Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking (1969)

1969 was a hell of a year for Fairport Convention. They released three albums, over the course of which they morphed from a country-rock Americana covers band into the inventors of British folk rock (this may be a massive over-simplification), as well as suffering a tragic car crash in which drummer Martin Lamble died aged only 19, alongside Jeannie Franklyn, girlfriend of Richard Thompson.

This album, the second of 1969 (and the most successful chart-wise) was recorded before, but released after the road accident, and marks something of a transition. There are still three Dylan covers, with a couple of originals each from Thompson and Sandy Denny, and a single traditional folk song.

The album opens strongly with Thompson's Genesis Hall, a convincing folk song, followed by Si Tu Dois Partir, (Dylan's If You Gotta Go, Go Now in French), as a novelty which became the band's only charting single, and it's engaging fun. Denny's first contribution, Autopsy, is pleasantly forgettable, but the high point is the extended traditional tune A Sailor's Life, starting with little more than Lamble's cymbals and Denny's voice, developing into a stunning guitar and violin jam, courtesy of guest (later band member), Dave Swarbrick, already an elder statesman of English folk music.

Cajun Woman, a Thompson composition is formulaic and ordinary, owing more to generic Americana than anything else, but the second half peaks early with Sandy Denny's signature tune Who Knows Where The Time Goes, a poignant, lovely ballad. The third Dylan cover, Percy's Song, is probably the most successful and convincing. It's a long repetitive narrative of the aftermath of a road accident (recorded before Fairport's own tragedy), but it holds the attention, possibly due to Denny's ability to hold the tune in a manner Dylan could only dream of. The final Dylan song, Million Dollar Bash is weak and nondescript.

And there's the problem with Unhalfbricking, half of it is classic Fairport, and half is so much weaker. There's a consistency absent here, compared with the albums which bookend this, which possibly makes the diamonds sparkle so much more.

But it's a worthwhile album, for A Sailor's Life and Who Know Where The Time Goes alone.

Link to full album

3* - there's a sadness in this album which almost prophesies events, but there's too much ordinariness for this to be a 'great'