Who Knows Where The Time Goes ?

For many the story of the English band Fairport Convention is incredibly familiar. Others may not have even heard of them. I belong in the former category and so am not sure how much to regurgitate here when considering this double cd retrospective Fairport Convention : Meet On The Ledge : The Classic Years 1967 - 1975. Starting out as a very young kind of English Jefferson Airplane, later picking up some discernible influences from The Band and then finally coming into their own by more or less inventing the English genre of folk rock, their forty year history has soap opera elements of triumph, tragedy and numerous comings and goings. Although keeping going in some form or another for those forty years, particularly as a live act, these early years are the basis for the band's legendary status. Indeed, stretching it out to 1975 might be a few years too long for some opinion. Musicians such as Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings still get referred to as "ex-Fairport Convention" despite having been in the band for only about four years of distinguished forty year careers in music. Concentrating on this release specifically, while many such as Simon Nicol, Ian Matthews and later Trevor Lucas make telling contributions ( keeping the band going subsequently in the case of Nicol ) it must be said that the creative powerhouses were Thompson, Hutchings and the introductions of first Sandy Denny and then Dave Swarbrick. The classic Liege and Lief album is well represented with five tracks, although the pivotal folk rock track predated it and is also included ( A Sailor's Life ) There are also great original songs that don't fall into the strict folk rock category, notably Meet On The Ledge and Who Knows Where The time Goes. It's fair to say that the band didn't really recover from the departures of Thompson, Hutchings and Denny but this disk does show that there were also worthwhile moments in the Trevor Lucas era and during the all too brief return of Sandy Denny prior to her sad early demise. The impish Swarbrick still dances through these latter tracks too, like the brief but joyful Hexamshire Lass.