Fairport Convention – FAIRPORT CONVENTION***

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Debut album from Britain's premier folk group Fairport Convention featuring soon to be replaced vocalist Judy Dyble. However, this one demonstrates more mainstream rock material. The final track was tragically prescient.

"Prior to their reinvention of English folk music Fairport's were called 'the English Jefferson Airplane'. They weren't quite that good and did more cover versions but some hints of the genius to come are there."

"This was the only album featuring this particular line-up, which included the highly talented Judy Dyble as female vocalist. Though she tended to sound quite similar to her replacement, her style is somewhat different, lending strength to the comparatively higher proportion of harder rock than typically found on later releases. This album is nothing short of exquisite, with a mix of soft, acoustic folk, and somewhat harder folk/prog."

"At this point, Fairport have yet to figure out who they are. The album sounds similar to bands coming from the states like Jefferson Airplane or The Byrds. Judy Dyble is a good vocalist but she is not up to the standard that Sandy Denny was about to set on subsequent releases."

"The material is also much poppier sounding than anything they would do afterwards and isn't really very English sounding at all. Had they not gone on to the career they had, this album would be little more than a pleasant half-forgotten treat of the period. Still as a mildly psychedelic folk rock album it compares well."

"There's no Sandy, no 'trad arr Fairport', no Swarb. So what? Recorded when they were billed as 'England's answer to Jefferson Airplane', this is a gorgeous album of West Coast-a-phile folk-rock."

"This album is the 'pre Sandy Denny' one and finds the early Fairport rooted firmly in the American influenced sixties 'soft rock' sound, to which the wistfully yearning (but occasionally out of tune) voices of Judy Dyble and Ian MacDonald (Matthews) were well suited. Although it contains several covers by, among others, the then littleknown Joni Mitchell, more than half were originals written by the band and friends."

"There are shades of psychedelia here, but its essentially a collection of relatively fragile songs topped off with the gentle vocals of Judy Dyble and Ian Matthews."