Search - Fairport Convention :: Bonny Bunch of Roses

The Fairports Back to Form!

Morten Vindberg | Denmark | 05/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fairport's "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" was their come-back to form after the extremely disappointing "Gottle O'Geer". Sandy Denny, Jerry Donahue, Trevor Lucas and Dave Mattacks had all left since 1975, but the return of Simon Nicol apparently brought new life and inspiration to the band.



Musically they'd returned to the style of their early 1970's Island albums, mixing traditional material with new original songs by the band-.members themselves or old friend and previous member Richard Thompson. In fact, the stand-out song on the album is Thompson's "The Poor Ditching Song", a song Thompson alsp recorded for his first outstanding solo-album "Henry the Human Fly".



A couple of great instrumentals were included on most Fairport albums; this also goes for this one. Here one is written by bassist Dave Pegg and the other is a medley of old tunes. These instrumentals really gave the band members a chance to demonstrate their musical virtuosity.



Vocally fiddler Dave Swarbrick was usually in front, but on this album the lead vocals appear to have been fairly shared, with both Pegg and Nicol taking some. Actually strong vocal harmonies were another of the band's trademarks.



Swarbrick wrote another stand-out original to the album, "The Last Waltz" and the inclusion of a Ralph McTell song, "Run, Johnny Run", was a surprise, but it fits in very nicely.



The 12 minutes title-track is powerful, but may be felt somwhat long-winded. Another old tradtional track "General Taylor" probably works better, and at least to this reviewer, the song is much more appealing.



The album was recorded for the Vertigo label as was the follow-up "Tippler's Tales". Then the intervals between their albums began to grow bigger and the band rarely appeared in the headlines of rock-magazines."

FC brings back the trad. folk!

Matthew Schwarz | Bridgewater, nj United States | 02/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After focusing more on a soft country-folk-rock feel in the mid 70's, Fairport parted with the American and Australian guitarists and vocalist and brought back Simon Nichol on this album. They also brought back the British trad. folk-rock of their early 70's albums like Full House and Angel Delight. This album (and the following Tippler's Tales) features a mix of traditional tunes and songs (arranged for rock band) with some contemporary originals (although the originals are from outside the band - fine tunes by Ralph McTell and Richard Thompson). These two late 70's albums probably have the highest ratio of traditional folk material in Fairport's career, and I think are the stronger for it - to me that's really what made them special, and I love their sound on this material. Although they have no stand out vocalist or lead guitarist as on more applauded albums, the vocals on this album suit the music wonderfully and it certainly sounds great to me. There's a little more energy and kick than on the more laid-back albums of the mid-70's, too (although the stately 12-minute title track is so slow it took me a while to really appreciate it.)

Recommended for those interested in the fusion of traditional folk and rock, or for someone looking to see if Fairport did anything good after their late 60's Sandy Denny/Richard Thompson heyday. (The 80's and afterwards period is enjoyable, too, but tends to scale back the trad. aspect a bit more)."