Track Listing

1. Come All Ye - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd, John Wood
2. Reynardine - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd
3. Matty Groves - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd, John Wood
4. Farewell, Farewell - Fairport Convention, Trevor Lucas, Joe Boyd, John Wood
5. The Deserter - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd
6. Medley: The Lark In The Morning - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd
7. Tam Lin - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd, John Wood
8. Crazy Man Michael - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd, John Wood
9. Sir Patrick Spens - Fairport Convention, Joe Boyd
10. Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood - Fairport Convention, Trevor Lucas, Harry Robinson

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1323 in Music
• Released on: 2002-05-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .24 pounds
• Running time: 52 minutes

From Amazon.com
British hippies who started out emulating Jefferson Airplane, Fairport Convention escalated their homeland connections with each outing, culminating in this, their fourth album and a watershed for British folk-rock. Hindsight offers the ironic possibility that the Dylan covers of its predecessor, Unhalfbricking, opened a window onto the earlier Irish-English-Scots roots of the American music they loved, and Liege & Lief jumps through that window triumphantly. "Come All Ye" underscores their affinity for the Band yet is joyfully rooted in their own fertile folk traditions, echoed in a mix of classic songs from members Sandy Denny, Ashley Hutchings, and Richard Thompson, and given direct homage in the extended ballads "Matty Groves" and "Tam Lin," which evoke Neil Young & Crazy Horse in kilts. Fiddler Dave Swarbrick's arrival as a fulltime member adds new richness and a wonderful foil for Thompson's superb guitar leads. A medley of jigs and reels showcases their flair for hot-wiring traditional British Isles dances, a fixture ever since. --Sam Sutherland

CD Description
Remastered and expanded version of Fairport Convention's 1969 folk-rock masterpiece. Featuring the classic line-up which included guitar maestro Richard Thompson and the evocativevoice of Sandy Denny this version now includes two bonus tracks 'Sir Patrick Spens' and 'Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood'.

Customer Reviews

Simply one of the best albums of all time
It is hard to believe that this album was recorded nearly 35 years ago! It sounds as fresh and invigorating now as it did back then. You don’t have to like folk or folk/rock to appreciate the wonders of this album. This is a brilliant showcase for excellent English songwriting and band performance. The voice of Sandy Denny was simply captivating and is sorely missed. This is ably demonstrated on the opening “Come All Ye”. Rousing and spiritual, Denny makes the song fly, taking the band on a magical journey. On “Farwell, Farewell”, she has a breathless, earthiness in her voice wringing all the emotional essence out of the song. Let’s not forget the rest of the band. The winning combination of Thompson, Swarbrick, Mattacks, Nicol and Hutchings never fail to delight. A classic line-up who sound as if they really enjoy and inspire each other, especially on the instrumental medleys where the band are really on fire.

This was the band at their creative peak and the album is sympathetically produced by Joe Boyd. It is no wonder that this album regularly appears on Top 10 Best Albums of All Time lists. Though they recorded other wonderful albums, it will be for “Liege and Lief” that they will be remembered.

Essential Electro-Folk
"L&L" is possibly the ultimate English Electro-Folk album. As a 19 year old, I was taught the song "Matty Groves" whilst steering a narrow-boat down a canal. Hearing the album, a new genre of music opened up. OK, so I had dabbled in the folkier side of rock (exhibits a and b "The Song Remains the Same" by Led Zeppelin and "2112" by Rush respectively), but Fairport were taking music clear out of the safety of rock and into (shudder) folk music.
Highlighting Sandy Denny's ethereal vocals, the sometimes frenetic combination of Richard Thompson's guitar/Dave Swarbrick's fiddle relied on a rhythm section also containing various demi-gods of British folk music. Combining some of the very best performers of the 1960s and beyond, Fairport Convention were to folk-rock what John Mayall's Bluesbreakers or the Yardbirds were to R&B: a finishing school/academy of excellence.
As an aside for the hard-rock fraternity - Sandy Denny was the female singer on Led Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore".

This album is to me Fairport's apogee - it has the driven supernatural thrills of "Tam Lin" and the softer, yet still dark "Crazy Man Michael" juxtaposed with the narrative "Matty Groves" and some perfect tunes to accompany 'jigging about'.
The lyrical content is on the darker side; Goth-folk, should such a genre exist.

Over the last 20 years, with the sad exception of Sandy herself, who died too young, I have had the privilege to see most of the performers who passed through Fairport, some with the band itself and some in other projects/solo. [their album "history of..." gives a family tree] This band is, to me, the foundation-stone of folk-rock and one could say that this album is the gnomen on the sun-dial of British folk-rock/electro-folk casting its shadow through time.

As a mark of the stature that playing in Fairport confers, like Carlos Santana and John Lee Hooker in their respective spheres, those who passed through Fairport have gone on to nurture the younger generation of talent and mere striplings such as aNNa rYDEr have the support. Check out some of their associates at Cropredy festival, or for the more eclectic, Guilfest, usually has artists with some Fairport connection.

To me, this is THE essential album for electro-folk/folk-rock enthusiasts.

The best folk/rock album ever?
Popular opinion will tell you this is the finest folk album ever made and while it is great, it has been bettered. Following a terrible post-gig road accident in which drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend were killed, the band were forced to regroup and this was the first fruits of their new direction. With Ashley Hutchings now assuming the role of group leader (under the guidance of fiddle player Dave Swarbrick), the band fully embraced the folk elements that were introduced on "Unhalfbricking" and they tackle such material as "Matty Groves", "Reynardine" and the epic "Tam Lin" like they're excorsising demons. The album also contains some fine original material in "Crazy Man Michael" and Thompson's moving "Farewell Farewell" which was based on the traditional tune "Willie O'Winsbury" and is supposedly inspired by the band's tragedy (he never sang the song live and even recently when appearing at a request show in New York, he chose to play "Willie O'Winsbury" when "Farewell Farewell" was requested). Let down only by the medley of morris tunes that upset the flow towards the end, it's still an absolute classic and still sounds like the genre defining moment that it is.