Fairport Convention - Liege and Lief (1969)
I’ve heard many times that Fairport Convention was a legendary folk rock group but I never got into their music much until last night. I turned the album on and just let it play as I drove from Waterbury to Burlington (on election night 2024). I forgot all my woes, and was whisked away into the elegant sounds of Sandy Denny’s voice and Richard Thompson’s guitar. As I’ve delved deeper into the band, I’ve concluded that they absolutely deserve the hype. Liege and Lief is the third of the three albums released by Fairport Convention in 1969, with Sandy Denny as the lead singer. Before Sandy Denny joined the band in 1968, Fairport’s sound was more rooted in American folk rock, British pop, and blues. Over the course of this trio of albums, Sandy Denny brought more and more British and Irish traditional folk influence, and this album is the pinnacle of that. Six of its eight tracks are versions of traditional folk songs. The lineup of the Fairport Convention, which is different for pretty m...