Customer Reviews

Rising for the Moon

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Sandy Denny returned to Fairport Convention, the band made one last bid for stardom. Super-producer Glyn Johns (the Who, Clapton, Eagles) was brought in. And the result was a surprisingly tepid album.

Johns seems to have been going for a singer-songwriting feel. The instruments are muted, with the fantastic musicianship of guitarist Jerry Donahue and fiddler Dave Swarbrick kept under wraps, and the bass and drums playing somewhere off in the distance. Nothing will distract the listener from the underlying songs! The problem is that those songs aren't good enough to carry the burden. Sandy contributes five songs that all have strong lyrics matched with lackluster music, and she sings them with a halfhearted effort. There's just enough going on to suggest that songs like "Dawn" and Trevor Lucas's "Iron Lion" could have been memorable with livelier arrangements and production. Lucas does provide his best Fairport moment with "Restless".

The album closes with "One More Chance", an 8-minute Sandy opus that is everything the rest of the album is not. Sandy finally raises her voice and sings like SANDY DENNY. The verse and chorus both have great melodies. And then...Donahue and Swarbrick both soar in an extended instrumental. This song is one of the all-time Fairport Convention highlights. If the same approach had been used throughout the album, "Rising for the Moon" might be remembered with "Liege & Leaf" and "What We Did on Our Holidays". Instead, it's an album best suited for late at night with a glass of wine. It's background music for melancholy, not an album that commands your full attention.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

One of the stronger Fairport lineups following on from the so-called classic period, this album never received the recognition it deserved nor reached the audiience it ought to have.

Recorded in 1975, the album was overshadowed by the growing number of groups and singer-songwriters in the UK. Steeleye Span had achieved chart success and groups like Prelude were more commercially successful

While Fairport Convention had attracted much attention to the return of Sandy Denny to the fold along with two other members of Fotheringay, they had a montain to climb to regain their position at the top of the British folk rock tree. With a wide variety of songs in the best of the Fairport tradition and a long lineage of musicianship of the bands members, the album failed to achieve the commercial success which had eluded them for over four years and also failed to significantly increase the band's audience. The album also flopped in the States which did not help morale and subsequently the band split before resuming business as Fairport.

If I had to select my favourite I would go for the title track but I like them all. It is a good, solid album which I can play over and over, not just because of Sandy Denny's wonderful voice but just to hear those musicians play so well.

When is the Box set going to be released over here?

Another album to include the singing talents of Alexandra Denny is Live Convention.

I have to say that though this is a somewhat uneven recording, it's high points are incredibly good. One More Chance is one of Sandy Denny's signature songs. The title track is also wonderfull. There seem to be two camps of Fairport fans: Those who only seem to care for their reworkings of traditional material and those who never got over their poppier side. I find there is great listening in both, but I always had and will have a preference for their work with Sandy Denny, one of the best female singers if not the best female folk singer of all time. It was she who first brought the traditional songs into the fold, but being the restless spirit that she was, wanted to keep moving with writing her own songs and interpreting the songs of others. Dylan in particular. A great balance of their songs and reworked jigs and trad material can be found on Live Convention, which was released just prior to this. That, along with this recording, is one that will always be on my playlist along with Liege And Lief

"Rising for the Moon" may not be as epochal or acclaimed as "Liege and Lief," but I like it better and play it more often. It has more of a country-rock, singer-songwriter feel than Fairport's earlier progressive-folk albums, although this was off-putting to some fans. It is also a much better Sandy Denny album than the overproduced "Rendezvous" (1977) which relied heavily on covers. It is ironic that she occupied a more central position on this 1975 Fairport Convention offering than on her final solo album before her untimely death at age 31. The five originals Denny contributed to "Rising for the Moon" are easily some of her finest songs: the bluegrass-inflected title track, "What Is True," "After Halloween," "Stranger to Himself," and the epic "One More Chance." If you enjoy "Sandy" (1972), you will find much to love on "Rising for the Moon." Trevor Lucas'"Restless" is another excellent cut. It is only because of two weaker numbers ("Dawn" and "Let It Go," respectively rather turgid and twee, but still listenable)that this album receives 4 stars instead of 5.

How sad that so many fans of Fairport Convention are mired in the sixties. The fact is, the band has maintained its musical quality many times BECAUSE of the personnel changes, not in spite of them. No one appreciates the extraordinary talents of Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson more than I do, but the fact is Fairport continues to produce some of the finest folk/rock available today. To ignore the contributions of people like Simon Nicol, Trevor Lucas, Jerry Donahue, Ric Sanders, Maartin Allcock, Chris Leslie and others is to cheat yourself of some really fine music. "Rising for the Moon" contains some of the more emotional songs fairport ever produced: The title cut, "Restless", "White Dress", "Stranger to Himself", "Iron Lion"; well, the fact is you would be hard pressed to find a weak cut on the record. Unless, I suppose, you can't get your head out of 1969!

There isn't a single Fairport album I don't like. That said this isn't one of my favorites. Individually the songs are really good but the overall product sounds like everyone involved was thinking about a solo rather than a collective album and is a big step down from the great "9" album which is probably the best of the post Richard Thompson albums. The production sounds like an attempt was made to mold them to a certain sound, whenter it fit them or not. If you're looking for great Fairport check out Full House, Leige & Lief, What We did on our Holiday, Jewel in The Crown, Nine or Unhalfbricking. For great Sandy check out Sandy, Like an Old Fashoned Waltz, or Fotheringay.

This album is as good as FC's best other works (i.e "Liege&lief" or "Unhalfbricking") and it's a shame no one else has left a better review until now. Besides being extremely even and consistent, Sandy Denny's compositions are arguably her best ever. The song "One more chance" is worth spending every penny for this title and will give you goose bumps from the beginning till the very end (the guitar solo is absolutely unbelievable!!!).

Anyway, to me this is just a great album for all ages with no weak track (note some songs have different colors but overall blend in to the better after a couple of listens). There, I wrote it!!!!

When Sandy Denny returned to Fairport Convention, the band made one last bid for stardom. Super-producer Glyn Johns (the Who, Clapton, Eagles) was brought in. And the result was a surprisingly tepid album.

Johns seems to have been going for a singer-songwriting feel. The instruments are muted, with the fantastic musicianship of guitarist Jerry Donahue and fiddler Dave Swarbrick kept under wraps, and the bass and drums playing somewhere off in the distance. Nothing will distract the listener from the underlying songs! The problem is that those songs aren't good enough to carry the burden. Sandy contributes five songs that all have strong lyrics matched with lackluster music, and she sings them with a halfhearted effort. There's just enough going on to suggest that songs like "Dawn" and Trevor Lucas's "Iron Lion" could have been memorable with livelier arrangements and production. Lucas does provide his best Fairport moment with "Restless".

The album closes with "One More Chance", an 8-minute Sandy opus that is everything the rest of the album is not. Sandy finally raises her voice and sings like SANDY DENNY. The verse and chorus both have great melodies. And then...Donahue and Swarbrick both soar in an extended instrumental. This song is one of the all-time Fairport Convention highlights. If the same approach had been used throughout the album, "Rising for the Moon" might be remembered with "Liege & Leaf" and "What We Did on Our Holidays". Instead, it's an album best suited for late at night with a glass of wine. It's background music for melancholy, not an album that commands your full attention.

"Sandy Denny rejoins Fairport Convention" sounds like a recipe for a great album. But, somehow, it wasn't.

Perhaps it's because i just don't much like several of the songs. I don't much DISlike them either, and that's a recipe for apathy.

Of the songs that i DO like, i like a couple of them quite a bit, indeed -- as songs -- though i must agree that the production to some extent detracts even from the songs i do like.

That said, the title song is wonderful, Trevor's "Iron Lion" is one of the better railroad songs i've heard in a while, "White Dress" is almost achingly beautiful, "Stranger to Himself" is almost Dylanesque in its apparent symbolism, and, as others have remarked, "One More Chance" is a soaring wonder that shows what this band COULD have done, if they had been allowed/elected to soar to the heights that they could reach.

Sandy was only to be with us for a little while longer; it's sad that she and the band didn't take this chance to get together, rare back and fly.

That all having been said -- if you are at all a fan of Fairport, Sandy Denny or both, this album is one you need, if only for the title song and "One More Chance".

(The cover, by the way, is one of the prettier and more evocative of all the Fairport album covers)
===========================
A Later Note (11/26/02): Probably this album should be considered in tandem with "Before the Moon", a recent 2-disc set presenting two live shows recorded at Ebbets Field on the US tour that supported this album. I haven't heard ot yet, but it sounds like a fantastic set.

"Sandy Denny rejoins Fairport Convention" sounds like a recipe for a great album. But, somehow, it wasn't.

Perhaps it's because i just don't much like several of the songs. I don't much DISlike them either, and that's a recipe for apathy.

Of the songs that i DO like, i like a couple of them quite a bit, indeed -- as songs -- though i must agree that the production to some extent detracts even from the songs i do like.

That said, the title song is wonderful, Trevor's "Iron Lion" is one of the better railroad songs i've heard in a while, "White Dress" is almost achingly beautiful, "Stranger to Himself" is almost Dylanesque in its apparent symbolism, and, as others have remarked, "One More Chance" is a soaring wonder that shows what this band COULD have done, if they had been allowed/elected to soar to the heights that they could reach.

Sandy was only to be with us for a little while longer; it's sad that she and the band didn't take this chance to get together, rare back and fly.

That all having been said -- if you are at all a fan of Fairport, Sandy Denny or both, this album is one you need, if only for the title song and "One More Chance".

(The cover, by the way, is one of the prettier and more evocative of all the Fairport album covers)

===========================

A Later Note (11/26/02): Probably this album should be considered in tandem with "Before the Moon", a recent 2-disc set presenting two live shows recorded at Ebbets Field on the US tour that supported this album. I haven't heard it yet, but it sounds like a fantastic set.

===========================

A STILL Later Note (10/18/06): DEFINITELY this album should be considered in tandem with "Before the Moon". You should buy this first, then "Before the Moon". f you are at all a fan of Fairport, Sandy Denny or both, you won't regret it.