Fairport Convention’s new album, Myths & Heroes, is finally out, and it’s a welcome return to the contemporary originals that the band does best.
Although some Fairport fans from its earliest days rightfully cheered the 2012 album By Popular Request and its companion album, Babbacombe Lee Live Again, this lineup is too talented to constantly reimagine music from its earliest incarnations. Leave that to musicians whose talents or interest have grown stale. That’s not today’s Fairport.
The best proof is this 13-track album, released March 2, that includes five songs by chief songwriter Chris Leslie, two by fiddler Ric Sanders and the remainder by bassist Dave Pegg and much-loved folk masters including P.J. Wright, Anna Ryder and Ralph McTell.
“My whole life has involved Fairport Convention,” says Pegg, who joined the group in 1969 and, for a time, simultaneously served as bassist for Jethro Tull. “It’s very important to have a great songwriter in the band, and Chris Leslie has developed into a fantastic writer in the footsteps of Sandy, Dave and Richard. It took a lot of courage for him to have a go at the writing. For us, it kind of justifies our existence.”
And what a storied existence it is.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
 | Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort DVD/CD - £9.99 |
 | Live In Maidstone 1970 CD - £7.99 |
 | Live At Maidstone Castle 1970 DVD - £9.99 |
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