A beautiful, authentically rustic album, without a trace of elegance,
and hardly even an effort at smoothing over the rough spots. The music
and the performances have a quiet power and dignity, and a raw, direct
nature that is extremely appealing. The record opens up in haunting fashion
with Barry Dransfield's fiddle on "Morris Call," and from there
things get wilder and woollier, with some downright funny moments as well
(check out the false opening on "Princess Royal"). Shirley Collins
appears as a guest vocalist on "Staines Morris" and "The
Willow Tree," and the Chingford Morris Men do stick dances on two
tracks as well. John Kirkpatrick's accordion, concertina, and harmonium
are the dominant accompanying instruments. None of this was a threat to
Fairport or Steeleye Span's success, but all of it is valuable to fans
of either band, and the album does have a raw energy that Fairport began
losing after 1972 -- and "Cuckoo's Nest" alone is almost worth
the price of the album, recalling the kind of funny, cheerfully lusty
recordings of A.L. Lloyd and sparked by some of Richard Thompson's best
playing from this period. Oh, and the compact disc has it all over the
original British LP, all copies of which suffer from noisy pressings.
(by Bruce Eder, All
Music Guide)
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