By Chris Varias
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Fairport Convention is hailed as the finest English folk-rock band of the 1960s, a time when the band included two legendary names in Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny. Today, after a 37-year existence marked by extensive personnel turnover, only bits and pieces of that long-ago greatness remain, but that was enough to draw a sellout crowd of 450 to the 20th Century Theatre Friday.

The band's near-two-hour show included material dating from the Thompson and Denny days and stuff generated by the current five-man lineup, of which guitarist Simon Nicol is the only original member. Bassist Dave Pegg joined Fairport in the '60s. Pegg and Nicol's song introductions referenced the band's heyday several times. Drummer Gerry Conway and fiddler Ric Sanders each have had long affiliations with the group.

Multi-instrumentalist Chris Leslie is the newest member. He was given a few songs to sing lead on, but nothing he did matched the Fairport classics. A song he sang called "My Love is in America" was an unnecessary and somewhat forced new-folk ballad masquerading as the type of timeless tune Fairport used to discover and record.

The band opened its show with a pair of newer songs, so when Nicol began in on the old favorite "Crazy Man Michael" for the third tune the crowd applauded.

However, Nicol stopped the band in the middle of the first verse because of a problem with Conway's monitor. There was a second false start before the problem was resolved.

Later, technical difficulties did in what would have been a nice fiddle jig featuring Sanders and Leslie, but another instrumental - a swinging homage to the Hot Club of France - was spared.

Classic Fairport was what the crowd wanted, and the band piled it on at the end, with the set-closing "Matty Groves" and "Meet on the Ledge," featuring show promoter Steve Carson on backup vocals.

The Carson family put their stamp on the start of the show as well. Rosie Carson (Steve's daughter), 11, and 10-year-old Justine Cefalu opened the show with a great 20-minute set of mostly Irish material.

The pair of fiddler/vocalists, who study at the Riley School of Irish Music in Corryville's Old St. George, did duets on jigs, a waltz, and an a cappella piece, as well as on some American folk.

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E-mail cvarias@enquirer.com