A highly acclaimed work, and for many people THE defining folk rock album. It’s not hard to understand all the praise either, as ‘Liege & Lief’ is excellent from start to finish. This was their fourth album, and the first where the band concentrated solely on interpretating age old traditionals. The band spent a lot of time studying material from The English Folk Dance & Song Society Library in the famous Cecil Sharp House. These texts where then transformed into electric folk rock (and that was a progressive and revolutionary thing to do back then), and much of the album is quite rocking! The perhaps best example of that, is the well known ‘Matty Groves’. It’s incredibly catchy, with an unforgettable vocal melody. Of course, it didn’t exactly hurt that the band had vocal goddess Sandy Denny on board. She sings both this and all the other songs on this fabulous album with utter passion and conviction. But let’s not forget the excellent electric guitar playng by Richard Thompson, and the rock solid rhythm section. The opening song ‘Come All Ye’ is another uptempo and great rocker, and the same can be said about the mighty ‘Tam Lin’ – possibly the most epic track here. You’ll also find an instrumental medley, that is very uptempo and features great playing by the violin virtuoso Dave Swarbrick, who was now a permanent member of the band. But the album also features phenomenal melancholy folk. Their version of ‘Reynardine’ is still among the very best versions of this traditional I have heard, and that has a lot to do with Sandy Denny. She was simply born to sing atmospheric, epic and melancholy folk ballads like this. ‘Farewell, Farewell’ is another one of those, but my absolute favourite ballad has to be ‘Crazy Man Michael’, which is just so incredibly beautiful and haunting. It’s a perfect way to close a perfect folk rock album. Utterly essential stuff.
Fairport Convention – Liege & Lief (Island 1969)
