BERT JANSCH

After two albums of mostly original works, JANSCH turned to arrangements of traditional songs, some done on solo guitar. This about face was ahead of FAIRPORT CONVENTION, who weren't even on the recording landscape in 1966, and initially did mostly covers. Speaking of FAIRPORT, their well known "Nottamun Town" is covered here first in a suitably eerie arrangement. And speaking of PENTANGLE, "Jack Orion" would be reprised by that five sided supergroup in a more girthful guise on "Cruel Sister" in 1970. This also marks the first JANSCH album in which JOHN RENBOURN collaborated if only on a few tracks, setting the stage for their full fledged collaboration later in 1966 and their eventual founding of said PENTANGLE shortly thereafter.

With all this housekeeping swept aside, the album somewhat lives and dies by its 10 minute "epic" title cut, which is not majestic in any musical sense, being a story song with innumerable verses and little variation, as was custom ion the new folk rock realm. Unfortunately, Jansch's voice only magnifies the monotony. This is egregious in such a long term investment, so it's somewhat disappointing as is the similar "Pretty Polly", both notwithstanding enriched accompaniment by Renbourn. Instead, I look to the banjoed opener "The Waggoner's Lad", the too-brief "The Gardener" which might have helped move ALAN STIVELL beyond the harp building phase a few years hence, and the aforementioned "Nottamun Town" for the real triumphs here.

A voice like Jansch's would have been better suited for chortling "Wh'all be king but cherlie" or "Queen of Argyll" a la ANDY M STEWART, whose own Gallic timbre was arguably far more grating yet found a comfortable home within SILLY WIZARD and later solo from the 1970s thru the 2000s, thanks to the interpretation of compatible material and matching arrangements. For all I know, an album in the Jansch canon might well exploit his voice more suitably, though, cosmically speaking, fans of PENTANGLE must be content that the story played out as it did.

Having subsisted on JOHN MARTYN for a couple of weeks and now shifting over to BERT JANSCH, I know I shouldn't be comparing and contrasting but my first reaction to "It Don't Bother Me" was that it was Jansch's "The Tumbler" (Martyn's sophomore effort), but that is not only cruel but inaccurate. The similarity is only that Jansch now expresses his brogue better without affectation, but otherwise, for a second album in a year span, this is actually in some ways more captivating than the debut, with songs that better reflect or predict the philosophies of the time, and a quality that presages the prog folk era.

Somehow his vocals are better suited to these musings than in the more closed off predecessor. A consummate example is the superb "Apartheid", with the banjo laden closer "900 Miles" nearly as accomplished, reflecting an American influence coursing through the KINGSTON TRIO. I'm also partial to the rambling story style of "My Lover" and the existential patter of the title cut.

If I could only recommend one Jansch production from the first 2, I'd say don't bother yourself with the debut and grab this one instead.

Another month yet another Scottish folkie dating back to the 1960s to pour over, courtesy of my reviewing muse. To overuse a cliche that I am at least aware I am using, this fellow is truly a guitarist's guitarist. Unfortunately, that's also shorthand for "I am not a guitarist", and, while I am not oblivious to technical virtuosity on the acoustic platform, it's just not enough for me, and quite a number of the tracks are instrumental. The best of these by far is DAVEY GRAHAM's classic "Angie", which doesn't say much for JANSCH's own writing at this stage. Luckily quite a few tracks have vocals. Well, actually not that luckily. While his singing is not without its Scottish charm, his voice isn't very expressive, and so twangy that I briefly thought he hailed from Glasgow, Alabama.

In 1965, not many were doing this, so JANSCH's influence cannot be minimized, but it's hard to get excited about it today on listens 1 to 5, just so much water under the bridge since those early days. Again, at the risk of prosaism, I was painfully young in 1965 and I never heard this, and, while certain previously unheard works of that era do well up the nostalgia within me, this just doesn't. Nonetheless, with GORDON LIGHTFOOT singing, "I Have No time", "Needle of Death", "Running from Home", and "Dreams of Love" would all be 5 star glorious, so they are still nasally worthwhile as underperformed by JANSCH.

Only one way to go with this one. 3 tentatively solid stars, and onward.

Moonshine is the eighth album by Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, released shortly after his departure from Pentangle.

Although the cover painting suggests the booze-oriented interpretation for the title of this album, its sound feels like mostly related to nature and country ambiance to me. Building up this impression we find here a considerable congregation of instrumental talents, among which I particularly enjoy woodwinds & recorders.

As for Bert's own songwriting craftmanship, what can I say that's not been already said? Alternative tunings for his acoustic guitar, early english music reminiscences, uniquely sounding pastoral settings, modal flavoured vocal melodies, it's all there.

No doubt, this is excellent, and maybe a bit prog too

Herbert Jansch was a Scottish folk singer, songwritter & guitarist widely known as a founding member of the band Pentangle.

This album, one of my favourites, is a folk & blues affair based on acoustic guitar's non-standard tunings, a technique that was the hallmark of his sound. There's also nice yet sparse contributions by the band, here and there. Most prominently, we find here drummer Pick Withers, about entering world fame with Dire Straits by then, who delivers a tasty & tight sense of rythm in mostly mid-tempo incursions. Nice touches of Rhodes electric piano and fiddle, too. Badge of honor to Rod Clements (Lindisfarne) who underpins the whole recording with his precise and pulsating bass lines.

If folk may be seen as progressive, this may be a fine prog album.

— First review of this album —

My last walk down memory lane with the late John Renbourn features, exclusively, all instrumental collaborations with his old Pentangle sparring partner Bert Jansch. After The Dance is a compilation that focuses exclusively on the duo's joint solo recordings that showcase the interplay between the two acoustic guitar virtuosos and even includes four uncredited Pentangle tracks that also focus on the duo's playing. Starting off with the mesmerizing "Tic-tocative", from the album titled Bert And John, we are quickly followed by the jazzy Pentangle jam like song titled "Waltz" from the group's first album. The millisecond timing between the two is still breathtaking even 50 years after the fact. The jazzy "Piano Tune" is a perfect opener before the duo launch into the scrumptious Mingus standard "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" with, again, a heavy emphasis on jazz juxtapositions before being followed by the manic "Hole In The Coal" from Pentangle's second album "Sweet Child". The duo start to morph into more blues based playing on songs like 'Lucky 13", Stepping Stones" and "Red's Favorite" before switching back to jazz grooves on "No Exit" (another Pentangle jam), "Bells", and this compilation's title track "After The Dance". As a change of pace the stately pseudo Elizabethan "Orlando" and the manic eastern tinged "East Wind" keep this collection form becoming a monotony as does the rendering of the trad. song "The Wagoner's Lad". The latter featuring Jansch on a banjo!

How this great sounding and excellently remastered album is not essential listening for all up and coming guitar players is quite beyond me. 5 stars for something that has never been duplicated since on any record.

The third part of the archetype for the sound of future folk rock band The Pentangle, along with John Renbourn's Another Monday and the Jansch/Renbourn collaboration tilted Bert & John. The solo Jansch album Jack Orion, to me, may be the least accessible but the most important. By this time Bert Jansch hit upon adding musical accompaniment to traditional British folk songs using alternate guitar tunings such as DADGAD to create droning pseudo Celtic musical atmospheres. Employing his future Pentangle band mate John Renbourn to supplement his singing and playing on songs like 'Pretty Polly', 'The Wagoner's Lad', 'Henry Martin', and the stunning 9 minute long title track. Indeed, 'Jack Orion' may seem like a song with overlong verbiage but it is a long detailed Shakespearian-like drama that rewards close listening as the lyrics deal with deceit, betrayal, revenge, murder and suicide. All the key musical and lyrical elements that would soon find its way into the Pentangle's sound and make the band so great and so unique. Other album highlights include an instrumental acoustic reading of Ewan MacColl's 'The First Time Ever I saw Your Face' and Jansch's seminal adaption of the evergreen traditional song 'Blackwater Side'. Jansch's vocals are still a little on the rip-shod side, but better then those found on It Don't Bother Me. 3.5 stars rounded off to 4.

If an album could be described as suffering the dreaded 'sophomore blues' its this follow up album to Bert Jansch's legendary debut. Sporting better production values but not better material, It Don't Bother Me seems a rushed affair and probably was at the time it was recorded and released. After all, who knew that Jansch's eponymous debut would be so popular in the British folk circles of the mid 1960s. Overall, the songs have a less polished sloppy presentation, especially on Bert's rough-hewn vocals.

Songs that stand out on It Don't Bother Me are 'Anti Apartheid', "Harvest Your Thoughts Of Love' and the album's dark and moody title track. John Renbourn guests on the wonderful instrumental 'Lucky Thirteen' while Jansch does a solo on the cyclical sounding instrumental titled 'The Wheel'.

It Don't Bother Me is by no means a bad album, it just doesn't improve on Jansch's debut. That would come pass on Jansch's third solo offering coming up quickly titled Jack Orion and, of course, with the debut album of the Pentangle that followed close behind. 3 stars.

Another wonderful and necessary record to accompany listening to the early Pentangle canon is this 'folk baroque' classic collaboration by Bert Jansch and John Renbourn that is a powerhouse recording of mostly titillating and jaw dropping instrumentals that runs the gamut of Arabic scales raga (East Wind) to psychic call and response playing on blues, jazz, Elizabethan styled songs (Piano Tune, Good Bye Pork Pie Hat, Orlando)and exciting self penned songs that show off the duo's virtuoso playing chops (Tic-Tocative, No Exit and Stepping Stones). The record also contains two songs that were sung numbers by Jansch, the dark and brooding 'Soho' and the Anne Briggs penned 'The Time Has Come'. 'Soho' is an instant classic while 'The Time Has Come' is less successful and would be reinterpreted by The Pentangle a few years later with greater success. Indeed, The Pentangle would also remake 'Pork Pie Hat' and 'No Exit' on their second album Sweet Child and comparing the development of these songs is part of the fun for Pentangle aficionados.

The Castle remaster sports the best sound ever heard for this recording and is, as usual, graced with detailed liner notes by noted Jansch biographer Colin Harper and also sports some never before seen pics of our heroes. If you've run out of early Pentangle albums to savor, then this disc is the place to fill that void. 5 Stars.

Beyond the hype, music, sweet music.

It's easy to place Bert Jansch's and his Pentangle partner John Renbourn's early solo albums as a type of addendum to their Pentangle canon. A type of unofficial 'immersion' material, if you will, as many of the 'folk baroque' trademarks that the duo pioneered presage the trademark Pentangle sound as well as posting a crossover of solo songs onto later Pentangle albums where fans can track their development.

However, Jansch's first solo album, while being hailed as a British folk rock icon, goes well beyond that. To put it simply, beyond it's ground breaking fill of self penned songs and dexterous guitar instrumentals, the music and voice of the man soars to a height that Jansch rarely bettered in his entire recorded lifetime. That's mainly because Jansch was so well versed in this material, probably for years, before they were immortalized in black vinyl. When the album starts with the bucolic 'Strolling Down The Highway' not only is this beautiful song sung pitch perfect, but every slight and secondary guitar note was meticulously thought out and accompanies the song's dominant chords and melodies in a way that makes the music always sound so much more than just a man recorded with a single acoustic guitar. Jansch's oft celebrated song for a passed friend 'Needle of Death' with it's heart tugging lyric seems to have all the sweep and grandeur of an orchestra that simply isn't there. But Jansch makes you think it, feel it and believe it. And this, along with his definitive ligatos, pull offs, slurs, string pulls and all other tricks that are hard to define by his slight of playing hand , as on the Davy Graham instrumental standard 'Angi', not only made Jansch a musician's musician, it put him into a category of British folk artist that was heretofore unknown.

But again, aside form the accolades of Jansch's solo debut, it's the music that delivers more than 50 years since it was first recorded. And with that, it really deserves more accolades than just being an addendum to a folk rock super group. 4.5 stars rounded up 5.