Artist: Dave Swarbrick
Title: It Suits Me Well - The Transatlantic Anthology
Year Of Release: 2004
Label: Castle Communications
Genre: Folk, Folk Rock
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 2:07:42
Total Size: 837mb

Tracklist:

01. Boadicea
02. Carthy's March
03. Planxty Morgan Mawgan
04. Byker Hill
05. Wat Ye Wha I Met the Streen / The Ribbons of the Redhead Girl / Ril Gan Ainm
06. Chief O'Neill's Favourite / Newcastle Hornpipe
07. Once I Loved a Maiden Fair
08. The Ace & Deuce of Pipering
09. Sheagh of Rye / The Friar's Breeches
10. Sword Dance / Young Black Cow
11. Arthur McBride / Snug In the Blanket
12. Hole In the Wall
13. Wishing / The Victor's Return / The Gravel Walk
14. Sir Charles Coote / Smiths
15. The Athole Highlanders
16. Bonaparte's Retreat
17. Nathaniel Gow's Lament On the Occasion of the Death of His Brother / Rory of the Hills
18. Grey Daylight / The Hawk / The Ten Pound Fiddle
19. The Bride's March / The Keelman's Pertition / Show Me the Way to Wallingford / Sword Dance
20. The Rocky Road to Dublin / Sir Phillip McHugh
21. It Suits Me Well
22. Three Irish Tunes (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
23. Gravel Path / Leyton Buzzard Shuffle (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
24. Keelman's Petition (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
25. Shetland Medley (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
26. Lady Mary Hay (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
27. Noble Square Dance (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
28. John Goudy (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
29. Whenever (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)
30. Sean Van Voight / Give Me Your Hand (Live from Cambridge Folk Festival)

Between 1976 and 1983, Fairport Convention fiddler Dave Swarbrick recorded four albums for Transatlantic. Well, not exactly: the first two were for Transatlantic and the final two for Logo, the label that Transatlantic changed its name to, while in between the Transatlantic stints were two late-'70s albums for Sonet. The first disc of this two-CD set draws from these 1976-1983 Transatlantic/Logo releases (and not at all from the Sonet LPs), while the second disc is of perhaps more interest to serious Swarbrick fans, consisting of material from BBC broadcasts of the Cambridge Folk Festival of Dave Swarbrick & Friends (from 1980) and Swarbrick's band Whippersnapper (from 1984). Since all four of Swarbrick's Transatlantic/Logo albums can be heard in their entirety on a couple of two-for-one CD repackages, it can be fairly wondered whether it was necessary to reissue the material in this form. Presumably a good many of Swarbrick's admirers already have everything from the Transatlantic/Logo albums in some form or another, and might be buying two CDs worth of music for just one disc of material they don't already have. If you don't happen to have much or any solo Swarbrick, though, this is a fair representation of his solo work from the era, emphasizing the tracks either featuring Swarbrick in a duo setting with Martin Carthy, or those on which he's backed by the lineup that played on Fairport Convention's 1970 Full House album, excluding his more ceilidh-oriented material. With just one vocal track (a cover of the Sandy Denny composition "It Suits Me Well"), it does sound rather like an instrumental version of 1970s Fairport, with an even more traditional folk orientation and prominent fiddle, as the majority of the selections are traditional numbers with Swarbrick arrangements. Songs with vocals are more of a presence on the live Cambridge Folk Festival broadcasts, which don't duplicate any of the songs from the studio sessions on disc one. What a pity that nowhere does it say, in the otherwise well-annotated booklet, which of the BBC tracks come from what year. Overall, it's a set of well-done British fiddle folk that should please much of the Fairport faithful, though those with a more limited taste for the most traditional- and fiddle-fed part of Fairport's persona might find it leans too hard in certain directions. ~ Richie Unterberger