Thursday, April 19, 2007

FAIRPORT CONVENTION - Liege & Leaf


British hippies who started out emulating Jefferson Airplane, Fairport Convention escalated their homeland connections with each outing, culminating in this, their fourth album and a watershed for British folk-rock. Hindsight offers the ironic possibility that the Dylan covers of its predecessor, Unhalfbricking, opened a window onto the earlier Irish-English-Scots roots of the American music they loved, and Liege & Lief jumps through that window triumphantly. "Come All Ye" underscores their affinity for the Band yet is joyfully rooted in their own fertile folk traditions, echoed in a mix of classic songs from members Sandy Denny, Ashley Hutchings, and Richard Thompson, and given direct homage in the extended ballads "Matty Groves" and "Tam Lin," which evoke Neil Young & Crazy Horse in kilts. Fiddler Dave Swarbrick's arrival as a fulltime member adds new richness and a wonderful foil for Thompson's superb guitar leads. A medley of jigs and reels showcases their flair for hot-wiring traditional British Isles dances, a fixture ever since. --Sam Sutherland

Tracks
1. Come All Ye
2. Reynardine
3. Matty Groves
4. Farewell Farewell
5. The Deserter
6. The Lark In The Morning/Rakish Paddy/Fax Hunters Jig/Toss The Feathers
7. Tam Lin
8. Crazy Man Michael

LINK:
h!!p://www.megaupload.com/?d=OG9FIUCN

Please leave a comment

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great album - thanks for posting.

More Joni any time? Court & Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns are great and overlooked, I feel.

Anonymous said...

Thank you ever so much - great taste in music!

Anonymous said...

One of the best Fairport Convention albums!

But in my opinion Fairport has never reached such a magical folk sound like Bert Jansch's band "The Pentangle".

i have "baskets of light" and the selftitled album "Pentangle"...

"Sweet Child" should be also a great record, but i can't find it online..maybe somebody knows a link or has it at home and could up it?

but firstly thank you for the Fairport album :-)

. said...

To Gamblor - all 3 albums by Pentangle you mentioned are going to be posted in near future.
rockanthology

Anonymous said...

Wow, been a while since anyone left a comment, but thanx for this album...it replaces a very well worn LP...thanx much