New album 2007

[issy]

How about a double CD for the anniversary year - one with old and trad stuff with guests (Judy has to be a must, Maart, Ashley etc) and the other some new stuff and total reworkings. This way everybody gets what they want, plus we (the fans) get a superb reflection of the bands capabilities, past and present. Simon has said that FC is about the band, not the individuals, so this would reflect their 40 years and their various formats.

This sounds good to me...  I like trad.arrs and the soundalikes and I also like Chris songs and Rics instrumentals.  In an anniversary year there must surely be a nod to all times and all folks.

Icky

[Shane (Skirky)]

Hope Tam Lin doesn't make it, as it is too long and duller than the original recording.

I reckon we'll see it - what with it being the 40th anniversary and all there's bound to be at least one 're-imagining' on there somewhere and I'm sure it's a bit too soon for another Banks of The Sweet Primroses. Ralph's Bridge of Sighs would be a corker though.

[Edthefolkie]

I second the suggestion about "A Place called England" - top song.

Maybe June Tabor could guest on it or perhaps Chris While. But Simon could handle it OK - I can hear him now.

[johnthegonne]

I hope they'll kKindly avoid the use of "Geronimo's Cadillac" by Hoyt Axton please.

I thought it was written by Michael Murphey. I always thought they'd make a good job of it myself.

[Jim]

if the formula holds then tam lin is a shoe in
 for gods sake no June tabor, she could murder a sailors life again in the studio  the horror
 we'll all look forward to it be mildly disappointed and not play it again for weeks, give it another chance and still be disappointed

[Harbottle (Martin)]

I'd like to be surprised by a new album - I don't' mind the recent albums, but feel they're too long and somewhat formulaic. I'd love to see them do something surprising... Like Show of Hands have done in "Witness", or go back to taking Trad songs and doing mad arrangements of a la Matty Groves & Jack O Rion... Rockify things a bit... Like the Dead Horse thing on "Rise up Like the sun" (Albion Do-dah.) Or

[Andy]

I hope they'll kKindly avoid the use of "Geronimo's Cadillac" by Hoyt Axton please.

I thought it was written by Michael Murphey. I always thought they'd make a good job of it myself.

You are right! I believed that Geronimo's Cadillac was by Hoyt Axton, From the album Life Machine - A&M Records 1974, but Murphey indeed seems to be the author.

For some reason this song generates confusion as to its origins, Chris Leslie mistakenly thought Bill Miller wrote it when he played it at the Mill last year.

If you ever get the chance, pass up the opportunity to listen to the excreable version from Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

[Jack O Diamonds]

Sorry, Greglin, but this statement doesn't stand up: "definite reason to take another look at the genre that really launched the band". Ask Jude. 'trad;arr' did not launch the band.

They were originally a covers band - albeit one doing highly-original (and sometimes unusual) covers of a range of material from the well-known ('Suzanne') to the obscure ('One Sure Thing') to the previously-unheard-of ('Both Sides Now'). Their style could loosely be categorised as an anglicised West Coast sound - though the breadth of their musical pallette was significantly more than most bands of the day. Then Richard and Ashley began to become more comfortable with bringing their own original material to the band - which is where the first album more or less captures them.

Although Simon and Ashley had pre-Fairport experience of the trad;arr scene, that route would not be mapped until Sandy joined. The initial forays into trad;arr adapted the songs to Fairport's vaguely West Coast style of the time - it would be 'L&L' before Fairport learned the form on which much of trad;arr is based.

Suggest you get a copy of Kingsley Abbot's excellent account of Fairport's early days. Fairport were most definitely a 'happening' band well before 'L&L' and arguably before Sandy came in. (You don't get to follow billtoppers Jefferson Airplane onstage at the 1968 Isle of Wight Festival if you've not got some pretty significant media profile and don't have a reputation to attract/hold an audience. Equally Brum's Mothers would not have booked them on such a frequent basis if they wouldn't bring the punters in.

It's probably more accurate to see 'L' as a re-laumch.

So right.... but I'd give up on this line if I were you. Been there, sung it etc.

[westinlars]

Hello a few thoughts from Sweden here (only my second contribution top this forum).  I think that Simon's material on the last two studio albums has been rather weak. He needs stronger material to lift the albums to greater heights.  James Taylor's "Terra Nova" is a great song and would be perfect for Simon to sing. And as both he and Peggy are fans of Mr Taylor I'm sure that they know the song and it can be arranged as a really great Fairport number. Maybe they can surprise everyone and cover XTC. "Love on a Farmboys Wages" is a great song and "folkish" enough.
Generally speaking I would like Fairport to take more risks, stretch out a bit. Maybe move in a folk-jazz direction.

[PLW (Peter)]

"Love on a Farmboys Wages" is a great song and "folkish" enough.

A wonderful song, you're right. But maybe hard to top The Poozies great version?

[Andrew]

My feeling that less is most definitely more.  IMHO the last three albums have been a liitle bit let down by 'filler' tracks just to get 60 minutes of music onto a CD.  The problem I find is that if an album has 5 or 6 good songs and the remaining songs of a lower quality, I just give up listening to it.

I really do believe that if an album is kept at around 45 minutes long (remember those good old days of vinyl?), then only the stronger songs are likely to be chosen and this makes for a much more pleasant listening experience.

In fact, the last five non FC albums I've bought have all been less than 45 minutes long and have all been exceptionally good with no reliance on 'average' songs to fill the gaps.

[Anne T]

Some trad stuff, some Chris L compostitions and some covers. 

How about a go at a Cohen song? Not sure which one, as there are so many to choose from, but there are a few in FC back catalogue already.

Also, just been listening to "I want to see the bright lights tonight" and thought "We sing Hallelujah" would make a great rollicking track, or "When I get to the border" off the same album. Could Simon be persuaded to dust off the dulcimer?

[Jim]

How about a go at a Cohen song? Not sure which one, as there are so many to choose from, but there are a few in FC back catalogue already.

and lets hope that firmly in the back catalogue they stay.
 without Ian M and miss Judy to sing them laughing lens songs dont really lend them selves to the current line up

[david stevenson]

Talk of them going back to their "roots" and recording trad.arr material isn't strictly a reflection of the band's history or their recorded output through the years.  They started out as the first ever UK band doing covers of the wave of unknown US singer-songwriters in the late 60s - Joni Mitchell et al - and always had a solid core of songwriting talent, as evidenced by the first three albums in particular, where looking back it's really exciting to listen to the very rapid maturing of Sandy and RT. 

I grant that there is a lot of trad.arr throughout the 70s and 80s, leavened by brilliant versions of songs by the likes of Ralph McTell, but I've come back to Fairport in the last 10-15 years simply because they've found a new vein of internal songwriting talent through Chris and have also continued to pick up good songs by other writers and made them their own (Steve Tilston, for example, although ST's own version of Slipjigs is the undisputed guv'nor).

I've always admired their eclecticism and wouldn't want to see a single strand dominatiing an album - keep the mix going fellas!

[Alex Lyons]

Also, just been listening to "I want to see the bright lights tonight" and thought "We sing Hallelujah" would make a great rollicking track, or "When I get to the border" off the same album. Could Simon be persuaded to dust off the dulcimer?

'When I Get To The Border' was a regular when Simon returned to the band in 1976/77, didn't make it onto vinyl though. They revived it in about 1999 but unfortunately it still didn't get a release. Now would be the ideal opportunity though (wouldn't it, Norm?  )

[Penguin (Dunc)]

I've always admired their eclecticism and wouldn't want to see a single strand dominatiing an album - keep the mix going fellas!

Couldn't agree more!

The only thing I'd like to hear is Simon thrashing the old electric guitar a little more often, and an "outside of the box" cover version - one that really makes you sit up and go "WHAT!!! "

[david stevenson]

I second the suggestion about "A Place called England" - top song. 

A Song for England or A Place Called England? - my money would be on Maggie Holland's lovely opus.

And as it's coming from a Scotsman, could there be a better recommendation for an English song?

[davidmjs]

'When I Get To The Border' was a regular when Simon returned to the band in 1976/77, didn't make it onto vinyl though. They revived it in about 1999 but unfortunately it still didn't get a release. Now would be the ideal opportunity though (wouldn't it, Norm?  )

Never seen them do this particular masterpiece (1st seen in '83 and not seen '99 to '02 - unless they did at Cropredy '99 and I was, er, sleeping)...would love to hear a version...if anybody has any live recordings including said song, then, er, drop me a line 

[Anne T]

How about a Dylan song? Would love to hear Simon singing "I threw it all away" from Nashville Skyline.

[Dubai Danny]

Never seen them do this particular masterpiece (1st seen in '83 and not seen '99 to '02

IIRC, it was part of the set for the 2001 Wintour. ISTR they introduced it by saying that RT wasn't going to be at Cropredy that year, so here was one of his songs to make up for that!