Richard Thompson

Folk Radio – Ep128 “A Festive Winter Mix”

~ Michael Stevenson

A festive mix feat. Olivia Chaney, Steve Tilston, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, Dick Gaughan, Coope, Boyes & Simpson, Jean Ritchie, Martin Carthy and more.

My first festive mix of the year featuring Olivia Chaney, Steve Tilston, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, Dick Gaughan, Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith, Coope, Boyes & Simpson, Martha Tilston, Jean Ritchie, Blind Boy Grunt (Bob Dylan)/Richard Fariña/Eric Von Schmidt, Nadia Cattouse, Jethro Tull, Johnny Cunningham, Susan McKeown & Aidan Brennan, Martin Carthy (with June Tabor), Richard Thompson, Chris Wood, Ewan McCall and Peggy Seeger, Lal Waterson, Bernard Wrigley and David Strawbridge & Tim Laycock.

Enjoy

  1. Olivia Chaney – Waxwing
  2. Steve Tilston – Roving on a Winter’s Night
  3. Anne Briggs – Fire And Wine
  4. Bert Jansch – The January Man
  5. Dick Gaughan – The Snows They Melt The Soonest
  6. Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith – Winter Berries
  7. Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith – The Old Churchyard
  8. Coope, Boyes & Simpson – The Meadowhall Carol
  9. Martha Tilston – Winter Flowers
  10. Jean Ritchie – Wintergrace
  11. Blind Boy Grunt/Richard Fariña/Eric Von Schmidt – Xmas Island
  12. Nadia Cattouse – Red & Green Christmas
  13. Jethro Tull – First Snow in Brooklyn
  14. Johnny Cunningham, Susan McKeown & Aidan Brennan – A Christmas Childhood
  15. Johnny Cunningham, Susan McKeown & Aidan Brennan – My Singing Bird
  16. John Kirkpatrick – Wassail
  17. Martin Carthy – Hunting The Cutty Wren (w/ June Tabor)
  18. Richard Thompson – The Snow Goose
  19. Chris Wood – Turtle Soup
  20. Ewan McCall and Peggy Seeger – Moving on Song
  21. Lal Waterson – Christmas Is Now Drawing Near at Hand
  22. Bernard Wrigley – The Wassail Song
  23. David Strawbridge & Tim Laycock – The Humstrum

Photo by Toa Heftiba

Source: Folk Show – Episode 128 (a Festive Winter Mix)

Fairport Convention: The tragedies behind the pioneers of folk rock

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

By any measure, it was a period of prodigious creativity. Between June 1968 and December 1969, Fairport Convention released their first four albums — and changed the course of music both in Britain and further afield.

By John Meagher

By any measure, it was a period of prodigious creativity. Between June 1968 and December 1969, Fairport Convention released their first four albums — and changed the course of music both in Britain and further afield.

The third, Unhalfbricking, was their first to chart, and helped make them one of the UK’s most critically acclaimed bands. The next, Liege & Lief, which came out in the last month of the 1960s, is widely regarded as one of the most influential folk-rock albums ever, a record that fuelled the creative juices of a young Christy Moore and continues to resonate with such contemporary luminaries as Lankum.

Fairport Convention have had more members than Everton and Watford’s recent managerial roll-call combined and they play a Dublin show this evening in the auspicious surrounds of St Patrick’s Cathedral. Co-founder Simon Nicol and longest-serving member Dave Pegg will be among the quintet to play in Jonathan Swift’s old stomping ground.

But, impressive as the band’s longevity has been, it’s the line-up centred on the rare talents of Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny more than half-a-century ago that ensures Fairport’s lofty place in the popular culture canon.

The story of early Fairport Convention is one of youthful ambition, magnificent musical virtuosity and seemingly boundless creativity. It’s also one underscored by a tragedy that threatened to destroy the band. Remarkably, they came back even stronger, even if Thompson and Denny were soon to take other creative paths.

The band’s origins date to 1966. Thompson was just 17 when he and Nicol, along with Ashley Hutchings, formed a band and started to knock out Bob Dylan and Byrds covers. They got their name from ‘Fairport’, the large mock Tudor house in London that was owned by Nicol’s family: the early incarnation was peopled by middle-class grammar-school educated kids.

The group hit the ground running. Soon they were supporting Pink Floyd, who were also going places fast thanks to their mercurial leader Syd Barrett. At one of those Floyd gigs, in July 1967, Fairport Convention opened, while the headliners had to contend with the fact that Barrett had just overdosed on LSD. David Gilmour had to deputise.

It was at that show that Fairport met the American producer Joe Boyd, who would produce their self-titled debut and the four albums that followed it, including the illustrious pair mentioned above. Boyd’s part in the great British folk revival should never be underestimated.

While they showed considerable promise on their debut album, there were few signs about what was to come. Having taken their sonic cues from the other side of the Atlantic, they were dubbed “the British Jefferson Airplane”.

Things started to pick up when Sandy Denny joined the band in 1968, replacing Judy Dyble, who later claimed she had been “unceremoniously dumped”. A couple of years older than Thompson, Denny had already cut her teeth as vocalist with English folkies the Strawbs. Continue reading →

Morris On “Cuckoo’s Nest”

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

TRADITIONAL LYRICS

From the recording Morris On, by Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, John Kirkpatrick, Barry Dransfield and Dave Mattacks.

  1. As I was a-walking one morning in May,
    I met a pretty fair maid, anon to her did say,
    “For love I am inclined, and I’ll tell you me mind,
    That me inclination lies in your cuckoo’s nest.”
  2. “Me darling,” says she, “I am innocent and young,
    And I scarcely can believe your false deluding tongue;
    Yet to see it in your eyes and it fills me with surprise,
    That your inclination lies in me cuckoo’s nest.”

    Chorus:
          Some like a girl who is pretty in the face,
          And some like a girl who is slender in the waist;
          But give me a girl that will wriggle and will twist.
          At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo’s nest.
  3. “Then me darling,” says he, “if you see it in me eyes,
    Then think of it as fondness and do not be surprised,
    For I love you, me dear, and I’ll marry you I swear
    If you let me clap me hand on your cuckoo’s nest.”
  4. “Me darling,” says she, “I can do no such thing,
    For me mother often told me it was committing sin,
    Me maidenhead to lose and me sex to be abused,
    So have no more to do with me cuckoo’s nest.”
    Chorus
  5. “Me darling,” says he, “it is not committing sin,
    but common sense should tell you it is a pleasing thing,
    For you were brought into this world to increase and do your best,
    And to help a man to heaven in your cuckoo’s nest.”
  6. “Then me darling,” says she, “I cannot you deny,
    For you’ve surely won me heart by the roving of your eye.
    Yet to see it in your eyes that your courage is surprised,
    So gently lift your hand in me cuckoo’s nest.”
    Chorus
  7. So this couple they got married and soon they went to bed,
    And now this pretty fair maid has lost her maidenhead;
    In a small country cottage they increase and do their best,
    And he often claps his hand on her cuckoo’s nest.
    Chorus