This Month in Music (1969): Fairport Convention Liege & Lief released

Liege & Lief Fairport Convention

Released: December 1969 Peak: -- US, 17 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.10 UK Genre: British folk

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] Come All Ye (Sandy Denny, Ashley Hutchings) [4:55] Reynardine (traditional) [4:33] Matty Groves (traditional) [8:08] Farewell, Farewell (music: traditional, words: Richard Thompson) [2:38] The Deserter (traditional) [4:10] Medley (traditional) [4:00] I. The Lark in the Morning II. Rakish Paddy III. Foxhunter’s Jig IV. Toss the Feathers Tam Lin (traditional) [7:20] Crazy Man Michael (words: Richard Thompson, music: Dave Swarbrick) [4:35] Total Running Time: 40:33 The Players: Sandy Denny (vocals) Ashley Hutchings (bass, backing vocals) Dave Mattacks (drums, percussion) Simon Nicol (guitar, backing vocals) Dave Swarbrick (fiddle, viola) Richard Thompson (guitar, backing vocals)

Rating: 4.124 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Album’s Impact Critic Adrian Denning speculated that this might be the “most influential folk album of all time” AD noting that Liege & Lief “re-awakened a huge interest in folk music.” AD The tagline in adverts for the album promoted this as “the first…British folk rock LP ever.” AD While that may be debatable, the album “introduced a large new audience to the beauty of British folk” AM and critics have dubbed the album “the definitive British folk-rock album.” AM “The band started out emulating American folk-pop combos such as the Mamas and the Papas, and its previous album, Unhalfbricking, contains spirited Dylan covers.” TM It was also where Fairport Convention first dipped their toes “into British traditional folk with their stellar version of ‘A Sailor’s Life.’” AM The song “effectively became the manifesto of English folk-rock.” RD “Liege & Lief found them diving headfirst into the possibilities of England’s musical past.” AM They also seem “fully engaged in all that 1969 had to offer, from prog-rock to Celtic jousting to…substantially reimagined murder ballads.” TM Lineup Changes Tragedy struck after the band recorded Unhalfbricking when “a tour bus crash claimed the lives of original Fairport drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson’s girlfriend.” AM When the band added “new drummer Dave Mattacks and full-time fiddler Dave Swarbrick), they became a stronger and more adventurous unit, less interested in the neo-Jefferson Airplane direction of their earlier work and firmly committed to fusing time-worn folk with electric instruments while honoring both.” AM They still featured Sandy Denny, “the most beautiful voice in contemporary British rock,” RD and Ashley Hutchings. However, her insistence on “traditional material over originals irked…Denny.” RD Both of them left soon after Liege & Lief. Traditional Songs Mixed with Originals “If Unhalfbricking had troubled the folk purists but delighted the growing folk-rock audience, Liege & Lief stirred further controversy – not least within the band itself…Fairport Convention were now singing and playing traditional dances and ballads with electric instruments.” RD “Fairport Convention’s interpretations spoke of the present as much as the past, and the result was timeless music in the best sense of the term.” AM “While Liege & Lief was the most purely folk-oriented Fairport Convention album to date, it also rocked hard in a thoroughly original and uncompromising way.” AM The Songs “Only two of the album’s eight songs were group originals, though Crazy Man Michael,” AD “a tune which quietens the fun and frivolity and closes the album absolutely perfectly,” AD “and Come All Ye hardly stand out from their antique counterparts.” AM The latter “is a rousing, perfect opener with lovely little fiddle parts from Swarbrick.” AD “There’s some debate concerning the tune for Thompson’s Farewell, Farewell and whether it was actually an adaption of a traditional tune, but the lyrics were certainly Thompson’s.” AD “The delicate little Thompson guitar patterns perfectly compliment the vocals of Sandy.” AD “Reynardine comes across almost like a B-side to ‘A Sailors Life’…yet it's a wonderful showcase for the vocals of Sandy Denny.” AD Tam Lin “follows the pattern set by ‘A Sailor’s Life.’” AD Their “legendary version of the murder ballad Matty Groves” RD is “possibly the finest eight minutes eight seconds of Fairport Convention.” AD It is “one of several groundbreaking reworkings of old tunes.” TM “Thompson and Swarbrick’s soloing is dazzling throughout” AM and “the group’s crashing dynamics wring every last ounce of drama” AM from both songs. “The often-overlooked instrumental medley” AD “swings unrelentingly.” AM It “is clearly a signpost to Fairport’s work on the immediate albums that followed. It’s a fun piece that showcases the astonishing muscianship within the band at the time.” AD Notes: A 2002 reissue added bonus tracks “Sir Patrick Spens” and “The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood.” The 2007 deluxe edition moved those two songs to a second disc alongside then added yet another seven songs (most of which were recorded live in the studio for the BBC) on to that, including alternate versions of the aforementioned songs as well as “Tam Lin,” “Medley,” “Reynardine,” and non-album cuts “The Ballad of Easy Rider,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “Medley: The Lady Is a Tramp/ In Other Words (Fly Me to the Moon).”

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Mark Deming AD Adrian Denning (3/30/2007). “Adrian’s Top 100 Albums, So Far” RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 188. TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 268-9. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 3/28/2011; last updated 10/14/2026.

Today in Music (1969): Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking released

Unhalfbricking Fairport Convention

Released: July 3, 1969 Peak: -- US, 12 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.06 UK Genre: British folk

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Genesis Hall (Richard Thompson) [3:35] If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Si Tu Dois Partir) (Bob Dylan) [2:18] (7/26/69, 21 UK) Autopsy (Sandy Denny) [4:20] A Sailor’s Life (traditional) [11:08] Cajun Woman (Thompson) [2:42] Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (Denny) [5:08] Percy’s Song (Dylan) [6:46] Million Dollar Bash (Dylan) [2:54] Total Running Time: 38:51 The Players: Sandy Denny (vocals) Ashley Hutchings (bass, backing vocals) Martin Lamble (drums) Simon Nicol (guitar, backing vocals) Richard Thompson (guitar, backing vocals)

Rating: 4.249 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Members Fairport Convention featured “the legendary Richard Thompson on guitar” RD alongside vocalists Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings, “the John Mayall of UK folk rock,” RD along with bassist Simon Nicol and drummer Martin Lamble, who was tragically killed in an accident before the album’s release. They were managed by Joe Boyd, an American producer. CM Reviving British Folk Tradition The folk group’s third album, Unhalfbricking, was “a transitional album…in which the group shed its closest ties to its American folk-rock influences and started to edge toward a more traditional British folk-slanted sound.” AM Boyd said, “Music from Big Pink by the Band hit London…Fairport effectively said, ‘We want to create something as English as this is American.’” CM Thompson said, “We thought because we were British we should be playing the indigenous music…This was something at which we could excel…We also saw there was a need for the traditional music in this country to be revived.” CM The Album Title As for that album title – it was “a word Denny coined in the course of a word game the band were playing on the road.” RD The Songs The album featured two compositions from Sandy Denny. Who Knows Where the Time Goes?, “her best known composition.” RD She first recorded it with her previous band, The Strawbs. Judy Collins would later record the song. The version here features “Thompson’s liquid lines flowing around her wistful melody.” CM The album also featured “the far less celebrated but magnetically brooding Autopsy.” AM The group tackled three Dylan tunes, including a “goofball French Cajun cover” AM of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” (here retitled Si Tu Dois Partir), a “magnificent reading” AM of “the unrecorded Percy’s Song about the aftermath of a car accident,” CM and Million Dollar Bash, the still unreleased at the time song from Dylan & the Band’s The Basement Tapes. “The clear signpost to the future was their 11-minute take on the traditional song A Sailor’s Life.” AM “This jaw-dropping epic was recorded in a single take.” RD Denny had been performing it for some time in clubs RD after learning the ancient English ballad from Martin Carthy. CM “Lamble sets the tale with oceanic washes of his cymbals and Denny embodies the young woman standing on the shore and staring at the sea anticipating the dangers and temptations her lover would face.” CM “Then in comes Thompson’s guitar, rolling like the wine dark sea itself. Thompson’s guitar is tailed by Dave Swarback, not yet in the band, whose banshee violin flies around the melody.” CM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Richie Unterberger CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Page 228. RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 182. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 3/28/2011; last updated 10/14/2026.