Sandy Denny's haunting, ethereal vocals gave
Fairport a big boost on her debut with the group. A more folk-based album than their initial effort,
What We Did on Our Holidays was divided between original material and a few well-chosen covers. This contains several of their greatest moments:
Denny's "Fotheringay,"
Richard Thompson's "Meet on the Ledge," the obscure
Joni Mitchell composition "Eastern Rain," the traditional "She Moves Through the Fair," and their version of
Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine." And more than simply being a collection of good songs (with one or two pedestrian ones), it allowed
Fairport to achieve its greatest internal balance, and indeed one of the finest balances of any major folk-rock group. The strong original material, covers of little-known songs by major contemporary songwriters such as
Dylan and
Mitchell, and updates of traditional material were reminiscent of the blend achieved by
the Byrds on their early albums, with
Fairport Convention giving a British slant to the idiom. The slant would become much more British by the end of the 1960s, though, both gaining and losing something in the process. Confusingly,
What We Did on Our Holidays was titled Fairport Convention in its initial U.S. release, with a different cover from the U.K. edition as well, although
Fairport's very first album from 1968 had used the title Fairport Convention as well. In the CD age, the title was standardized in all territories to
What We Did on Our Holidays. [The 2003 CD reissue of this record adds historical liner notes and three bonus tracks from the same era, one from a BBC broadcast, one from a non-LP B-side, and one a studio outtake.] ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi
