# The Best Fairport Convention Guitar Solos

> The 14 best Fairport Convention guitar solos, ranked. #1 is Sloth (1970), then Matty Groves and A Sailor's Life. Every video starts at the solo.

Canonical URL: <https://greatestsolos.com/list/fairport-convention-guitar-solos/>

Fairport Convention electrified British traditional song, and in teenage Richard Thompson they had a lead guitarist who treated modal folk melodies like jazz standards. His angular, fiddle-inspired runs across the band's 1968-1970 records laid down a blueprint for folk-rock guitar that is still studied today.

Informed by: [Perfect Sound Forever - Richard Thompson tribute](https://www.furious.com/perfect/richardthompson.html), [warr.org - Richard Thompson/Fairport Convention reviews](http://www.warr.org/thompson.html), [Guitar World - Richard Thompson lesson](https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/hole-notes-hybrid-picked-drop-d-delights-richard-thompson), [Wikipedia - Richard Thompson (musician)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Thompson_(musician))

1. [Sloth](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-sloth/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1970
2. [Matty Groves](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-matty-groves/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969
3. [A Sailor's Life](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-a-sailors-life/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969
4. [Tam Lin](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-tam-lin/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969
5. [Come All Ye](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-come-all-ye/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969
6. [Mason's Apron](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-mason-s-apron/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1977
7. [Walk Awhile](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-walk-awhile/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1970
8. [Sir Patrick Spens](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-sir-patrick-spens/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1970
9. [Doctor of Physick](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-doctor-of-physick/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1970
10. [Mr. Lacey](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-mr-lacey/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969
11. [Tale in Hard Time](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-tale-in-hard-time/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969
12. [Cajun Woman](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-cajun-woman/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969
13. [Time Will Show the Wiser](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-time-will-show-the-wiser/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1968
14. [Nottamun Town](https://greatestsolos.com/song/fairport-convention-nottamun-town/) — Fairport Convention · solo by Richard Thompson · 1969

---

GreatestSolos ranks the greatest guitar solos by consensus across published lists. Agent guide: [llms.txt](https://greatestsolos.com/llms.txt) · [Sitemap](https://greatestsolos.com/sitemap.xml) · [Dataset (CSV)](https://greatestsolos.com/data/greatest-guitar-solos.csv) · [How we rank](https://greatestsolos.com/method/)