Here's a sampling of concert reviews in the current issue, including a full run-down on this year's Cropedy Festival.

Koerner, Ray & Glover
Johnny D's, Somerville, MA, August 20, 1996
Sometimes reunion tours are surrounded by a lot of hype and flourish that leads to disappointment when the band just isn't as good as it used to be. Other times, bands just show up and play like they've never been gone. Spider John Koerner, Dave Ray, and Tony Glover are in the latter category - and the fact they were a trio that pretty much made things up as they went along, even in their heyday, didn't hurt. They kicked off a short tour in support of the CD re-release of their seminal 1963 album Blues, Rags & Hollers in front of an equally graying standing-room-only audience at Johnny D's in Somerville, Massachusetts.

With more than enough droll humor to make up for occasional rough edges, they showed both newcomers and old friends in the crowd why their music was such a fresh sound in the folk world more than 30 years ago. At a time when the scene was dominated by overly serious traditionalists on one side and chart-hungry commercializers on the other, they came out of Minneapolis loose and enthusiastic, and had as much fun as their audiences as they drank a few beers and banged away on the country blues of the rural south. "We finally got an offer we couldn't refuse," explained Ray with a smile when asked before the show why they were doing their first national tour since the 1960s.

Their two 45-minute sets showcased the blues cut down to rhythmic front-porch essentials in quick three-minute bursts, with Koerner and Ray crisply picking 12-string guitars and Glover filling in succinct harmonica leads on songs like Luke Jordan's "Pick Poor Robin Clean," Sonny Boy Williamson's "You May Be Sick," and the outlaw ballad "John Hardy." Koerner was as much a shouter as a singer, punctuating his words with sharp guitar notes and emphatic foot-tapping, rocking back and forth, while the more relaxed-looking Ray (who was unabashedly taking his cues from sheet music) handled the quieter vocal leads and the fancy fingerpicking. Glover was generally absorbed in his harmonicas.

Their sets included old favorites like "Black Dog," "One Kind Favor," and "What's the Matter With the Mill," Koerner's own semi-hit "I Ain't Blue" (covered by Bonnie Raitt), and a couple of Tin Pan Alley chestnuts from Ray, "Sittin' on Top of the World" and "My Blue Heaven" ("We figured it was a blues when we saw the title," Ray said.). They finished up with a stomping version of "Goodnight Irene" that owed more to Ledbelly's rough-edged original than the Weavers' polished hit. Two quick encores followed, "Get on Down the Road" and "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," and then they disappeared into the crowd. - Tom Nelligan (Waltham, MA)

Cropredy Festival
Cropredy, Oxfordshire, England, August 9-10, 1996

Seventeen years after Fairport Convention staged their "farewell" concert in the fields of Cropredy and 16 years after their first reunion there, Fairport's annual Cropredy Festival has become as much a social event as a concert, an occasion for fans from around the world to gather in an Oxfordshire cow pasture, consume truckloads of ale, and celebrate Fairport's 29 year catalog of English folkrock. As with any festival, the weekend's lineup is stronger in some years than others, and this year wasn't one of the all-time greats, but Cropredy is the sort of friendly place where you can just sit back and enjoy the musical party. Among Friday's support acts I had highest expectations for Clarion, with memories of their promising 1993 Cropredy debut. This year, this still-young band didn't sound as strong or tight, perhaps trying too hard to play everything super fast. Clare Davis is a great electric fiddler, but the bass-heavy rock mix sometimes buried her bowing as well as the vocals. The highlight of their set was high energy arrangements of traditional songs like "Blackleg Miner" and "Ox Driving."

Next up, grandmotherly piano master Beryl Marriott joined Albion Band fiddler Chris Leslie for a mostly instrumental set that featured her rich and elegant keyboard technique on a range of traditional tunes. The Anglo-Carribbean band called Edward II, who fuse reggae rhythms and vocals with English dance music, took a while to grow on me, but by the time they hopped into a reggae arrangement of "Wild Mountain Thyme" their sound was fun. Jon Moore's Afro-pop-style guitar and Simon Care's pulsing melodeon were perfect leads for a band that combines Bob Marley songs and "Mari's Wedding" in the same set.

The evening's headliners were the Richard Thompson Band, featuring the current touring lineup of Danny Thompson on double bass, Dave Mattacks on drums, and multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn on guitar, mandolin, and sax. While the set didn't showcase anything new or unusual, it was a good mix of songs current ("Razor Dance," "Put It There Pal") and classic ("Shoot Out the Lights," "Wall of Death"), with Thompson stretching out some of the guitar solos that seemed to get clipped on his last album. Some early problems with the sound mix may have affected Thompson's mood, as there was a shortage of the witty banter that's usually a highlight of his concerts. By the time the band swung into the set-closing "Tear Stained Letter," the threatening rain had arrived in full force, and the encore of "Hokey Pokey" saw a cold downpour that sent the crowd off to find shelter for the night.

By noon Saturday the skies had cleared and the muddy masses streaming in from the campsites were greeted by the bouncing good-time music of the King Earl Boogie Band, featuring two members of the 60s pop group Mungo Jerry. Their unexpected encore was a romping version of Country Joe's "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," complete with kazoos, many years and miles from the Vietnam resistance movement that spawned it. Among the afternoon's other highlights were the Hellecasters, a loud and rocking triple-guitar band featuring ex-Fairporter Jerry Donahue in some serious guitar jams that ranged from surf music to psychedelia to a 20-minute medley built around "Orange Blossom Special" played at finger-straining speed. The impressive acoustic duo Show of Hands followed with a set of mostly contemporary songs from Steve Knightly and a couple of tunes from Phil Beer's fiddle that got much of the audience up and dancing. Some classic 60s pop from Joe Brown then got the crowd - estimated by producer Dave Pegg at 16,000 - ready for the main event.

As a spectacular sunset broke through the scudding clouds and lit up the banners that decorated the field, not to mention the homeward-bound cows and acres of tents on the adjoining hills, Fairport took the stage for their three and a half hour set. A high-powered opening tandem of "Haste to the Wedding" and "The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter" inspired a further outbreak of jigging behind the sound tower that lasted for the rest of the night. They continued with a generally familiar set-list that emphasized material from the last three CDs. Fairport's Cropredy set is famous for its guests, who this year included fiddler Dave Swarbrick as well as fellow alumni Thompson and Donahue. After a solo rendition of "Bonny Black Hare" and a couple songs with Australian friend Alastair Hulett, Swarbrick was joined by the band, with Donahue reprising his role as Fairport's early 70s lead guitarist. They offered a mini-set including the sweet, sentimental "Rosie" and a moving version of Sandy Denny's "It Suits Me Well." It was hard not to notice Swarb using an inhaler at one point, disconcertingly suggesting that years of heavy smoking may be catching up with him.

Later in the evening, Thompson joined his old band for four songs including a killer version of "Hand of Kindness" and a graceful fiddle-backed version of "Galway to Graceland," the cynical "Nobody's Wedding" from his first solo album, and a rocking version of "Gypsy Love Song." Other guests included blues belter Sam Brown (Joe's daughter) and songwriter Alan Taylor. As midnight approached, Fairport wrapped up the festival with the traditional finale, their ever-intense rendition of "Matty Groves," this year adding the jig set "Dirty Linen" as an instrumental coda. With the equally mandatory encores, Sandy Denny's signature "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" and the mass singalong of "Meet on the Ledge," they sent us home until next year, which will mark the band's thirtieth anniversary. Walking off the field, I felt once again why the Cropredy festival, like Fairport itself, deserves to be an enduring English institution. - Tom Nelligan (Waltham, MA)