Fairport Convention
Album: Myths & Heroes
Label: Matty Grooves
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.fairportconvention.com

The last Fairport album I reviewed was Gladys's Leap which was released in 1985! I'm not sure about me, but the boys are clearly wearing well on this their latest album Myths and Heroes. - evidenced straight away as they blast into the opening folk-rockabilly number, also called Myths and Heroes, at about 200 beats per minute.

In some ways this is a 'typical' late Fairport Convention album. Great ballads, a few rockier numbers and their strange compulsion to include a few mandolin and other plucked instrumentals! The five of the tracks are by band member Chris Leslie, two from fiddle player Ric Saunders and the rest are drawn from the wider Fairport network of friends

With around 30 albums to their interesting question will always be what on a new album might elbow aside other great tracks from the Fairport live appearances. Well the good news is that there are several tracks on Myths and Heroes that are going to be competing for gig-space.

Among the best of these is Clear Water by honorary Fairporter, Ralph McTell and a ballad about WW1 called John Condon both sung by Simon Nicoll who shares singing duties with Chris Leslie.

Simon Nicol, to my mind, should be more widely acknowledged as one of the great storytelling voices of folk music. Warm and understated, like all great storytellers, he draws you into the narrative, creating the still space in which you can slip completely into the tale being told. Too many singers use pointless vocal gymnastics to try to give emotional force to trite words - Simon Nicol has the wisdom and insight to let the words do the work. (A great example of this was his singing of the classic The Hiring Fair on the aforementioned Gladys's Leap)

This is particularly true on John Condon. At first, with just about every songwriter (including me !) trying to make sense of the huge and heart-breaking people's memory that is First World War, you might wonder 'why' another song about the conflict. Yet Simon's beautifully poignant telling of the young boy who died a soldier makes the song's inclusion obvious.

Elsewhere the rich variety of songs confirms this as one of the strongest Fairport albums for years with the as-to-be-expected great playing and vocal harmonies. Other memorable tracks include The Man in the Water and Chris Leslie's Theordore's Song. And perhaps it is because they have returned to their old home at Woodworm Studios there is a real sense of homecoming and affirmation.

Steve Bonham