The craftsman of British folk

Dave Swarbrick died on June 3rd, following complications from long-standing poor health. Ever since the emphysema diagnosis in 1999, which five years later led to him needing a lung transplant, things had always been a bit precarious. Nevertheless, his live performing never stopped, driven by an unstoppable love of music.

With Swarbrick, British folk has lost one of its central figures. He became known to the wider public when he appeared as a session player on the Fairport Convention's epoch-making third album, "Unhalfbricking".

In truth, the artist was already well known within that circle, having played with the Ian Campbell Folk Group from 1960 to 1966, and alongside Martin Carthy from 1965 to 1969.

As the story goes, when he was asked to take part in the "Unhalfbricking" sessions, Swarbrick had never even heard of Fairport Convention. Regardless, his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, equally at home on violin, viola, mandolin and guitar, confirmed the esteem the band already held him in.

That was the first British folk record to feature an amplified violin. Swarbrick still didn't own an electric one (the idea hadn't even been considered in that scene before) and the effect was achieved in such a rudimentary way that it's hard not to smile about it today. They taped a telephone receiver to the body of the violin, then connected the telephone box to the amplifiers. You can hear the result on "Si tu dois partir", "Cajun Woman" and the epic "A Sailor's Life".

A few weeks later, riding the wave of enthusiasm, he was asked to join the band full-time. Given the record's excellent reception (number 12 in the UK), Swarbrick was happy to accept.

The next test came with "Liege & Lief", featuring electric violin and dominated by Swarbrick's playing. It's his sound that conjures the arcane aura running through the famous version of "Matty Groves". The arrangements of "Tam Lin" and the legendary instrumental "Medley", a tour de force of virtuosity and wild dancing, are his too. He also co-wrote, alongside Richard Thompson, the now-classic "Crazy Man Michael" — the first of a long series of songs he gave to the band.

For today's rock audience, familiarity with Fairport Convention usually ends around here, with only a few venturing into the following "Full House", and only die-hard fans following the albums released from 1971 onward. This is part of why Dave Swarbrick isn't as celebrated as he deserves to be. It's precisely from "Full House" onward that the violinist becomes the linchpin of the project, whereas on "Liege & Lief", despite having contributed a substantial share of the ideas, he was overshadowed in the press by the charismatic star power of Sandy Denny.

It's precisely to make up for the singer's departure that "Full House" is sung collectively by all members of the band, Swarbrick included. The violinist arranges the instrumental medley "Dirty Linen", with its intricate rhythmic patterns, and co-writes three songs with Thompson: "Walk Awhile", "Doctor Of Physick" and the trance-like "Sloth", nine minutes of slow-building intensity that seem to bridge the ancient Celts and America's jam-band scene.

From that same period comes the single "Now Be Thankful", also notable for its instrumental b-side "Sir B. McKenzie's Daughter's Lament…", in which Swarbrick's violin attack has an almost punk-like ferocity.

1971 was the year the band hit its commercial peak, with "Angel Delight" reaching number 8 (their only album to crack the UK top 10), but it was also the year that saw them suddenly collapse, when just five months later "Babbacombe Lee" failed to chart at all.

The first is important both because it sees Swarbrick emerge as Fairport's main singer, and because it particularly highlights his skills as a mandolin player (just think of the title track or “Sickness And Diseases“). The second, excellent and sadly underrated, is a particularly ambitious project, a “folk opera” about the life of the English criminal John Lee (1864-1945), sentenced to death and later pardoned after the trapdoor of the gallows failed to open beneath his feet three times.

The project was born from an idea of Swarbrick's, who wrote roughly half of the material. Not even the appearance on Old Grey Whistle Test, where they performed “Wake Up John (Hanging Song)“, was enough to lift them back up the charts. And yet it's one of the band's most effective tracks, a brisk, airy piece of folk-rock, as instrumentally refined as it is melodically immediate. It's also Swarbrick's masterpiece as a performer, spitting out a river of words with ease and remarkable metrical inventiveness.

From then on, Fairport's records would seem a bit dimmed compared to those of the golden era, and yet Swarbrick's talent would never falter, allowing the great musician one final flourish, with the extremely long version of “The Bonny Bunch Of Roses” that gives its title to the 1977 album. A funereal, intense fresco, once again graced by his voice. The fall of Napoleon as seen by members of his own family. What better way to encapsulate the story of a band now fallen into obscurity, in a musical world a thousand miles removed from what it once offered?

And yet the story was destined for a happy ending. Before long would come the split and the annual reunion shows near the village of Cropredy, in Oxfordshire. The audience grew so much from one edition to the next that the band decided to return full-time. Swarbrick would not take part in the new Fairport lineup, no longer able to withstand the intensive sound of the electric violin, but he reunited with them for a few historic concerts, such as those in 2006 and 2007.

Today Fairport's Cropredy Convention is one of the best festivals in the UK, an idyll of tranquility and great, old-fashioned music, capable of drawing twenty thousand people a day. And next August, between the 11th and the 13th, you can bet that fitting tribute will be paid to Swarbrick's talent, his sublime craftsmanship, the warmth of his compositions and the whirling flourishes of his notes.

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