Fairport Convention - Albums Collection 1969-1987 (8CD)

Sandy Denny's haunting, ethereal vocals gave Fairport a big boost on her debut with the group. A more folk-based album than their initial effort, What We Did on Our Holidays was divided between original material and a few well-chosen covers. This contains several of their greatest moments: Denny's "Fotheringay," Richard Thompson's "Meet on the Ledge," the obscure Joni Mitchell composition "Eastern Rain," the traditional "She Moves Through the Fair," and their version of Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine." And more than simply being a collection of good songs (with one or two pedestrian ones), it allowed Fairport to achieve its greatest internal balance, and indeed one of the finest balances of any major folk-rock group. The strong original material, covers of little-known songs by major contemporary songwriters such as Dylan and Mitchell, and updates of traditional material were reminiscent of the blend achieved by the Byrds on their early albums, with Fairport Convention giving a British slant to the idiom. The slant would become much more British by the end of the 1960s, though, both gaining and losing something in the process. Confusingly, What We Did on Our Holidays was titled Fairport Convention in its initial U.S. release, with a different cover from the U.K. edition as well, although Fairport's very first album from 1968 had used the title Fairport Convention as well. In the CD age, the title was standardized in all territories to What We Did on Our Holidays. [The 2003 CD reissue of this record adds historical liner notes and three bonus tracks from the same era, one from a BBC broadcast, one from a non-LP B-side, and one a studio outtake.]

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

Unhalfbricking was, if only in retrospect, a transitional album for the young Fairport Convention, in which the group shed its closest ties to its American folk-rock influences and started to edge toward a more traditional British folk-slanted sound. That shift wouldn't be definitive until their next album, Liege & Lief. But the strongest link to the American folk-rock harmony approach left with the departure of Ian Matthews, who left shortly after the sessions for Unhalfbricking began. The mixture of obscure American folk-rock songs, original material, and traditional interpretations that had fallen into place with What We Did on Our Holidays earlier in the year was actually still intact, if not as balanced. Sandy Denny's two compositions, her famous "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" and the far less celebrated but magnetically brooding "Autopsy," were among the record's highlights. So too were the goofball French Cajun cover of Bob Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" (here retitled "Si Tu Dois Partir," and a British hit) and the magnificent reading of Dylan's "Percy's Song," though the bash through Dylan's "Million Dollar Bash" was less effective. Richard Thompson's pair of songs, however, were less memorable. The clear signpost to the future was their 11-minute take on the traditional song "A Sailor's Life," with guest fiddle by Dave Swarbrick, soon to join Fairport himself and make his own strong contribution toward reshaping the band's sound.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

In the decades since its original release, more than one writer has declared Fairport Convention's Liege & Lief the definitive British folk-rock album, a distinction it holds at least in part because it grants equal importance to all three parts of that formula. While Fairport had begun dipping their toes into British traditional folk with their stellar version of "A Sailor's Life" on Unhalfbricking, Liege & Lief found them diving head first into the possibilities of England's musical past, with Ashley Hutchings digging through the archives at the Cecil Sharp House in search of musical treasure, and the musicians (in particular vocalist Sandy Denny) eagerly embracing the dark mysteries of this music. (Only two of the album's eight songs were group originals, though "Crazy Man Michael" and "Come All Ye" hardly stand out from their antique counterparts.) Liege & Lief was also recorded after a tour bus crash claimed the lives of original Fairport drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend; as the members of the group worked to shake off the tragedy (and break in new drummer Dave Mattacks and full-time fiddler Dave Swarbrick), they became a stronger and more adventurous unit, less interested in the neo-Jefferson Airplane direction of their earlier work and firmly committed to fusing time-worn folk with electric instruments while honoring both. And while Liege & Lief was the most purely folk-oriented Fairport Convention album to date, it also rocked hard in a thoroughly original and uncompromising way; the "Lark in the Morning" medley swings unrelentingly, the group's crashing dynamics wring every last ounce of drama from "Tam Lin" and "Matty Groves," and Thompson and Swarbrick's soloing is dazzling throughout. Liege & Lief introduced a large new audience to the beauty of British folk, but Fairport Convention's interpretations spoke of the present as much as the past, and the result was timeless music in the best sense of the term. [The CD was also released with two previously unreleased takes of "Sir Patrick Spens" and "The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood."]

Review by Mark Deming, Allmusic.com

Fairport Convention's only concept album was built around the story of John "Babbacombe" Lee, a convicted killer who survived three attempts to hang him. Cut by the four-man Fairport lineup of Simon Nicol, Dave Swarbrick, Dave Mattacks, and Dave Pegg, the original album was a self-contained work with a specific beginning and ending. It's also never been much more than cult item in the group's early catalog, despite some spirited playing on "Little Did I Think," "I Was Sixteen, Pt. 2," "St. Ninian's Isle/Trumpet Hornpipe," and "Sailor's Alphabet." The slipcased "Island Remasters" keeps the concept and the original album's content intact – with killer sound as expected, and each song now getting its own index number – and appends a pair of bonus tracks that justify the purchase. The first is "Farewell to a Poor Man's Son," a "lost" song by the group from the BBC program on John Lee that was the inspiration for the album, and "Breakfast in Mayfair," both from an earlier lineup of the band featuring Jerry Donahue. Additionally, "Breakfast in Mayfair" features Sandy Denny's singing, in a haunting falsetto. Those tracks, unfortunately, have not been preserved from first-generation archival sources, and some restoration has been necessary, and they still don't sound as crisp as the rest of the official album now does. But since there were no other suitable sources, this is the only way you're ever likely to hear those two addenda to the original album.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

Following the departure of Simon Nicol, the group was reconstituted with the addition of Sandy Denny's husband Trevor Lucas and Jerry Donahue, both formerly of Fotheringay. Their first album was also a miscalculation, a failed attempt to crack the pop music market. There are lots of original songs done in a modern folk-rock sound on Rosie, many written by Lucas, although the best was the title track by Dave Swarbrick (which featured Denny and Richard Thompson, as well as Thompson's future wife, Linda, as guest artists). The Lucas compositions were all pleasant (especially "Knights of the Road" and the haunting "The Plainsman"), but tend to make one think more of Gordon Lightfoot sounding archaic than of previous incarnations of Fairport. The only exceptions are "Peggy's Pub" and "The Hens March Through the Midden," instrumentals that recall the group's old sound. [This version of the album includes bonus material.]

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

Recorded during Fairport Convention's September 1970 shows in Los Angeles (their second visit to the city in six months), House Full captures the four-piece Full House lineup at its zenith – a point proven by the marathon renditions of "Sloth" and "Matty Groves," which are among its epic highlights. Anybody who thought Sandy Denny was the only person who could convincingly perform the latter is certainly in for a pleasant surprise, as is anyone who thought the Albion Band's version of "Battle of the Somme" was the definitive rendition. By year's end, however, this particular Fairport Convention lineup would have shattered, as Richard Thompson moved on to a solo career. This performance, with its taste of two songs originally intended for a pre-split new album, is a vivid portrayal of all that listeners lost when he went. Originally released as Live at the LA Troubadour in 1976, then reissued, with a slightly different track listing, a decade later as House Full, this remastered collection rounds up all ten of the live songs spread across those two (heavily overlapping) sets, omitting only the doctored studio version of Richard Thompson's "Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman" that appeared on the original 1976 release, and replacing one epic, "Sloth," with another. Among other cosmetic alterations can be found the correct retitling of "Toss the Feathers" as "The Lark in the Morning Medley." However, the 90-plus seconds shorn from "Mason's Apron" for the original House Full release have not been restored for the CD, while fans of the 1976 album probably would have welcomed the restoration of the two "lost" performances. With those latter flaws in mind, then, this isn't the perfect restoration that this exceptional album deserves. But it's by no means a wasted opportunity, either.

Review by Dave Thompson, Allmusic.com

In its previous edition (first released in 1987), Heyday was an important document of Fairport Convention's early days, its dozen tracks including numerous songs (mostly folk-rock covers) that they didn't put on their late-'60s albums. The 2002 edition adds to its value considerably by adding eight more tracks, all of them also taken from 1968-1969 BBC recordings, with all 20 of the songs featuring the lineups (with varying personnel) in which Sandy Denny was included. The 12 songs that were also on the original release, though, remain the most interesting due to the absence of studio counterparts, but also due to their exceptional quality. The version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," with Ian Matthews and Sandy Denny alternating lead vocals, is perhaps the best cover of that standard. There are also fine interpretations of songs, sometimes quite obscure, by Gene Clark, Eric Andersen, Joni Mitchell, Richard Fariña, the Everly Brothers, and Bob Dylan, as well as the quite good Simon Nicol original "Shattering Live Experience." The newly added eight songs, by contrast, are mostly versions of tunes that also showed up on their official late-'60s albums, though Jackson C. Frank's "You Never Wanted Me" (which did previously appear on the Sandy Denny Who Knows Where the Time Goes box set) is an exception. Still, it's good to hear different versions of standouts like "Fotheringay," "Si Tu Dois Partir," "Autopsy," and "Tam Lin," though the arrangements aren't significantly different from the familiar studio ones. A new sleeve note by Ashley Hutchings is another good reason to pick this up. Incidentally, some other Fairport BBC cuts from the time have been bootlegged but eluded inclusion on this disc, though perhaps subpar fidelity had something to do with those decisions.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com