Dieses leuchtende Kleinod der britischen Folk-Rock-Geschichte war einige
Zeit vergriffen, dabei handelte es sich mit Sicherheit um eines der schönsten
Alben, das Sandy Denny je eingespielt hatte. Jetzt gibt es das Werk von
Sandy, Trevor Lucas, Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson und Gerry Convay in
einer liebevoll restaurierten (äußerlich wie innerlich, das
Remastering geschah unter dem wachsamen Ohr von original-Produzent Joe
Boyd) Version, zusätzlich erweitert um 4 Bonustracks, die 1970 beim
Rotterdam Festivasl mitgeschnitten wurden. Der kunstvoll verspielte, verträumt
schwebende, von wunderbarem Harmonie-Gesang gekrönte Folk-Rock Fotheringays
hat die Jahrzehnte leuchtend lebendig überstanden.
(Glitterhouse)
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When Sandy Denny departed Fairport Convention, insisting that she wanted
to concentrate upon her own songwriting rather than pursue the band's
exploration of traditional English music, she never meant she also intended
abandoning the folk idiom itself. Although all but two of the songs on
this, her first post-Fairport project, are indeed original compositions,
it is readily apparent that, like former bandmate Richard Thompson, her
greatest talents lay distinctly within the same traditions as the poets
and balladeers of earlier centuries, while the fact that fully one-half
of Fotheringay itself would eventually join Fairport illustrates the care
that went into the band's formation. Even the group's name resonates --
"Fotheringay" was also one of Denny's best-loved Fairport songs. Listening
to the album, too, one can see and hear the mother ship all over the show,
from the tight dynamics of "The Sea" to the simple beauty of "Winter Winds"
and on to the showpiece "The Banks of the Nile," a Napoleonic Wars-era
ballad set firmly in the storytelling mold of "A Sailor's Life," "Tam
Linn," and the post-Denny Fairport's own "Bonnie Bunch of Roses." The
presence of producer Joe Boyd and guest vocalist Linda Peters complete
the sense of a family affair.Where Fotheringay and Fairport drift apart
is in the instrumentation -- one of Fairport's most-endearing talents,
after all, was the sense of ramshackle adventure that the bandmembers
brought to their recordings. Fotheringay was far more "musicianly," packing
a perfectionism that comes close, in places, to stifling the sheer exuberance
of the music. The overuse of Trevor Lucas' distinctly mannered vocals,
too, reveals the album in a disappointing light -- great guitarist though
he was, his voice offers nothing that you could not hear in any amateur
folk club, any night of the week, rendering Dylan's "Too Much of Nothing,"
Gordon Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel," and his own "Ballad of Ned Kelly"
little more than makeweights. Such failings are completely overshadowed,
of course, by the triumphs that are Denny's finest contributions -- the
best of which close the album on a peak unheard since "The Sea," back
at the beginning of the cycle. "The Banks of the Nile" rates among the
loveliest and most evocative performances of her entire career, while
the hauntingly hypnotic "Two Weeks Last Summer" and a moody "Gypsy Davey"
draw out an expressiveness that had similarly been in short supply elsewhere
on the record. The end result is an album that, while every Denny fan
should hear it, is best experienced sliced and diced across the various
compilations that purport to tell the story of Fairport Convention. Bereft
of the faults that never make those collections, Fotheringay deserves
every kind word that has ever been sent in the band's direction.
(by Dave Thompson, AMG)
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