ROSIE

This is possibly the poorest of Fairports albums from 1967-79. A new lineup featuring singer/guitarist Trevor Lucas and guitarist Jerry Donahue improved the band immensely in the vocal and lead guitar departments, but the material is mostly awful. The notable exceptions are "The Plainsman", a soulful countryish song by Lucas and "Matthew Mark Luke and John", a rousing folk-rocker. The rest of the album veers between the insipid (Swarbrick's gooey ballad "Rosie" and ridiculous ("Peggy's Pub", "My Girl"). The seeds of Fairport's later persona as local pub dwelling jokesters were sown here. There are a couple of decent jigs and reels, but they're really just time wasters. Certainly this album is of no interest from a "folk-prog" viewpoint, being mostly uninspired pub rock. Fortunately, the creative juices would start flowing again on the their next album, "Nine".