Fairport Convention, Unhalfbricking, 1969
Fairport’s third offering (their second of three in the year that would define both the band & the genre they created), has been both lauded as groundbreaking & a mixed affair for its genre-splicing creativity.
It was a year of triumph and tragedy. Drummer Martin Lamble & Richard Thompson’s girlfriend were killed in a car accident returning from a gig. The band stunned & subdued reconvened & decided to continue. Their coping strategies were very different, bassist Ashley Hutchings spent hours most days in the library of Cecil Sharp House researching English folk song, a move that would push the band duly in that direction.
The sleeve exudes the overt Englishness that would define them. Stumped for ideas they decided to pay singer Sandy Denny’s parents a visit at their Wimbledon home, Sandy’s parents stand half-proud, half-irritated, while the band take tea behind them. The old & the new, like the folk-rock of Unhalfbricking.
The opener in waltz time, Genesis Hall is a Richard Thompson lament about the eviction of squatters from the titular hall. As with Thompson’s later solo work it sympathises with social outcasts. Sandy’s quivering vocals are a world away from folk contemporaries such as The Waterson’s, highly polished & sophisticated, & even more evident on the Sandy Denny penned Autopsy, and of course Who Knows Where the Time Goes.
Both the songwriting and musicianship has a maturity lacking on the the previous LP’s, but the record is also playful. Si Tu Dois Partir (the LP’s only single) is a bad translation of the Bob Dylan track If You Gotta Go, Go Now. It’s the only track on which Lamble plays, & a fun way to go out, beating stacked chairs with his sticks! It’s one of a handful of Dylan songs Fairport recorded for the album, including the melancholic Percy’s Song. The closer, Million Dollar Bash finds the band in exuberant form with faux Americana accents.
New addition Dave Swarbick, a seasoned musician adds playfulness on Thompson’s Cajun Woman and brevity on the centrepiece. The 11 minute plus A Sailor’s Life, a traditional English song from the reign of Queen Anne. Recorded live and in one take, with magnificent interplay between Sawrb’s fiddle & Thompson’s guitar building to a crescendo and masterful instrumental section before petering out.
It’s the perfect mix between their roots & their future, & showing the way for other potential British folk-rockers.
Sleeve 8/10
Music 9/10
Record quality 8/10
