Fotheringay- S/T (1970) / 2 (2008) MP3 & FLAC

"What about me, me and my kind? If we're unknown, are we left behind?"

All it takes is one comparative listen between Fairport Convention's eponymous debut album and What We Did on Our Holidays, their first album with Sandy Denny, to grasp the effect Denny's presence had on the band. Previously, Fairport Convention had shown more of an inclination to incorporate American "west-coast" Folk-Rock into their sound than the Folk traditions of their homeland, but Denny's arrival changed this and proved a catalyst for Fairport's "invention" of British Folk-Rock. However, Denny's tenure with Fairport Convention was short-lived, as she jumped ship after three brilliant albums to pursue a more singer-songwriter-oriented career path. What's ironic about this is that her first post-Fairport venture, Fotheringay, mined very similar territory to her previous band but without the same level of free-wheeling talent on hand. Whereas Fairport was prone to experimentation and eclecticism, Fotheringay was slightly more rock-oriented, which, on their debut, results in a more fussed-over, less sprawling sound. Nevertheless, Denny contributes several gorgeous songs to Fotheringay, making the album close to essential for anyone partial to her work with Fairport Convention. One of the album's obvious highlights is the epic "The Sea," which features a breathtaking vocal performance by Denny backed by sumptuous acoustic guitars. While the song easily equals many of her finest moments in Fairport, the overly-tasteful production threatens to siphon off a bit of the song's emotional impact. Although it is true that Fotheringay suffers a bit when Denny steps out of the limelight leaving Trevor Lucas with vocal duties, his folksy performance on "The Ballad of Ned Kelly" is another of the album's highlights. Fotheringay broke up while recording their follow-up LP, leaving master tapes of the unfinished songs languishing in the vaults for nearly 40 years until the surviving members of the band released them as Fotheringay 2. While obviously not as fully conceived as the previous album, it is an interesting and occasionally brilliant addendum to one of the forgotten gems of British Folk-Rock.

Fairport Convention- Live at The BBC (2007) Box Set (4 Discs) MP3 & FLAC -For Telehorse_UMA-

"The dawn will send me on a chase to nowhere. Why cry as if I were the first to go there?"

Simply put, Fairport Convention, in their late-sixties incarnation, were the best folk-rock band going British or otherwise. Not only were they adept (re)interpreters of both the British and American roots traditions, but, unlike many of their peers, they were also capable of writing fine original material. Although their best work occurred during Sandy Denny's brief but legendary stint with the band, there is, nevertheless, much fine material to discover both before and after this period. While Fairport Convention were a great studio band with several classic albums to their credit, their more impromptu, less polished BBC recordings are just as revelatory and contain many gems that never appeared on their albums. A perfect example is their stunning interpretation of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne"; if not eclipsing the original, Sandy Denny's soaring vocals, the ominously odd shuffling tempo and the psychedelic overtones of Richard Thompson's guitar-work take the song somewhere entirely new. However, even the more familiar Fairport material fares well here. Denny's masterpiece, "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?," receives a lovely, desolate acoustic treatment that easily bests the lighter folk-rock arrangement of the studio version on Unhalfbricking. It should be noted that the sound quality is not the best in places, especially the "off-air" recordings, but the essential nature of much of the music more than makes up for this. An amazing document of some of the best British-Folk recorded during the late sixties and early seventies.