THE HERMIT

Speaking of guitarists' guitarists, which I did vis a vis BERT JANSCH some time back, up until "The Hermit" in 1976, JOHN RENBOURN had avoided such branding on my part, at least as a solo or duo artist. Yes I use the term with a pejorative bias, not because there is anything wrong with virtuosity per se, but that at times it seems to be played to incite idolatry or at least appreciation by those who know more than a few chords. For the rest of us, we can probably discern the talent, particularly when the playing is sped up to 1.2 or so, even without electronic assistance, and thus appreciate it. Like it? Minimally yes, certainly as background music that doesn't exasperate. Love it, let alone connect emotionally to it? Not even in my little toe.

"The Hermit" boasts only eminences from one or two acoustic guitars, Renbourn's and an invited guest. The playing is crisp, with some variety as in the presence of several O'Carolan tunes obviously written for harp and a good old fashioned ragtime number, but for all that, none sound more distinguishable from the other than exquisitely cubed tofu. I suppose Renbourn needed to get the PENTANGLE breakup of 1972 off his chest and chose this format, yet the ghosts of PENTANGLE have infiltrated every antiseptic groove.

This must surely be the only LP in history that remains hermetically sealed even when cracked open, and, since I cannot recommend any individual tracks (ok, if push comes to shove, "Caroline's Tune") and find no meaningful cohesion here, I can't round up. 2.5 stars.

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