**1/2 Fairport Convention

OLD, NEW, BORROWED, BLUE

(Green Linnet)

England's longest-running folk-rock band can still play circles around most of their progeny, and as they recently proved at Scullers, they remain a first-rate live act. What they haven't got is an in-house songwriter, and that's been more of a problem on recent studio albums. Now that they've run out of traditional songs to arrange (and are probably sick of asking former member Richard Thompson for material), their taste in outside songs has gotten more conservative.

On the studio half of their first all-acoustic album, they favor singer/songwriter-type ballads -- including one by James Taylor and two by Loudon Wainwright III -- with respectful arrangements that tilt the balance more toward folk than rock. It's smart and likable, but the mix works better on the live half, where the band cut loose on some flashy instrumentals and guitarist/original member Simon Nicol gets to play the romantic troubadour on "The Hiring Fair." The peak is a closing medley of two Fairport standards, both traditionally based: "Dirty Linen," a frantic but lyrical instrumental, and "Matty Groves," a meaty ballad of lust, infidelity, and revenge. If they could only link up with the descendants of whoever wrote those, Fairport's material troubles would be over.

-- Brett Milano