ROSIE

In 1971 Fairport Convention was at the top of their game with the adventurous and clearly Prog related concept album Babbacombe Lee completing a series of good albums with Full House and Babbacombe Lee being my personal favourites. The follow up - Rosie - didn't come about until 1973 and represented a very different and clearly much less interesting Fairport.

While in 1971, when progressive rock was just taking off, Fairport Convention was not too far away from the Prog movement. In 1973, however, they seem to have been totally oblivious of the very existence of anything progressive (despite that 1973 was probably the single most popular year for the Prog genre). There is nothing progressive about Rosie whatsoever. And worse, strong American/Country influences had crept into their music (and would continue to haunt them on subsequent albums Nine and Rising For The Moon). There are still a couple of decent jigs that are clearly the only worthwhile moments of the album, but overall Rosie is a poor album with little relation to the Prog related Fairport of Full House and Babbacombe Lee (and several later albums). Most of the material here is closer to generic Pub rock and Country rock than to British Folk or anything progressive. If you like Full House, Angel Delight and Babbacombe Lee and would like to hear more from this interesting band, I would recommend to stay away from this album (as well as from Nine and Rising For The Moon) and go directly for Tipplers Tales or some of their more recent albums like the great Jewel In The Crown.

I still haven't heard the much hated Gottle O' Geer or all of the bands 80's albums, but I cannot imagine that they can be less interesting than Rosie. This is probably the low point of their career.

A release for the most devoted fans only.