20 jazzfunkgreats blogspot. But I'd heard of Fairport convention previously, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson and all that, but like so many English people i couldn't bring myself to listen to an English folk group - well MY LOSS.
The song is in two parts, with an eye opening second half drone jam. Spellbinding stuff, with the violin scraping long notes, and (presumably) Richard Thompson scattering trebly white noise almost chords around on top it. It's hard to gauge how much cross fertilisation back and forth between America and the UK their would have been but it's hard to imagine that this wasn't informed by the Velvet Underground.