Fairport Convention - Fairport Convention

Remastered reissue of 1968 debut album includes four bonus tracks, 'Suzanne', 'If I Had A Ribbon Bow', 'Morning Glory', 'Reno, Nevada', & a slipcase with the first pressing. Includes sleevenotes by co-founder Ashley Hutchings. 16 tracks. Polydor. 2003. Album Description

Un pur délice!

C'est une honte que l'on retrouve à peu près tout le reste de l'oeuvre de Fairport Convention sur les présentoirs des disquaires alors qu'on néglige souvent d'y mettre ce classique. Un album à savourer en toutes occasions, particulièrement apprécié pour débuter la journée du bon pied. Tout y est magnifique! Aucune hésitation à avoir. C'est un classique du folk rock, Un incontournable! Aussi recommandé pour les amateurs de musique psychédélique (rappelle Jefferson Airplane par moments). May 30, 2007

Fairport Convention

If you have followed this group over the years, no explanation is necessary. May 13, 2007

Promising Fairport Convention debut.

For over 3 decades Fairport's debut album on Polydor had been deleted and finally now has been given a rebirth on CD, and not before time. Although this album was the one where music critics suggested that Fairport were the Brit version of Jefferson Airplane or the Byrds, there really is only little similarity to either of those bands, particularly where vocal harmonies are concerned. This is the only album FC made which featured no traditional folk rock, which later was to become their hallmark. Instead there is a mixture of rock, contemporary folk, light jazz and even a c & w number. There is some highly melodic material included, as well as weirder experimental stuff (The Lobster'), but then this was recorded late 1967 at the height of psychedelia.

For me, the outstanding track on this album is the Joni Mitchell cover 'I Don't Know Where I Stand' sung beautifully by Judy Dyble, the original female vocalist. Richard Thompson's lead guitar on this number interplays superbly with Simon Nicol's rhythm guitar. Another example of Dyble's sensitive vocals are found on 'One Sure Thing' with an unusual and imaginative solo by RT. In fact his guitar work is already showing quite a remarkable standard as well as versatility in styles, and his solos on 'Sunshade', 'Lobster' and the c & w track `If (stomp)' demonstrate this well. FC's strange first single 'If I Had A Ribbon Bow' included as a bonus track is an old fashioned cocktail jazz number and again Dyble's vocals are perfectly suited to it. `Reno Nevada' is the only disappointment here, as the band used to play this number live which used to last several minutes, thanks to a long jazz solo by RT. It so impressed producer Joe Boyd on first hearing this played at a club, that he signed up FC immediately.

For those who like their music more hard-edged, there is the opening track 'Time Will Show The Wiser' and Thompson's jokey Dylan title, 'It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft, with a Hendrix type solo in the middle.

So Fairport Convention in thir early phase had no particular style of music that one could clearly identify with. However all the music on here is wonderfully played by all band members, with the voices of Judy Dyble and Ian Matthews blending well. Dyble, for me was the better singer of the two. Ian Matthews had a weaker, almost twee voice, when singing on his own, which could be irritating, particularly noticeable on `Decameron'. RT co-wrote a few tracks, but his songwriting talent was yet to develop more prominently as it did over the next few years.

Overall this album should definitely please Fairport fans, who were not around in the late `60s and want to hear how the band originally used to sound in their early days. It should also interest the curious, delving into RT's musical history. But do not expect an album like `Liege & Lief'. FC were a very different sounding band when they started out. December 30, 2006

still my favorite Fairport record

If one likes to dive into the roots of the human experience as refracted through the eyes of anglia, this is the place to go. I almost always leave refreshed when I visit, and I'm glad to see others enjoying this musical tome. March 9, 2006

Fairport's First

Long out of print, as I discovered after trading in the Polydor vinyl album some years ago, this re-mastered reissue includes bonus tracks including their first single, a cover of Maxine Sullivan's 1940 recording of If I Had A Ribbon Bow. The best track is probably the Dylan-influenced and rather psychedelic It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft.

Among the other original material, some of it dating from Richard Thompson's previous band, is a fair smattering of well-chosen songs from contemporary performers. Joni Mitchell was virtually unknown and unreleased on record in 1967 when this album was recorded and her own versions of the two songs here did not appear until her second album, Clouds, in 1969. The Fairports knew her as she had been in the UK at the invitation of their producer, Joe Boyd, and she had played some British dates supporting the Incredible String Band. Emitt Rhodes was still performing in the obscure group the Merry-Go-Round when they recorded Time Will Show The Wiser to open the album.

Dylan's Jack O'Diamonds was actually a poem which turned up on the liner-notes of Another Side Of Bob Dylan. He had given it to an actor friend called Ben Carruthers at the Savoy, who had used it in a TV play called A Man With No Papers, and subsequently recorded it with his group Ben Carruthers And The Deep, aided by Jimmy Page and Nicky Hopkins, on a flop single. One Sure Thing was a cover of a little-known duo called Jim and Jean (Jim Glover and Jean Ray).

There is no clue from this eclectic mix of songs featuring Ian Matthew and the very underrated Judy Dyble that they were to virtually reinvent folk-rock with Sandy Denny just a couple of years later. I saw the band a couple of times around the time of this album and, much as I enjoyed their later albums, rather miss these styles of playing in their music.

Their version of Suzanne used to feature alternate verses sung by Ian Matthew and Sandy Denny but the May 1968 version here sadly falls between Judy Dyble leaving and Sandy Denny joining, but you can hear the dual-vocal version from their August 1968 Top Gear session on Heyday January 5, 2005

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