Full House

This was one of British folk rock’s finest moments influencing many groups thereafter such as Steeleye Span, The Albion Country Band, The Strawbs and Pentangle. Of course, there were several of the musicians from this album scattered around subsequently on albums by those groups. It featured a strong electric guitar and rock drum sound and followed on from the successful Liege And Lief album. This time, however, the group had no female vocalist, as Sandy Denny had left to form Fotheringay. The line up was Dave Swarbrick, Richard Thompson, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks and Simon Nicol.If anything this was a more powerful, rock-driven album than its predecessor. While that album was culturally more important, maybe this was actually the better one. It was certainly one of the best folk rock albums of all time.TRACK LISTING1. Walk Awhile2. Doctor Of Physick3. Dirty Linen4. Sloth5. Sir Patrick Spens6. Flatback Caper7. Poor Will & the Jolly Hangman8. Flowers Of The ForestBONUS TRACKS9. Now Be Thankful10. Sir B. MacKenzie's Daughter's Lament...11. Bonny Bunch Of RosesWalk Awhile is a lively and melodic opener, a typical folk rock song of the era. Lots of acoustic guitars, merged with electric riffs and harmonious shared vocals. There is some killer violin on it too. In places it is almost like folk psychedelia in its swirling rock instrumentation. Doctor Of Physick is a narrative tale of a girl telling her doctor she “woke up and can’t find her maidenhead…”. Oh dear, who can have come a visiting after dark? It sounds so much like a traditional ballad, lyrically, but it is actually a Thompson/Swarbrick composition. It is the album’s most Steeleye Span-sounding number. Dirty Linen is an appealing jig of an instrumental with the usual changes of pace throughout its time.Sloth is simply electric folk of the highest quality, featuring some storming, stabbing electric guitar over a solid rock drum beat. It lasts over nine minutes. Check out that delicious deep, but subtle bass line too. It is a song packed full of atmosphere and folky gravitas. It took folk rock to a new level.Sir Patrick Spens is a violin-driven tale of a sailor, who, unsurprisingly, perhaps, drowns at sea. It is a Scottish ballad from those collated by Francis Child. It features some sumptuous folk violin. Great drums too. Flatback Caper is a jaunty piece of extended fiddle instrumental backed by some rhythmic drums. It again changes pace several times over its six minutes or so.Poor Will And The Jolly Hangman is a sombre narrative played out over another impressively strong folk rock backing. We are encouraged by Thompson and Swarbrick to raise our glasses to the jolly hangman. Not so sure about that. Richard Thompson kicked up a fuss about his guitar solo, which he didn’t like and tried to get the track taken off the album. The eventual album found it replaced by Flowers Of The Forest. It was re-added to later releases of the album, thankfully. Nit picking, precious folkies, eh? The afore-mentioned Flowers Of The Forest is a gentle, traditional, bucolic folk number that ends the original album. Beneath its apparently peaceful theme, however lies a Scottish lament about English lies and deception.The bonus tracks include the hymnal sounding Now Be Thankful; an instrumental whose title was so long because it was an attempt to get into The Guinness Book Of Records so I will just refer to it as Sir B. Mackenzie’s Daughter and Bonny Bunch Of Roses, a nine minute slow ballad about The Irish, Napoleon Bonaparte and England, Scotland and Wales in the 19th century and their turbulent relationships. It is an anonymous ballad written by someone with Irish sympathies, one would presume, from both its lyrics and indeed its lilting but mournful melody.As I said, one of British folk rock's seminal albums.

Post Liege and Leif, and without Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings, Fairport reconvened as a five piece, allowing a more traditional male four voice folk harmony to come to the fore on Full House, not only that but the musicianship seemed to step up a notch as Thompson, Swarbrick and new boy Pegg trade note for note licks on many of the tracks ably backed by Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks. Some of Fairport's finest musical moments are on this album; Dirty Linen, Sloth, Sir Patrick Spen, Flatback Caper and Flowers of the Forest are the standout moments, in fact there is not a dull moment on the album. A fine mix of trad and rock.The CD version also includes a mono and stereo release of their 1970 single Now Be Thankful, all in all I would highly recommend this as a must have alongside the Sandy Denny era output.

Having dugout and played 'Liege and Lief' recently and being impressed by just how good it was and owning a rare copy of, what at the time, was their farewell album (Farewell, Farewell) I could hardly resist getting this when spending my Christmas money. In 1970 Fairport found themselves, not for the first time, in a period of transition. Founding member Ashley Hutchings had moved on to form Steelyspan and perhaps even more traumatically they found themselves without a female vocalist for the first time with the departure of the sublime Sandy Denny. What's a group to do? Well quite simply keep developing their style without trying to replicate their sublime last album. With the addition of Dave Pegg on bass, injecting some real flamboyance and drive into the rhythm section the group came up with the goods. Tracks like 'Walk Awhile' and 'Sir Patrick Spens' bounce along with real vigour and contrast nicely with the hypnotic 'Sloth' a track that just draws you in. The bonus tracks include the beautiful single 'Now be Thankful' and the CD includes the requisite jigs and reels which are given a lift by Dave Pegg's driving and involve bass work. If there is one fault it is that this is a group of getting used to having to share out the vocal duties. In his sleeve notes Simon Nicol describes their efforts at the time as 'tentative' and that is probably a good description as occasionally they sound a little uncertain. However, in some ways that almost adds to the charm of the album. This is almost a five star album but not quite. If you're aiming to check out Fairport Convention this is probably one of the albums you should get!

Electrified traditional English Folk tunes. Recommended for anybody who has ever liked anything by Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span but worth a listen for anybody with broad tastes who likes good music played by excellent musicians. The only ones who might be slightly disappointed are those whose only Fairport album is Liege & Lief and who expect this to match it, which nothing ever will. But although it lacks the beautiful voice of Sandy Denny, if anything the instrumental performance is even stronger on this recording, especially the outstanding guitar work of Richard Thompson. Stand-out tracks for me are Walk Awhile, Sloth, Sir Patrick Spens and Doctor of Physick.

Should have purchased this in Vinyl in my youth but couldn't afford it, now I don't own a turntable anyway.Arrived in perfect condition, great seller service.