Fairport Convention: The Fairport Companion - Loose Chippings From The Fairport Convention Family Tree
Tom Watson: My Dirty Life & Times (Free subscription) | 26/11/2009
Some hippie-dippy British trad-rock Celtic goodness circa 1970 from Fairport Convention on this Thanksgiving Day, 2009 - written by Dave Swarbick and Richard Thompson - somehow seems fitting in the pre-turkey mists of morning. When the stone is grown too...
a fool in the forest (Free subscription) | 26/11/2009
Oh my goodness, America, and the World: it's another Thanksgiving Day! And here in the Forest that means two things: Presidential turkey pardons and Fairport Convention. (Various exemplars of this recurrent annual rut in which I am enrutted are linked...
ReARM RedNev's Real Ale & Real Music Blog (Free subscription) | 26/11/2009
Video of this Sunday's Bothy Guest As reported here on the 9th November , the legendary Martin Carthy is the guest at the Bothy Folk Club this Sunday, 29th November. Here is a video from 1989 of him performing the traditional English song "Sovay" on Yorkshire TV accompanied by Dave Swarbrick, former demon fiddler with Fairport Convention. Dave Swarbrick himself appears at the club on 2nd...
Wrinkled Weasel's World (Free subscription) | 26/11/2009
It's not often an album from the 60's and 70's takes me totally by surprise, but Swaddling Songs, by Mellow Candle did. This long sought after record still sells for hundreds of pounds among vinyl collectors. In many ways it is typical of the 60s/70s folk rock period; eclectic, with a nod to Trees, Pentangle, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Spyrogira and even CSN, but as a whole it is complete, beautifully...
30 seconds over (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
My last Dusted review for the year is up today. It’s Jay Bolotin’s self-titled folk album, briefly available around its 1970 release, then lost for decades until Locust Music picked it up for reissue. Here’s part of the review: Another in the parade of long-lost singer-songwriter records recently recovered and dusted off for contemporary consideration, Jay Bolotin’s self-titled...
The Liberal Curmudgeon (Free subscription) | 22/11/2009
Through their adaptation of traditional English folk songs, Fairport Convention , founded in 1967, became England's most influential folk rock band. Here the group performs "Matty Groves" in Birmingham Town Hall, 1990. The ballad , versions of which appeared in the 17th century, is about an ill-fated tryst between a nobleman's wife and a servant. "Matty Groves" is one of the tracks...
The Northern England Art Rock Society (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009
The latest edition of "Classic Rock Presents Prog" hits the stores on Wednesday November 25th. Issue Five features Mike Portnoy, Katatonia, Renaissance, Mostly Autumn, Roy Harper, Oceansize, The Devil's Blood, Fairport Convention, Black Bonzo, Pythia, Tilt, Within Temptation (Sharon den Adel), etc. etc. plus French Prog. The free CD, "PROGNOSIS 5", includes the following tracks...
Music Musings and Miscellany (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
Here’s the latest batch of Music Musings and Miscellany’s unapologetically subjective selection of the twentieth century’s best 1000 singles. FAIRPORT CONVENTION – Si Tu Dois Partir / Genesis Hall (Island 6064 1969) In the period between the end of the sixties and punk, for the serious prog-rock, metal and folk-rock fan, the 45rpm seven inch single [...]
Electric Roulette (Free subscription) | 18/11/2009
Unity Peg has designed a range of Text Transfers to liven up your blank wall space. The collection consists of a choice of 19 different phrases, each one being the name of an album. They have chosen titles that are...
even*cleveland (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009
Today, epic story-songs about infidelity. My dad used to sing this one for us - it is a very old English ballad, and we reveled in the gory details. In some versions, Lord Arnold strikes his cheating wife through the heart and pins her against the wall after she tells him she'd rather kiss from her dead lover's lips, and in others he cuts her head off and kicks it against the wall.
The Quietus | All Articles (Free subscription) | 13/11/2009
In February 2009, Vetiver released their album, Tight Knit, a homely collection of soft songwriting that went against the grain of the more dark and introspective experimentation of previous outing To Find Me Gone. Another band who found themselves amid the flurry of freak-folk's awakening earlier this decade, Animal Collective, released in Merriweather Post Pavilion a record that focused on the domestic,...
The 'Spill (Free subscription) | 08/11/2009
As the adverts always have it - NEW! IMPROVED! VIM! And, no doubt, ZIP A DEE DOO-DAH! too So, Vim is a concept that can mean many things to many people. Over on the Mothership, some people seem to have objected to the idea that up tempo songs automatically means vimminess, but I don't know about that, one woman's Vim is another woman's Cillit Bang. Personally, a toe-tapping quality switches on my vim...
Retro To Go (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
Unity Peg has designed a range of Text Transfers to liven up your blank wall space. The collection consists of a choice of 19 different phrases, each one being the name of an album. They have chosen titles that are...
Marathon Pundit (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
Last week I posted a video of 1970s Celtic rock pioneers Horslips performing the "The Man Who Built America," and I described them as a combination of Jethro Tull, Thin Lizzy, and The Pogues. Although it's a great song, there wasn't anything Pogues-like with that tune. "High Reel" moves the needle a bit in that direction, although the feel of it is more in line with British folk...
Kiko's House (Free subscription) | 31/10/2009
AFTER HALLOWEEN By Fairport Convention Red and gold and Halloween have passed us by The charcoal branches lean against the rosy sky You are so far away and I could touch you if I may But don't you worry now, I'm only dreaming anyway You may be lonely, you may be just on your own It could be anywhere, some place that I have know But who am I and do we really live these days at all And are they simply...
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