It might be recalled that I have a CD with both this and the previous album on it. This was released in 1992 and has an insert featuring some notes by John Tobler, dated that year. In these, he has just been referring to the fact that the previous album was only then coming out in CD format. He continues:
“As a bonus to atone for this sin of omission, “The Bonny Bunch of Roses” is here doubled up on a single CD with its 1978 successor, “Tipplers Tales”, a light hearted concept on the subject of alcoholic beverages, a vital ingredient in the band’s longevity – the group motto (in Latin) “Veni, Vidi, Imbibi” (I came, I saw, I drank). “Tipplers” includes such notable traditional songs as “John Barleycorn” (also recorded in a not dissimilar style by Steve Winwood in Traffic), “Jack o’Rion” and “Reynard the Fox”, as well as indicating the group’s advanced sense of humour in the title of the Dave Pegg original, “The Hair of the Dogma”. “Tipplers Tales” has been released on CD before, but its incorporation into this package combines the two albums the group recorded for Vertigo Records. They were recorded immediately after Simon Nicol rejoined the group after an absence of five years during which he worked mainly with his fellow Fairport founders, Ashley Hutchings and Richard Thompson, as well as becoming a successful record producer. Rejoice and enjoy – a significant chapter in the Fairport story is again available, but digitally remastered and thus sounding better than ever before.
John Tobler, 1992.”
Next time, the music on this further fine album.
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