Liege and Lief

Editors' Notes After a few years spent covering Dylan and other Yanks, Fairport Convention decided to rock up the most English material they could find, and British folk-rock was born. Other groups jumped on board, but they didn't have Sandy Denny's crystalline voice, Richard Thompson's guitar heroics, or a drummer who could swing like Dave Mattacks. The epic ballads "Tam Lin" and "Matty Groves" match brilliant stories with heavy riffs. But Denny shone on the spookier numbers, notably "Crazy Man Michael," from the dark side of Thompson's muse.