singemonkey wrote
I love Liege & Lief, but I found Dave Swarbrick's vocals kind of annoying (it was him right?). It stopped me really enjoying the other Fairport stuff I've heard. How do you feel about his voice?
Fairport changed lineups a lot, so who is singing would depend on which album you are referring to. At various times Ian Matthews, Judy Dyble, Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick and Sandy Denny took lead vocals - and that was just in the early period. Once Thompson left it was Swarbrick doing the lion's share of the vocals.
These days it's probably Simon Nicol and Chris Leslie doing most of the vocals.
Liege and Lief had Sandy Denny handling all the vocals and doing a very fine job. She was something a bit special as a singer.
Swarbrick came out of the English folk revival - indeed prior to joining Fairport Convention he was working with Martin Carthy and was regarded as THE fiddler in that musical movement. So that colours his vocal style (and I suspect that when they worked together it was Carthy that did most of the singing).
How do I feel about his voice? I think vocals are one of the most problematic areas in music. People can adjust to different instrumental styles much more easily than differences in vocal styles. And really most rock vocals (with the probable exception of Screamo) are informed by American negro styles. Anything that derives from a different root tends to sound odd to Western ears. I think Swarb is just about OK. He sings in tune, his control is reasonable and you won't hear a lot of dud notes from him. I am better at accepting vocals that come from the British folk tradition than I used to be, but I think that Swarbrick really took on the lead vocal role in Fairport because there was nobody else to do the job. He's functional as a singer, no more.
