Fotheringay Albums (2)
What The Critics Say
In late 1970, Fotheringay began work on a second album. But after they had laid down basic tracks and guide vocals and were still very much in the middle of the process, Sandy Denny left the band to pursue a solo career, leaving this second record unreleased (though versions of two songs from the sessions, "Two Weeks Last Summer" and "John the Gun," appeared on some Fotheringay/Denny reissues). In the 21st century, guitarist Jerry Donahue, with the help of the two other surviving members (bassist Pat Donaldson and drummer Gerry Conway), worked (according to this CD's liner notes) "on underpinning the original tracks, carefully identifying and assembling the best parts of the 1970 recordings from master tapes which had been dispersed to a variety of locations over the years." This doesn't quite spell out whether some modern overdubbing was undertaken, but however it was accomplished, it's an attempt to reconstruct what might have been Fotheringay's second LP. It's a qualified success in that it does represent a conscientious attempt to finish an unfinished record, even though it can never be finished considering that these cuts have guide vocals (albeit ones that sound pretty good). Even given that limitation, however, it has to be said that this was never going to be a great record even had the time been taken to properly complete it. It's solid early-'70s British folk-rock, but the material's uneven, varying from the excellent (Denny's "John the Gun" and "Late November," as well as their Denny-sung interpretation of the traditional tune "Gypsy Davey") to the rather humdrum (a Trevor Lucas-sung cover of Bob Dylan's "I Don't Believe You" being a low point). And though forgiving fans might be reluctant to point out the elephant in the room, it's plain that Denny's singing and songwriting make the tracks on which those feature leagues above the relatively unexceptional ones written and/or sung by Lucas. Get this by all means to enjoy those pieces featuring Denny's stellar singing, guide vocals or not, with sympathetic accompaniment (if not quite support on the level of Fairport Convention). Don't, however, expect a lost masterpiece. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
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 mothership all over the show, from the tight dynamics of "The Sea" to the simple beauty of "Winter Winds" and on to the showpiece "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. [In 2004, Fledg'ling records released a remastered edition that included live versions of "Two Weeks of Summer," "Nothing More," "Banks of the Nile" and "Memphis Tennessee," recorded at the 1970 Rotterdam Pop Festival.] ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide
