Browse by Artist: FAIRPORT CONVENTION

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	What We Did On Our Holidays
Label:	4 MEN WITH BEARDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	4M 157LP

"The second Fairport Convention album, originally released in 1969, is the first to feature the beautifully haunting vocals of the legendary Sandy Denny. What We Did On Our Holidays contains some of the Fairport Convention's finest moments, including Denny's own 'Fotheringay,' Richard Thompson's 'Meet Me On The Ledge,' and their stunning take on Bob Dylan's 'I'll Keep It With Mine.' This LP finds the Fairport Convention moving away from the California folk-rock of their debut album towards a more British approach to similar material. It is also the last full LP to feature Ian Matthews on vocals." 180 gram vinyl.

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Unhalfbricking
Label:	4 MEN WITH BEARDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	4M 158LP

Deluxe 180 gram reissue. "Unhalfbricking, originally released in 1969, was a transitional album for Fairport Convention, as vocalist (and American folk-rock enthusiast) Ian Matthews left midway through the recording. As a result, the band looked further into their own country's folk traditions for influence, as their decidedly British style was cemented by the addition of Dave Swarbrick's fiddle. This is not to say that Unhalfbricking is a weak album. On the contrary, it is a stone cold classic and includes some of the band's finest material including their take on Dylan's 'Percy's Song,' the traditional 'A Sailor's Life,' and one of Sandy Denny's finest compositions in 'Who Knows Where The Time Goes?'"

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Liege & Lief
Label:	4 MEN WITH BEARDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	4M 159LP

"The fourth album from the Fairport Convention, originally released in 1970, is considered by many to be the paramount of British folk-rock. After three solid albums of folk-rock that only hinted at their British roots, Liege & Lief is the first Fairport record to fully and completely embrace their home country. They roll through no less than four traditional British folk songs including an incredible reading of 'Tam Lin' along with quality originals that pay tribute to and expand on their rich tradition. This is the last Fairport Convention record to feature core members Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings, and though it is decidedly British, it is an absolute classic of electric folk-rock of any variety." 180 gram vinyl, gatefold sleeve.

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Rising For the Moon
Label:	ISLAND (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMCD 155

Island Masters reissue of this album, originally released in 1975 on Island Records. "Sandy Denny's official return to Fairport. She wrote or co-wrote seven of its 11 songs, and dominates most of the others with her voice. This lineup (Denny, Dave Swarbrick, Dave Pegg, Jerry Donahue, Trevor Lucas, and Bruce Rowland, with Dave Mattacks -- who quit partway through -- drumming on some of the tracks) went for the gold with rock veteran Glyn Johns in the producer's spot. The result was the only Fairport album done after the departure of Richard Thompson that doesn't sound anemic in the electric guitar department."

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Angel Delight
Label:	ISLAND (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMCD 307

2004 Island Remasters series reissue, originally released in 1971 on Island Records. "Richard Thompson exits the Fairport lineup, leaving the band reduced to a quartet of Simon Nicol, Dave Swarbrick, Dave Pegg, and Dave Mattacks. The loss of big guns Thompson and Denny was felt, but amazingly, although it isn't nearly as well known as Liege and Lief or Full House, this record reached the highest chart position of any Fairport LP, making number eight in England. Swarbrick led the group in even more of a traditional British folk vein. By now everybody involved was singing (with Nicol and Swarbrick usually alternating on lead), and they managed to pull it off, mostly by virtue of the honesty of their voices and instrumental work almost as vital and animated as any in their history. From the beautifully sung and exciting opener 'Lord Marlborough,' the album should strike a responsive chord with any folk or folk-rock enthusiast -- especially enjoyable are the singing on the buoyantly humorous title track and the viola/violin duet between Swarbrick and Nicol on 'Bridge Over The River Ash'."

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Babbacome Lee
Label:	ISLAND (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMCD 308

2004 Island Remaster series reissue of this album, originally released in 1971 on Island Records. With 2 bonus tracks (one w/ Sandy Denny). "The group's only concept album (similar in some ways to the Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow), built around the life story of John 'Babbacombe' Lee, a Victorian-era condemned murderer. Lee's story, from his boyhood poverty to his time in the Royal Navy, his being invalided out and forced to work in the service of Miss Keyes, to her murder and his sentence of death, and the failure of the gallows three times, is told in song, and all but one of those songs are originals. The all-male Fairport seldom sang better, nor did the post-Thompson band ever play with more panache, and some of the songs are beautiful -- but a few are lugubrious, and as with most other concept albums, the fit between the songs and the larger subject ultimately isn't entirely comfortable for the listener."

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Fairport Convention
Label:	POLYDOR (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	POLY 68291CD

2003 release, remastered reissue of the 1968 debut album including four bonus tracks, "Suzanne", "If I Had A Ribbon Bow", "Morning Glory", "Reno, Nevada". (Reissued at the in synch with the Island Remasters series, but this first Fairport's album was originally issued on Polydor, not Island). Includes sleevenotes by co-founder Ashley Hutchings. 16 tracks. Recorded in Nov. 1967, produced by Joe Boyd. Featuring a pre-Sandy Denny line up of: Ian MacDonald (lead vocals, jews harp), Judy Dyble (lead vocals, electric & acoustic autoharps, recorder, piano), Richard Thompson (vocals, lead, electric & acoustic guitars, mandolin), Simon Nicol (vocals, 12 & 6 string electric & acoustic guitars), Tyger Hutchings (bass guitar, jug; Martin Lamble (percussion, violin). "When you think of Fairport it's usually as a rural bunch getting it together in a country cottage. But it's as a fully-fledged house band of the Summer of Love that they first hit the national consciousness. As key members of Joe Boyd's UFO/Middle Earth club axis they were often seen as an anglicised Jefferson Airplane. While the twin vocal talents of Ian Matthews and Judy Dyble (who went on to be associated with Robert Fripp's earliest incarnation of King Crimson) mirrored Slick and Kantner, the closest they came to the West Coast vibe on their eponymous debut was the slinky jazz shuffle 'It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft' (with its line about the sound they'd found 'down Frisco way'). What's actually occurring on this first disc is a young band of extraordinary diversity combining the cream of contemporary singer songwriters (Dylan, Mitchell et al. Fairport were always a great covers band) with trad jazz, folk and psychedelia. What is amazing is how Richard Thompson's guitar is already a potent weapon in such young hands." -- Chris Jones/BBC.

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	What We Did On Our Holidays
Label:	TAPESTRY RECORDS (LIECHTENSTEIN)
Format:	LP
Price:	$28.00
Catalog #:	TPT 250LP

"Their second album captures Fairport Convention poised between the more embryonic, American-influenced rock of their debut and the more pronounced British folk-rock that would follow. Newly arrived vocalist Sandy Denny contributes her haunting songs and indelibly husky voice, Ian (later Iain) Matthews lofts his angelic tenor into the mix, stacking solid covers of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan beside traditional English songs and stirring originals from Denny, Matthews, Richard Thompson, and Ashley Hutchings. As such, Holidays works both on its own terms and as a position paper on Fairport's emerging ambition to find a distinctive accent for their alternately hearty, witty, and somber music." Originally released 1969. 180 gram virgin vinyl. Limited edition of 1000 copies.

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Fairport Convention
Label:	TIMELESS RECORDS (LUXEMBOURG)
Format:	LP
Price:	$28.00
Catalog #:	TIME 697LP

Reissue of the 1st Fairport album, originally released by Polydor in 1968. "The best British folk-rock band of the late '60s, Fairport Convention did more than any other act to develop a truly British variation on the folk-rock prototype by drawing upon traditional material and styles indigenous to the British Isles. While the revved-up renditions of traditional British folk tunes drew the most critical attention, the group members were also (at least at the outset) talented songwriters as well as interpreters. Released in 1968, FC's debut album owes more to The Byrds than to Pentangle, with soaring harmonies and psychedelic guitars. Recorded pre-Sandy Denny, Judy Dyble sang like a siren and then left to form Trader Horne."

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	What We Did On Our Holidays
Label:	WATER
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	WATER 211CD

"The second Fairport Convention album, originally released in 1969, is the first to feature the beautifully haunting vocals of the legendary Sandy Denny. What We Did On Our Holidays contains some of the Fairport Convention's finest moments, including Denny's own 'Fotheringay,' Richard Thompson's 'Meet Me On The Ledge' and their stunning take on Bob Dylan's 'I'll Keep It With Mine.' This record finds the Fairport Convention moving away from the California folk-rock of their debut album towards a more British approach to similar material. It is also the last full release to feature Ian Matthews on vocals and many consider this lineup, which lasted only for this album and a portion of the follow-up Unhalfbricking, to be the finest in the Fairport's long and varied career."

Artist:	FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Title:	Unhalfbricking
Label:	WATER
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	WATER 212CD

"Unhalfbricking, originally released in 1969, was a transitional album for Fairport Convention, as vocalist (and American folk-rock enthusiast) Ian Matthews left midway through the recording. As a result, the band looked further into their own country's folk traditions for influence, as their decidedly British style was cemented by the addition of Dave Swarbrick's fiddle. This is not to say that Unhalfbricking is a weak album, on the contrary, it is a stone cold classic and includes some the band's finest material, including their take on Dylan's 'Percy's Song,' the traditional 'A Sailor's Life,' and one of Sandy Denny's finest compositions in 'Who Knows Where The Time Goes?'"

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