Audio CD (26 Feb 2004)

Number of Discs: 1

Format: CD

Label: Sanctuary



Although I am a big fan of late 60's/early 70's English folk-rock, I had never heard of this group before running across them on an anthology album back in 2001. I promptly went out and purchased the only available CD of their 2 albums (from 1970/71) and quickly fell in love with the edgy, deliberately primitive sound and their storytelling abilities within their songs. After writing a review of this first CD release, I then discovered through later Amazon reviews that a track had been left off. There was a song MENDEL that originally led off their second album THE GIPSY which was not included due to time constraints (or so they said). This new compilation (2004) restores the song and gives us the complete Mr. Fox in all their arcane glory and at 79 minutes you definitely get your money's worth.



For those of you unfamiliar with the group, sample the title cut from their first album MR FOX along with THE GAY GOSHAWK, THE BALLAD OF NEDDY DICK and MR TRILL'S SONG to get a feel for their unique sound. From the second album THE GIPSY there's THE DANCING SONG, ALL THE GOOD TIMES, the newly restored MENDEL and their version of THE HOUSE CARPENTER to round out the picture. Along with this self contained complete set are lengthy and informative liner notes that chronicle the band's rise and fall as well as the lives of founders Bob and Carole Pegg. The remastered sound is better on this release too. If you're a fan of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle and other British groups from this era then you owe it to yourself to become familiar with Mr Fox. You might find yourself as I did somewhat amazed and pleasantly surprised. They are true originals who deserve to be remembered and appreciated some 30 years after the fact.



I don't think it's folk rock, as it sometimes lumped in with. If you enjoy Fairport Convention -as I certainly do - this may seem spare, pruned back, by comparison. The percussion, for example, isn't drumming in the Mattacks/Conway mould, it is closer to folk percussion on a tabor or little side-drum. The instrumental and vocal sounds are beautifully interleaved and integrated. There is no emphasis on instrumental virtuosity for its own thrilling sake, merely a use of instruments to support the creation of pictures and tell stories. The voices have a hard, powerful directness. The imagery in the words, the story-telling, is entirely distinctive, outstanding. "Folk rock" Fairport came out of a rock band, of course, and worked out their own synthesis. The Peggs came out of an immersion in traditional folk music and built their own very different synthesis.