"The most important folk album of all time" says the label on this album. It's arguably an album which, if it didn't create the folk-rock genre, certainly defined the British side of it. This was Fairport's third album of 1969, and was the one on which they completed a major regrouping after the tragic crash in May of that year in which drummer Martin Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn died.
Dave Mattacks had joined as drummer, but more significantly, Dave Swarbrick, already established on the UK folk scene joined, having guested on Unhalfbricking. Bassist Ashley Hutchings championed this move towards traditional folk, and the result is this album, where five of the eight songs are traditional folk tunes. This marked a huge change in emphasis for the band whose previous staple diet had been Dylan covers and similar.
But the album open with an original song, sounding traditional. Come All Ye, written by Hutchings and Sandy Denny is a cross between a manifesto, a rallying cry and band introduction, and while not the strongest song on the album, it's a fine bouncy opener. It's followed by the more moody Reynardine, which shows off Denny's voice but doesn't really hold the attention. Unlike the classic Matty Groves, a hearty tale of an adulterous noble lady and her unfortunate workman lover, a great song, climaxed by a rousing fiddle tune with rock accompaniment. The first half closes gently, after that frenzy, with Richard Thomson's lovely ballad, Farewell Farewell, again allowing Denny full vocal expression in a sad song.
The Deserter, another traditional song, opens the second half, and it's a very likeable, listenable piece, followed by a short Medley of jigs and reels, the only instrumental pieces, nice enough, but doing the job of showing these traditional tunes can be played by a rock group. There follows Tam Lin, another folk standard, but well done upbeat and electric, with some fine soloing from Thompson, and the album ends with the sad Crazy Man Michael, sounding for all its life like a traditional folk song, but actually a Swarbrick / Thompson composition. It's a fine, gentle end to a landmark album, the first to successfully blend folk song with modern instrumentation.
There are two bonus tracks on this CD reissue, a plodding version of traditional folk song Sir Patrick Spens, ably sung by Denny, but I've always preferred the version on Full House with Dave Swarbrick; and the rambling, overlong, stop-start studio noodling of Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood - one for completists,
But it is a great album, which marked the change of Fairport into the folk-rock icons which would keep them in business for the next half century.
4* - an album which launched a genre. Always a great listen.
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