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"...Singing Bird..."
Now here's a bit of a wee belter.
With time off from Fairport Convention and help from some of their jolly crew including his pals Martin Carthy, Simon Nicols and Producer Bruce Rowland, what you get here are three of Dave Swarbrick's fiddle-playing best solo LPs from 1976, 1977 and 1981 lumped together into one tasty 2CD love-bucket. With fabulous remastered audio from original Transatlantic and Logo Records tapes and card slipcase presentation – it looks the part too. Fiddly dee indeed.
Let's get to the vicars, the hags, the shepherds, the rakes and the rocky roads to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales...
UK released 12 April 2011 - "Swarbrick/Swarbrick 2/Smiddyburn" by DAVE SWARBRICK on Beat Goes On BGOCD 979 (Barcode 5017261209795) offers three LPs from 1976, 1977 and 1981 Remastered onto 2CDs that plays out as follows:
CD1 (45:17 minutes):
1. The Heilanman/Drowsy Maggie [Side 1]
2. Carthy's March
3. The White Cockade/Doc Boyd's Jig/Durham Rangers
4. My Singing Bird
5. The Nightingale
6. Once I Loved A Maiden Fair
7. The Killarney Boys Of Pleasure
8. Lady In The Boat/Rosin The Bow/Timour The Tartar
9. Byker Hill [Side 2]
10. The Ace And The Deuce Of Pipering
11. Hole In The Wall
12. Ben Dorian
13. The Hullichans/Chorus Jig
14. The 79th's Farewell To Gibraltar
15. Arthur McBride/Snug In The Blanket
Tracks 1 to 15 are his second studio album "Swarbrick" - released November 1976 in the UK on Transatlantic TRA 337 (Produced by Bruce Rowland, not issued in the USA).
CD2 (77:54 minutes):
1. The Athole Highlanders [Side 1]
2. Shannon Bells/Fairy Dance/Miss McLeod's Reel
3. The King Of The Fairies
4. Chief O'Neill's Favourite/Newcastle Hornpipe
5. Sheebeg And Sheemore
6. The Rocky Road To Dublin/Sir Phillip McHugh
7. Planxty Morgan Mawgan
8. The Swallows Tail/Rakes Of Kildare/Blackthorn Stick
9. Sheagh Of The Rye/The Friar's Breeches [Side 2]
10. Derwentwater's Farewell/The Noble Squire Dacre
11. Teribus/Farewell To Aberdeen
12. Bonaparte's Retreat
13. Shepherd's Hey
14. Lord Inchiquin
15. The Coulin
Tracks 1 to 15 are his third studio album "Swarbrick 2" - released April 1977 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 341 (Bruce Rowland produced, not issued in the USA).
16. Wat Ye Wah I Met The Streen/The Ribbons Of The Redhead Girl/Ril Gan Ainm [Side 1]
17. Sir Charles Coote/Smiths
18. I Have A Wife Of My Own/Lady Mary Hay's Scotch Measure
19. Wishing/The Vicar's Return/The Gravel Walk
20. When The Battle Is Over [Side 2]
21. Sword Dance/The Young Black Cow
22. Sean O'Dwyer Of The Glen/The Hag With The Money/Sleepy Maggie
23. It Suits Me Well
Tracks 16 to 23 are his sixth studio album "Smiddyburn" – released July 1981 in the UK on Logo Records LOGO 1029 (Produced by John Woods). Guests include Dave Mattacks and Bruce Rowland on Drums with Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol on Guitars and Bob Pegg on Bass (all Fairport Convention) with Beryl and Roger Marriott on Piano and Harmonica (of The Ceilidh Band) and John McCormack (of The Spinners) on Double Bass.
The debut album from 1967 "Rags, Reels & Airs" by New Malden and Surrey's favourite violin/fiddle player was shared with other British Folk luminaries Martin Carthy and Daz Disley - Bounty Records BY 6030 being a vinyl rarity that will set you back a few quid in 2020 (he also appeared on other Martin Carthy projects in 1967, 1968 and 1969). But along with Dave Mattacks, Swarbrick changed his life forever by joining Fairport Convention in the autumn twilight of the Sixties, just in time for the groundbreaking December 1969 release of the legendary LP "Liege & Lief" – Fairport's third album in that amazing year and a huge shot in the arm to the Folk-Rock genre. By the time he'd reached 1976 – it was sorely time for solo album number two. And that's where this twofer kicks in.
The outer card slipcase always lends these BGO reissues a touch of presentation class and the 16-page booklet within features typically deep liner notes from long-time scribe for Beat Goes On – JOHN O'REGAN. The few photographs that were on the original LPs (him with ciggy in mouth and violin in hand) are all here as are the track-by-track playlists. The joining of Fairport looms large in the text, his contributions to FC albums like "Full House" and "Babbacombe Lee" is discussed, as is his incredibly productive brother-from-another-mother relationship with guitarist Martin Carthy. ANDREW THOMPSON did the Remasters from original tapes in 2011 and these albums sound gorgeous – acoustic instruments in the hands of virtuosos and a sympathetic and experienced Producer.
The surname-titled debut "Swarbrick" opens with "The Heilanman/Drowsy Maggie" which sounds like Planxty on several tabs of Irish Folk fiddle speed. Things settle into jaunty Acoustic and Violin dancing territory with the likes of "The Nightingale" and the fun times of "The Ace And Deuce Of Pipering" - while Martin Carthy provides beautiful acoustic guitar accompaniment in an upbeat rendition of "Arthur McBride". Mellow comes in the shape of the lovely instrumental "Once I Loved A Maiden Fair" – probably the prettiest outing on a very Traditional Folk music first album for Transatlantic Records.
Released only six months later in April 1977 as England grappled with the first flushes of New Wave and Punk - "Swarbrick 2" saw Bruce Rowland return as Producer and occasional Drummer, while the duo of Beryl and Roger Marriott of The Ceilidh Band lent a hand on Keyboards and Melodeon. Kate Graham also played fiddle while Dave Pegg offered his Bass playing talents. Opening with "The Athole Highlanders" – Martin Carthy on Guitar and Bruce Rowland on Drums – Swarbrick and his two buddies sounded like a great Folk Act in a bar in Connemara with a roaring fire on the go and the Guinness flowing from busy taps. Horslips would rock up "The King Of The Fairies" for their "Dancehall Sweethearts" album of 1974 (a single too) – here its just Swarbrick unaccompanied – his fiddle playing an altogether more dignified affair where the playfulness in the air somehow also contains sadness – yet you don't know why (he does the solo same on "Bonaparte's Retreat"). Simon Nicol does a gorgeous job on Acoustic Guitar accompanying Swarbrick for the pretty "Sheebeg And Sheemore". Number 2 ends with the lonesome near six minutes of "The Coulin" where Swarbrick is accompanied by Savourna Stevenson on a harp-like instrument called a 'clarsach'.
The closest many got to a Fairport Convention Folk-Rock album, July 1981's "Smiddyburn" saw many of the gang proffer their chops - including Richard Thompson. The simplistic English fiddle reels and airs of the first two LPs presented here are replaced with a more filled-out 'band' sound. And yet when Thompson does a three-way Mandolin battle with Swarbrick and Dave Pegg on "Sir Charles Coote/Smiths" (all three on the same instrument), it feels like a multi-layered middle passage on Mike Oldfield's "Hergest Ridge" or "Ommadawn" - very cool (they repeat the Mandolin trio thing for "When The Battle Is Over". You are ever so slightly ill prepared for the beauty of "Sean O'Dwyer Of The Glen..." where Beryl Marriott plays a truly sweet piano intro before soon being joined by Swarbrick speeding things up with "The Hag With The Money" reel. The accomplished "Smiddyburn" album ends with both Thompson and Nicol providing guitars for "It Suits Me well" while Swarb puts in a rare lead vocal.
For sure both Swarbrick and these defiantly English Folk LPs will not be everyone's idea of Sunday afternoon chill or Saturday Night spandex pants. But they make me smile.
And I still find it amazing that at the time, I got just as excited about The Bothy Band and the likes of Dave Swarbrick as I did about The Clash and The Sex Pistols both of whom would probably have nutted these stunning musicians with a concrete brick taken from a strike blockade. Great times indeed...
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