What's the difference between Fairport Convention and Fotheringay? Right, Sandy Denny.

And wrong. Fotheringay is an exceptionally tasteful band. Everything they do is located well within the confines of musical acceptability. There is none of the cultivated eccentricity of Fairport's Full House. Which isn't to say that Fotheringay is not good. Just the opposite. Fotheringay is excellent. Make no mistake.

Some people, wandering in and out of my living room, have said that this LP doesn't do much to them. That it's good but bland. In a sense, they are right. For compared to Full House, Fotheringay is unspectacular. Nothing excessive, sometimes tedious, older, somehow, and less bitchy. But I say, a pox on the philistines. What do they know of Mary, Queen of Scots? Fotheringay plays intelligent music, quietly intense.

In feeling this album reminds more of the first A&M Fairport LP than any since. Fotheringay, too, knows how to put a frame around a song. And they fill in the warp with a pretty good woof, if you know what I mean. Sandy Denny, of course, stands out as the focal point. Her lovely, soft, velvety voice carries the continuity between bands. Even if I weren't unnaturally attracted to small blondes, I'd have to say she is wonderful.

The rest of the band is equal to her talent. Jerry Donahue doesn't play flashy lead, but his presentation is crisp and to the point. He wastes no sounds. Gerry Conway's drums are simply perfect throughout. And so on down the line...

Trevor Lucas is a great surprise. Singing with Sandy his voice supplies a more effective counter than anyone else she has recorded with. On his own, he is tops. In fact, his solos are the high points of the album. With Gordon Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel" he leads the band to all the right places at exactly the right time. It's far and away the best version I have ever heard. The same can be said for "Too Much of Nothing," America's reality principle national anthem. Not many people can meaningfully do up Dylan songs. Lucas does it just right. And the tunes he wrote, "The Ballad of Ned Kelly" and, especially, "Peace in the End"—with Sandy—are jim dandy. "Peace," with its shifting vocal lead, exudes the same community feeling as "Wooden Ships."

I don't want to give the impression that Fotheringay is better than Fairport. Or vice versa. The comparison will inevitably be made, but the point is that they are different bands. Both fine in their way. Fotheringay simply follows the path laid down by Sandy Denny when she was in Fairport. Certainly, out here in the wasteland, there is more than enough room for both. For a first LP, Fotheringay is exceptional. It delivers solid music and promises even better things to come. (RS 70)

JACK HAFFERKAMP