I might be wrong (please correct me if so) but I'm sure I remember reading somewhere, that when Beryl Marriott recorded "Weave the Mirror", there was some surprise that Swarb wasn't involved but she explained that she used Chris instead because it was "her" album and it had to reflect her own style. Something along those lines anyway. That certainly didn't appear to cause any lasting upset with Swarb, as he wrote a tune called "Mrs Marriott" in her honour, which is on the much later "Straws in the Wind" album with Martin Carthy.

Maybe, to some extent, it was a similar situation with Richard?

It's not an inexpensive item but it's been well received by fans.

 I should investigate that. Thanks Alan  

Nick Drake :  The Making of Five Leaves Left   (Island 4LP,  2025).

Only the second  time  i've played this right through, and i know now it was a sound investment.
 The album of course i'm familiar with - if you listen to an LP at intervals for 50 years that's how if goes. But what this box gives us  is a sense of Nick the artist at his best, and a  full, complex person.  Scant though  they are, there are moments when he speaks  in the studio, even laughs occasionally, though not without reserve.
 It sounds cliched i know  but  his really is a tale of the tragic decline and loss . We must be grateful for what he left for us  

That could be a good explanation of why Swarb didn't turn up too often on RT's work but on the other hand RT's work on Siddyburn is fantastic. He obviously took the project very seriously and put in the graft to work out the amazing guitar parts which help make this a wonderful album musically.

How bizarre; I was also listening to Dream Attic the other day for the first time in years! I really enjoyed it, and it might be the last RT album that I really like every track, maybe because its got a nice full sound.

Fab! Thanks for pointing me in the direction of these David. Beautiful stuff. Swarb's glance at Richard at 2.59 in Sloth...

Having played both recently I wondered about the longer explanation of how Fairport ‘not’ Convention got together for Smiddyburn/Flittin’. Probably from a Cropredy reunion thing but still curious

Tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm : Scattering The Roots with Dan Ogus...two hours of the finest folk, roots, blues, etc...plenty of etc...

I've been sifting through my cavernous vaults to bring you some excellent music both new and vintage every Wednesday evening from 9pm 'til 11pm.

The next show goes out tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm (after Express FM Country), featuring the following artists :

Patti Rothberg, PJ Harvey, Patty Griffin, Robert Plant, Ian McNabb, Lisa O'Neil, Kitty MacFarlane, Warren Haynes, Grateful Dead, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Fleetwood Mac, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Be Good Tanyas, Vikki Clayton, Mike Edel, Levi Lowrey, Sarah McDougall, TM Schiller, Fairport Convention, Karla Hutton, Seth Lakeman, Dave Swarbrick, Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot...

Listen tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm on Portsmouth's Express FM, on DAB and online here :

https://www.expressfm.com/programmes/scattering-the-roots/

I don't think I've seen him on any tour with a fiddle player in his backing band so it's an instrument he seems to prefer having in the studio rather than on the road, the exception being the Dream Attic live recordings when he had Joel Zifkin in his band.

And since Pete Zorn's sad passing he's pretty much stuck with the trio line-up of guitar, bass and drums.