Fairport Convention

The most clever and moving collection of old rock material to be released this year is Heyday (Hannibal ) by Fairport Convention. This album gathers a dozen songs that this legendary English folk-rock group recorded in 1968 and '69, tunes ranging from Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" to Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone," all of them witty, knowing and passionate. JOHN GORKA I Know (Red House ): What a fine folk-music record. Gorka's strong, warm voice is instantly disarming, confiding, and his lyrics are sharply observant about subjects ranging from his lover's hair to cows standing in a winter field.

HARD TO BELIEVE it was 40 summers ago that Richard Thompson first played the Philadelphia Folk Festival . Still one of the most vibrant and prolific of folk-rock composers and performers - and widely regarded as one of the world's greatest guitar players - he returns to the festival this weekend with a new album ("Dream Attic") to tout and the mission of closing the event, all by his lonesome. "Whoa, that's great, fantastic," Thompson murmured in a recent chat when told of his honor as Sunday night's concert capper, on a bill that includes his friend and former bandmate Iain Matthews , the Great Groove Band , Joe Pug , Susan Werner (in a new configuration with Natalia Zukerman and Trina Hamlin )

The bards and songmakers of ancient Ireland, Scotland and Britain would be pleased that their ballad styles are still being dredged up, worked over and emulated. Musical groups like Nightnoise, Fairport Convention and a growing legion of like-minded, Celtic-influenced folk fusionists are keeping the ancient spirits alive. They're creating a rich, timeless tapestry of sound, with a bit of the old and a dollop of new. It's music with depth, zest and integrity, a thinking person's folk-pop brew.

"I've always been grunge. I was grunge before there was grunge. They call me the godfather of grunge, new age, R&B, hip-hop and everything else. I did all those things in '61. " That's Richard Thompson setting the record straight with a wry smile and the sort of wit that extends to his songs. The singer-songwriter has garnered rave reviews since co-founding the seminal British folk-rock outfit Fairport Convention in 1968. A well-worn 1959 Stratocaster rests in its case nearby as Thompson explains whether he's ever felt the urge to broaden his admittedly cultish following with a calculatedly commercial album.

Mixing English folk with a touch of Cole Porter and a playful sense of humor, Rachel Unthank & the Winterset played ancient music with the zeal of a new discovery at World Cafe Live on Sunday night. Harking back to the folk-rock revival of Fairport Convention while making common cause with such contemporaries as Will Oldham and Joanna Newsom, they make the music of the past seem like a living thing, vivid and mysterious even after centuries of study. Hailing from Northumbria, just south of the Scottish border, Rachel and Becky Unthank grew up steeped in the music of the region, which pours out of them without effort or pretense.

You can't exactly love Cher (Geffen ), the singer-actress' first album in five years, but you also can't help but be impressed by it. For one thing, this is the finest vocal performance she's ever given - her voice sounds not only strong and sure, but she's also doing things with it she's never done before, like hitting all the notes. Her material is, to put it kindly, second-rate: lots of puffy hard-rock and stentorian ballads. But remember, she was the only rock singer in the pre-Meat Loaf era who could ever pull off that sort of stuff, and she pulls off a few songs here.

Pack up your blankets and lawn chairs on Sunday evening for an Iain Matthews concert at 7 at the Upper Merion Township Building Park, 175 W. Valley Forge Rd. in King of Prussia. Matthews is an acoustic guitar player who in 30 years of performing has spanned the folk, pop, rock, blues and New Age genres only to return to a grass-roots folk/rock style. His latest release, Pure and Crooked on Gold Castle Records from 1990, is pure Matthews originals. "The songs on Pure and Crooked are a lot more open, less opaque, more soul-bearing than I am used to writing.

What's it take for a guy to open up his Roxborough home to a bunch of strangers for a folk concert from which he won't make a dime? A fan as well as a music maker, Jim Fogarty says he was "blown away" by a performance of seasoned British folk veteran Iain Matthews at the Bridgeton, N.J., Folk Festival last year. Fogarty, 23, and his New Zealand-born singing partner Lindsay Gilmour had also been on the bill, singing as the Soul Mates. "A couple of months ago, I ran into Matthews' American booker, Bill Martin, and said we'd love to do a show with Iain.

Dar Williams fans are going to have their work cut out for them this weekend. Saturday afternoon, they'll be hustling up to Randall's Island in New York to catch the charming singer/songwriter's participation in the second annual Guinness Fleadh (pronounced "flah," Gaelic for festival). Then Saturday night, it's back to our town, as Dar participates in "An Evening of Real Life Songs" at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, alongside Richard Thompson (another Fleadh participant), Bruce Cockburn and Maia Sharp!

The work of Richard Thompson, the yarn-spinning songwriter and immensely gifted guitarist, is not easy to anthologize. Since his debut with Fairport Convention in 1969 (at age 17), Thompson has written some of the most intelligent pop music on record. Ever restless, he's experimented with every conceivable style of music, then taken the results and rearranged them for the concert stage; some of his familiar songs sound totally different from one tour to the next. So the three-disc retrospective Watching the Dark: The History of Richard Thompson, released last week on Hannibal/Rykodisc, is misnamed: It provides one history, one trip through the time line - and not the "complete works" treatment that Thompson, the champion of bitterness in rock and roll, probably deserves.

RAY DAVIES got the whole "music and conversation" show-concept going a few years back, spinning a night of tunes and tales off his "X-Ray" autobiography and deep catalog of Kinks Klassics. In the next few weeks, Philadelphians will be privy to several more of such mixed-media concert treats. Rodney Crowell has a songs-and-stories showcase - tied to his artfully spun new hard-luck-life autobiography, "Chinaberry Sidewalks" - coming next Friday to the Sellersville Theatre. Peter Asher will regale us with tales and tunes (as half of Peter and Gordon, and as hit producer for the likes of Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor)

HARD TO BELIEVE it was 40 summers ago that Richard Thompson first played the Philadelphia Folk Festival . Still one of the most vibrant and prolific of folk-rock composers and performers - and widely regarded as one of the world's greatest guitar players - he returns to the festival this weekend with a new album ("Dream Attic") to tout and the mission of closing the event, all by his lonesome. "Whoa, that's great, fantastic," Thompson murmured in a recent chat when told of his honor as Sunday night's concert capper, on a bill that includes his friend and former bandmate Iain Matthews , the Great Groove Band , Joe Pug , Susan Werner (in a new configuration with Natalia Zukerman and Trina Hamlin )

When it comes to justifiably revered cult artists who continue to create at a high level decades after their illustrious beginnings, Richard Thompson is the one who has never had any hits. Even Randy "Short People" Newman and Loudon "Dead Skunk" Wainwright III - the latter, incidentally, will play with Thompson at Wilmington's Grand Opera House on Oct. 12 - have the British singer and guitarist beat. Sad but true: Thompson has never made a successful assault on the pop charts.

Mixing English folk with a touch of Cole Porter and a playful sense of humor, Rachel Unthank & the Winterset played ancient music with the zeal of a new discovery at World Cafe Live on Sunday night. Harking back to the folk-rock revival of Fairport Convention while making common cause with such contemporaries as Will Oldham and Joanna Newsom, they make the music of the past seem like a living thing, vivid and mysterious even after centuries of study. Hailing from Northumbria, just south of the Scottish border, Rachel and Becky Unthank grew up steeped in the music of the region, which pours out of them without effort or pretense.

Dar Williams fans are going to have their work cut out for them this weekend. Saturday afternoon, they'll be hustling up to Randall's Island in New York to catch the charming singer/songwriter's participation in the second annual Guinness Fleadh (pronounced "flah," Gaelic for festival). Then Saturday night, it's back to our town, as Dar participates in "An Evening of Real Life Songs" at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, alongside Richard Thompson (another Fleadh participant), Bruce Cockburn and Maia Sharp!

Richard Thompson is on the line from Los Angeles, gearing up for a summer acoustic jaunt across America. The unmatched British guitarist and songwriter, who splits time between the United States and his native land ("England for the weather and California for the culture"), has a busy day on Saturday. First, he'll play an afternoon set at the Fleadh (pronounced "flah"), the humongous Irish music festival on New York's Randall's Island, with everyone from Sinead O'Connor to such fellow non-Irish performers as Los Lobos, X and Billy Bragg.

Fall is an optimistic time for music acts. In the brief spell between summer megatours and holiday superstar albums, there's a window of opportunity for lesser-known but deserving artists. Let's consider some of the music you'll be able to hear live over the next week, and on newly issued CDs. Headlining tomorrow at TLA, and new on disc, is Canadian singer/songwriter Ferron with "Driver" (EarthBeat, 1/2), an arty gem. Looking kinda like Lyle Lovett, sounding at turns like Jane Siberry, Tanita Tikaram or early Bruce Springsteen, Ferron does an artful slow burn that's appealing, even if you're not buying into her subtly couched lesbian love lyrics.

"I've always been grunge. I was grunge before there was grunge. They call me the godfather of grunge, new age, R&B, hip-hop and everything else. I did all those things in '61. " That's Richard Thompson setting the record straight with a wry smile and the sort of wit that extends to his songs. The singer-songwriter has garnered rave reviews since co-founding the seminal British folk-rock outfit Fairport Convention in 1968. A well-worn 1959 Stratocaster rests in its case nearby as Thompson explains whether he's ever felt the urge to broaden his admittedly cultish following with a calculatedly commercial album.

The work of Richard Thompson, the yarn-spinning songwriter and immensely gifted guitarist, is not easy to anthologize. Since his debut with Fairport Convention in 1969 (at age 17), Thompson has written some of the most intelligent pop music on record. Ever restless, he's experimented with every conceivable style of music, then taken the results and rearranged them for the concert stage; some of his familiar songs sound totally different from one tour to the next. So the three-disc retrospective Watching the Dark: The History of Richard Thompson, released last week on Hannibal/Rykodisc, is misnamed: It provides one history, one trip through the time line - and not the "complete works" treatment that Thompson, the champion of bitterness in rock and roll, probably deserves.

Pack up your blankets and lawn chairs on Sunday evening for an Iain Matthews concert at 7 at the Upper Merion Township Building Park, 175 W. Valley Forge Rd. in King of Prussia. Matthews is an acoustic guitar player who in 30 years of performing has spanned the folk, pop, rock, blues and New Age genres only to return to a grass-roots folk/rock style. His latest release, Pure and Crooked on Gold Castle Records from 1990, is pure Matthews originals. "The songs on Pure and Crooked are a lot more open, less opaque, more soul-bearing than I am used to writing.