Casual album discussion: Fairport Convention's self-titled debut

I'm trying to shake up this blog a little bit, so this is the first in a series (?) in which I take a random album from my collection, listen to it, and then just briefly discuss it. Nothing deep and profound, the aim is to be conversational.

So the first album is the 1968 self-titled debut by English folk-rock band Fairport Convention. I chose this because I happen to be reading record producer Joe Boyd's memoir White Bicycle: Making Music in the 1960s. It's a book I picked up at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle, Washington. (Shameless vacation mention and indie bookstore name drop). Joe Boyd, among many other act including Nick Drake, was behind the board for Fairport Conventions stellar recorded output from 1968 to the early 1970s.

I got into Fairport Convention quite by accident. I heard their 1969 album Liege and Lief at a Borders' listening station sometime in the mid-'90s. I'm pretty sure I'd read a little bit about them before, probably in the Rolling Stone Record Guide. I'm sure there were several "five star" albums in there, but I never actually saw a Fairport album until I happened to be in that Border's Books and Music store in Novi, Michigan.

(As an aside, rest in peace Borders. Moment of silence, please).

The first Fairport album is not as great as what they would later accomplish, but it's still damned good. For one thing, it's the first time that the world got to hear Richard Thompson's brilliant guitar playing, and Thompson is definitely one of the stars of this album.

Fairport Convention, at this stage in their career, was clearly borrowing heavily from American West Coast folk rock. It's easy to find shades of Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield. Like the Airplane, Fairport had a female singer, which on this album is Judy Dyble. She sings a lovely rendition of Joni Mitchell's "I Don't Know Where I Stand" as well as contributing to other songs. This, however, would be her only album. She was replaced by the immortal Sandy Denny.

Fairport Convention also has a great cover, featuring a few members of the band brooding towards the camera in a dark room, only slightly illuminated by a Tiffany table lamp. I just love the cover. Maybe I'm alone in that, I don't know.

Here are some songs that particularly stand out for me:

"Time Will Show the Wiser" is an English-y, folky tune that kind of points towards the direction Fairport took on the their next albums.

"Decameron" is gorgeous with its gently strummed guitar and gently vocals.

"Jack o Diamonds" is an old blues song that the band arranges into a rocker (really the only all out rocker on the album). I can hear traces of the Who's mid-'60s sound in this, and I swear that Shocking Blue might have taken some notes for "Venus" from Fairport's arrangement of "Jack o Diamonds."

"Lobster" is a truly unusual (hell, truly bizarre) song that has a psychedelic feel that Fairport would abandon after this album.

Fairport Convention's debut is a fine album, and I'm happy that I revisited it after several years of not listening to it. However for anyone unfamiliar with Fairport, I wouldn't recommend starting here. Pick up Liege and Lief (their masterpiece) and work your way backwards and forwards. Once you work back to the debut, you'll gain a fuller appreciation and the record will make more sense.