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"John Renbourn's Ship Of
Fools"
(Transatlantic,
'1988')
Searching
For Lambs/Sandwood Down To Kyle/Bogey's Bonnie Belle/Lark In Clean Air/The Martinmass
Wind/Cobbler's Jig-Maltese Brawl/I Live Not Where I Love/The Verdant Braes Of
Screen/Traveller's Prayer
"I am your captain, sir - I go
where no man dare go"
Renbourn
went back in time even more than normal for the title of his album and band:
Ancient Greece. It was Plato who first coined the metaphor of a 'ship of
fools', meaning a group of people adrift without a proper leader, although
knowing his love of all things Medieval John probably discovered the phrase
through the paintings by Sebastian Brant (from whose work the album cover is
taken). At first this wasn't meant to be an album or even a proper band, but
John was invited to perform a set for an outdoor festival in Central park and
figured he needed some amplification. The friends who took up John's invitation
included old hands from his solo and 'Group' days such as Tony Roberts, Steve
Tilston and Maggie Boyle, who all had their interests in John's favourite era
of music. The concerts were well received and led to a tour, which was also
well received and led to this album which features the usual mixture of
traditional tunes from the Middle Ages along with three new John originals. Though
Maggie Boyle is no Jacqui McShee, she is thank goodness a Maggie Boyle -
another one of a kind singer with a delightful warm and velvet tone that coats
an iron fist, closer in style to Maddy Prior or Linda Thompson than Jacqui's
purer style. She's a good fit for these songs as is the rest of the band.
The
fuller band sound makes it one of John's more interesting and unusual albums,
with a sound quite unlike his usual guitar-based albums and with its more
traditional players doesn't sound like the folkier John Renbourn Group either.
At times this is to the album's benefit: 'Searching For Lambs' works well with
four contrapuntal parts weaving around each other with the vocals on top, while
'I Live Not Where I Love', a very 1960s ballad about loss despite written
closer to 1460, is one of John's prettier arrangements. And at other times its
the loss: John's playing is hard to hear under so many extras and at times he
really takes a back seat to everything else going on, which just makes this
another exercise in re-creating old music without the usual Renbourn magic
('Lark In The Clear' for instance is mainly a flute solo without the song).
What pushes this album over the edge into being one of the better albums of
Renbourn's career is the emphasis on actual songs for a change rather than just
instrumentals.
The
title track, for instance, is a poetic take on the old story about a rudderless
craft, more interested in description than allegory ('Rainbow colours that
befell from stem to stern entrances me so'). John's regular 'Traveller's
Prayer' also makes the first of several appearances, here as a pure Madrigal
sung by four voices which is a hymn to the moon that's very atmospheric,
praying for salvation and help for those suffering a lonely night in distress
(it's an insomniac classic!) 'The Martinmass Wind' (celebrating a pagan day
dedicated to the coming of winter, held on November 11th) is a much overlooked
song too, a gorgeous song about loneliness and wishing you were home, the
narrator fearing their love is broken by the geographical distance between when
a tree snaps from under them. Though the more traditional songs aren't quite up
to this high standard, the three new songs alone make this one of Renbourn's
most interesting albums, perhaps his best of the post-Pentangle records. Far
from being a ship of fools, Renbourn has rarely been surrounded by players this
good and this is perhaps his greatest band following Pentangle. A shame there
wasn't a sequel.
Bert
Jansch/Rod Clements "Leather Laundrette"
(Black Crow Records, March 1989)
Strolling Down The Highway/Sweet
Rosie/Brafferton/Ain't No More Cane/Why Me?//Sundown Station/Knight's
Move/Brownsville/Bogie's Bonnie Belle/Leather Laundrette/Been On The Road So
Long
"Don'[t
say goodbye because you know that I'm just a stranger, blown about by the
wind"
Bert and Rod resumed their
friendship in time for this loikeable if rather anonymous set of pure folk,
with Clements getting co-billing this time though it's still very much Bert's
show. Rod wrote one of the album's better tracks, 'Sundown Station', which will
go on to be one of the highlights of Lindisfarne's 'unplugged' phase - a sweet
song about being restless and moving on even though the life is hard (it's kind
of a prologue to 'Winter Song', a hobo leaving the cares of the world behind
without quite realsiing what he's in for yet). He also co-wrote two tracks with
Bert, the rather oddball title track and the rather lovely instrumental
'Knight's Move' as well as arranbging a couple of folk songs. Rod also enlists
the help of Lindisfarne singer Marty Craggs, who adds some nice harmonies to
many of the songs. It's nice to hear Rod playing acoustic and this album will
prove a major stepping stone in Rod's decision to take the band in this
direction in a few years, although it's a bit of an inconsistent record without
reaching the peaks of either man during the best of their careers. Matters
probably wereb't helped by Bert's admission years later that this was the
period when he gave up drinking - and
became so crabby that only true friends like Rod had the patience to work with
him! You can tell that he's not at his best, although there are sparks of his
previous form still there and Rod isn't quite in the strong position to help
him out yet. Still the album is far from a failure and includes plenty of
interesting things from both men. It's a shame that the duo didn't do more
together as they clearly had a rapport and it would have been great to see Bert
and Rod at their peak working together. Bert stayed friends with Rod though and
for a short time Clements was even in the reformed Pentangle (with Bert and
vocalist Jacqui McShee the only founder members) before his Lindisfarne
commitments got in the way - apart from his occaisonal trademark customary
melodic adventurous bass, though, there's no real sign of Rod on the only album
they made together, though, 'So Early In The Spring' (released later the same
year) and Rod doesn't get any writing credits on the album.
"So Early In The Spring"
(Green
Linnet, '1989')
Eminstra/So
Early In The Spring/The Blacksmith/Reynardine/Lucky Black Cat//Bramble
Briar/Lassie Gathering Nuts/Gaea/The Baron O'Brackley
"There's grief in the kitchen -
but there's mirth in the hall"
'So
Early In The Spring' is easily the best of the Pentangle reunion records.
Admittedly it's still nowhere close to even the weakest of the 'original' six
and there isn't exactly much competition from the other four latter-day albums,
but 'Spring' is the one that comes closest to doing what the reformed Pentangle
set out to do - sound like their old selves using more modern technology. It's
not that this record does anything special the others don't do - it's very much
a folk album with a pop setting, with six of the nine songs old folk standards
rather than originals, and lacks even
the blues and jazz influences of its predecessors, but the songs are stronger,
the performances are brighter and more enthusiastic while - for the most part -
the 1980s production values don't get in the way too much. That's all the
stranger given that this album features less Pentangling than the other two
albums - John left before 'Open The Door', Danny soon after and now Terry has
jumped ship following the sessions for 'In The Round'. Thankfully Bert was able
to coerce his new mate Rod Clements (the bassist in Lindisfarne) to fill the
vacant guitar seat for one album only and their instant rapport with each other
(already heard on their shared 'Leather Laundrette' album from a year before)
is one of the things that makes this album so special. Jacqui too is having a
great album: the title track, already recorded a capella for 'Sweet Child', is
one of her best performances and Scottish folk song 'Lassie Gathering Nuts' isn't far behind. The
closer 'The Baron O'Brackley' is also the single most ambitious thing Pentangle
have done since the 'Reflection' LP, clocking in at eight action-packed
minutes. Only a slight sense of being
rooted in time - this sounds very much like a late 1980s album, full of booming
drums and echoey synths - rather than the timelessness of old prevents this one
matching old triumphs; the album cover too, of an origami sailor's hat adrift
on an ocean is puzzling too, even for a band who were never that hot on album
covers. Even so, it's arguably the best thing released under the Pentangle name
since 'Solomon's Seal' twenty years earlier. 'Springtime promise' finally
fulfilled!
'Eminstra'
is, though, not the best place to start - an instrumental credited to all the
band, it floats around without really going anywhere and sounds more like
period Clannad than anything by Pentangle, with its irritating synth-panpipes
and some incredibly distracting drumming from Gerry Conway (who seems to be
playing a different song entirely for most of the four minutes).
The
single best song of the reunion years is the re-make of 'So Early In The Spring', turned from cute a
capella lament into a classy pop song that features Jacqui in the male role, a
sailor who runs from the sea back home to spy on his family to find the girl he
loves has betrayed him. Great as the a capella rendition was, this full band
version is better yet, with some fantastic double duty flute and bass playing
by Portman Smith and some Conway drums that prevents this gorgeously slow song
from becoming too sleepy. This is exactly what all the Pentangle reunion albums
should have been like and the ghostly
effects on Jacqui's voice turn her into a 'ghost'. Highly effective.
'The Blacksmith' is another oft-covered folk song, one which was first
incorporated by Vaughan Williams in 1909 (though it's likely much older - he
learnt it from a Hertfordshire housewife who'd had the song passed down in her
family through generations but had never written it down). Pentangle's take on
the ignoble man in the noble trade of yesteryear is rather noisy but still
nicely handled.
'Reynardine'
was one of Bert's favourite folk songs, first recorded by him on 1971's
'Rosemary Lane' album. It always sounded like a song that would have been good
in Pentangle's hand and so it proves, with Bert and Jacqui swapping verses over
another very poppy backing. Bert's original, full ofg mystery rather than
commercialism, still beats it in every
way, but this isn't bad by any means.
'Lucky Black Cat' is credited to the whole band but sounds suspiciously like a
solo Bert song, a typically Pentangle tale of all sorts of bad omens conspiring
against the narrator, most memorable for Rod's sly blues solo.
'Bramble Briar' is the original version of 'Bruton Town' before Pentangle
modified it and cut it down to size. Alas what made the original so memorable
(the rhythm section absolutely nailing the tricky stop-start time structure and
the elongated guitar runs) have been replaced by a very wordy piece that
doesn't pause for breath for a second. The anonymous production also feature
synth lines darting in and out, as if trying to cover the fact that the band
aren't quite as on top of this song as they were a quarter century earlier.
Perhaps the album's weakest track.
The
charming 'Lassie Gathering
Nuts' is prime Pentangle though: that guitar, that bass, those vocals on
a sweet Scottish tale that uses the metaphor of a maiden preparing for a cruel
dark winter for a girl making the most of a short time of happiness before the
barren years kick in. This album is particularly strong on melodies and
'Lassie' along with the title track shows that off like never before - Jacqui
was born to sing these lovely slow meandering folk tunes.
'Gaea' is the
third and final Pentangle original on the album, a curious slow shuffle sea
shanty based around the idea of 'utopia' ('Gaea' is the Earth in ancient Greek
myths - as in many folk songs using variations on the name the twists is that
Earth turns out to be the paradise all along).
It's nice to hear a bit of jazz back in the Pentangle sound, but this
one isn't quite memorable enough to compete with the best songs on the album.
'The Baron Of Brackley' is a folk song from Norfolk, though set in the borderland
between England and Scotland. It's the tale of two clans who spent so long
fighting against themselves they let their common enemy of the English get away
with murder - quite literally - with their squabble still not solved after
their own deaths. Pentangle cope well on an epic song that keeps chopping and
changing and while a little too sloppy to match their previous high standards
it's great to hear the modern Pentangle at least have a go at telling a
long-form story rather than a ditty. As usual with Pentangle, the solos are the
best with Bert and Rod egging each other on nicely, while Jacqui tries to keep
control of proceedings.
Overall,
then, hope springs eternal that Pentangle had finally got things 'right' with
'So Early In The Spring' and that - though far from perfect - there was enough
skill shown here to bode well for any future Pentangle album. After two
'nearly' albums playing around with the band's sound, it seemed as if the
reunion Pentangle had finally worked out how to update their sound whilst still
sounding like themselves. Alas, though, the drive and hunger heard on the best parts
of this album won't last, while the lesser moments - the 1980s production
values and the slightly slow tempos that keep cropping up across this record -
will become the template for future albums. Any Pentangle album that has so
little space for Bert Jansch can never be a five-star classic, but luckily
Jacqui is on top form and if you're willing to accept that the truly great days
are over and buried, then there's enough here to make you grateful that
Pentangle at least tried to have another go.
John Renbourn's "A Medieval
Almanack"
(Demon
Records, '1989')
The
Earle Of Salisbury/Trotto-Saltarello/Veri Floris-Triple Ballade/Bransle
Gay-Bransle De Bourgogne/Alman-Melancholy Galliard/Westeron Wynde/Lamento De
Tristan-La Rotta/Sarabande/Shaeffertanz/Lady Nothing's Toye Puffe/Lady Goes To
Church/The Lady and The Unicorn/The Princess and the Puddings/Pavanna/A
Toye/Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home
"Forsooth! This is verily a bolde
concept - an authentic step back into the past without even a hey nonny
nonny!"
Fan who
think Renbourn sounds best when he's holding a lute and dressed as a Medieval
knight will appreciate this compilation the most, which does a pretty good job
at selecting the most authentically Medieval moments from his back catalogue.
The album is impressively long - long enough to fit in a quick banquet anyway -
and will make for an excellent soundtrack the next time your nephews and nieces
are round and want to make-believe at re-creating Camelot. Renbourn's passion
for his subject matter shines throughout and anyone who equates Madrigals with
magical should go here straight away. For the rest of us, though, this is
rather a heavy going record which feels a little like being given a lecture
without all those fun asides in the present day or having fun with different
genres to brighten up the mood. The fifteenth century may in fact seem to play
out in real time if you're not careful, so do be warned. It's all up to your
taste really, but all you'll know for sure is that you're an awful long way from
the genre-bending fun of the Pentangle days.
Danny Thompson "Whatever
Next"
(Antilles,
'1989')
Dargai/Hopdance/Invitation
To The Dance-The Dance/Beanpole/Wild Finger/A Full English
Basket/Fanfare-Basket Of Eggs/Sandansko Oro/Take It Off The Top/Major Escape
"Whatever happened to yesterday?
Though all my friends say don't look back..."
What
next for the Pentangle double-bassist? More of the same, with an intriguing mix
of the traditional and space age across this album (Danny is seen on the cover
in a smart tuxedo and an old fashioned instrument being teleported into space!
Either that or there are an awful lot of coffee rings on my copy, because
that's what the teleport looks like!) The songs are a Pentangle-like mixture of
new forward thinking originals and backwards glancing traditional folk tunes,
with an emphasis on the jazz side of Pentangle's multi-layered sound. That
sound is summed up in a very different way to Pentangle, though, with a
combination of saxophones, uillean pipes, guitar and double bass - for once there are no drums, the rhythm
coming from Danny's bass whoops and swoops. The most effective of these songs
are three new pieces that all pay tribute to a different friend or colleague,
each undergoing difficulties in the late 80s. Though we don't know who the
'Sylvie' is that Danny wrote 'Beanpole' for, 'Wildfinger' is the kind of
pastoral-folk-with-a-sting that dedicatee John Martyn would have been proud to
write and 'Take It Off The Top' was written for Jo Lustig, the man who more
than anyone else had helped Pentangle in their early career and suggested the
distinctive sleeve for their first LP. The album doesn't quite work as well as
the first, with the 'Whatever' band a bit more settled and cosy in their roles
and there are perhaps a few too many traditional folk tunes with an emphasis on
dancing - not as interesting or as relevant to the modern day as folk tunes
about characters and situations that still go on somehow. Still, this is a well
played album with several excellent moments
- Danny's new material especially - and it's a shame this album too
became so hard to track down when the French record label went bust at the
start of the new decade. The old folk song 'Basket Of Eggs' (first set to music
by Vaughan Williams) is arguably the highlight though and especially the sort
of folk-song-with-a-twist Pentangle do so well (a pair of robbers think they've
been clever taking a basket of eggs for a girl who can't carry them - they're
shocked to find they've been duped into carrying off her unwanted baby, to whom
one of them is the father!)
Bert
Jansch "Sketches"
(Hypertension, November 1990)
Ring-A-Ding Bird/One For Jo/Poison/The
Old Routine/Needle Of Death/Oh My Father/Running Running From
Home/Afterwards/Can't Hide Love/Moonshine/A Woman Like You/A Windy Day/As The
Day Grows Longer Now
"The
passing image of you reflects a pain in my heart and disappears in the
crowd"
I've
never really understood why an artist as prolific as Bert feels the need to
re-record his older songs so many times across so many LPs. It's not as if he
does them that differently - the originals and re-recordings both are almost
always acoustic and solo and Bert suffered from overbearing productions full of unsuitable period sounds less than
most of his peers I would have said. As a result 'Sketches' - an entire album
of re-recordings - is a generous but generally pointless albums: many of these
songs were already perfect the first time round; having them near-perfect when
you could simply listen to the originals seems odd to me and only detracts from
the album of new material Bert had out the very same month! Take 'Needle Of
Death' - what was once the intense fear and sorrow of the needless death of a
close friend has been reduced by so many repeat performances over the years to
a showstopper, while Pentangle's 'A Woman Like You' has been shaped into a
comfortable picture, rather than the gloriously unhinged abstract mess of the
'Sweet Child' original. While the track listing is about two-thirds of the way
there for the songs worth re-hearing from Bert's canon, there are some
confusing songs: I'm not sure anyone heard 'Ring A Ding Bird' and thought 'gee,
I wish Bert would get to re-recording this one sometime!' That said, Bert is
too good to make this album completely pointless. 'Poison' benefits from some
extra bass rumble as Bert goes manic on an electric as well as acoustic. 'Running From Home' works well in its slower,
sadder setting and is such a strong song even The Spice Girls could do it
without ruining it (maybe).Danny guests on bass on a handful of tracks too,
giving a special insight into what these solo songs might have sounded like as
a 'Pentangle' product. This still feels like a lost opportunity though: sadly
there's little here from the two most over-produced of Bert's albums - 'Nicola'
and 'Moonshine' - which might have sounded good done in the same 'sparse'
acoustic way of the rest of Bert's discography (certainly judging by the title
track of the last LP featured here).It's all good stuff and all worth another
hearing, but there's less reason for this album to exist than any other in the
Bert catalogue - I'd come back here at the end when you've collected everything
else and your heart still yearns for more Jansch, rather than early on when
these roads are all new and spark with the glow of a newly written discovery.
Bert
Jansch "The Ornament Tree"
(Run River, November 1990)
The Ornament Tree/The Banks
O'Sicily/The Rambling Boys Of Pleasure/The Rocky Road To Dublin/Three
Dreamers/The Mountain Streams/The Blackbirds Of Mullamore/Lady Fair/The Road
Tae Dundee/Tramps and Hawkers/The January Man/Dobbins Flowery Vale
"Our
lives lay scattered, still yet to be born"
Released
more or less back-to-back with 'Sketches', 'Ornament Tree' is an album of folk
songs that carries on from the last few Pentangle reunion albums, predominantly
concerned with Irish sounds and stories. On the plus side Bert has gone back to
appearing more or less solo again, occasionally enhanced by tin whistles and
fiddles that add to the Celtic feel. On the negative side, this album still has
a peculiar production 'sound' to it which somehow still manages to sound very
much of its time despite hardly ever featuring more sounds than a guitar and
vocals. Play it back to back with the 1960s albums recorded simply in Bert's
kitchen, though, and it's clear that something has changed making this album a
very feathery, slightly over-slick LP. Bert seems to have suddenly lost
confidence in his songwriting in this period and is busy saving all his best
work for the band, with this the second album in a row not to feature any new
compositions. Admittedly there's more point to 'Tree' than 'Sketches' as at least
these traditional folk songs are ones we haven't heard Bert do before and,
suitably given the title, feature Bert's Celtic roots showing. However, it's
also safe to say that Bert is long past the solo days where he can astound just
with his guitar playing or the Pentangle days when he can re-arrange a song and
take it somewhere excitingly new yet remarkably in keeping with the original.
By contrast this is just a slow-paced folk album that sounds a bit like every
other slow-paced folk albums; better performed than most admittedly but like
'Sketches' lacking that certain creative spark. There are, as always,
highlights: the charming instrumental jig 'The Rocky Road To Dublin' is
impressively authentic sounding, Renbourn would or should have been very jealous
of the authentically Medieval instrumental 'Ladyfair' and the re-make of
'January Man' (from 1973's Moonshine - why wasn't it on 'Sketches'?! 'Three
Dreamers' is also here, repeated from 'A Rare Conundrum') still can't ruin a
good song no matter how many period effects are added on top. However these are
slight rewards for an artist of Bert's calibre and along with 'Sketches' makes
for easily his weakest album. Which begs the question why Bert was so desperate
to record in this period when he didn't quite yet have the material to make an
album with?
Danny Thompson and Whatever Next
"Elemental"
(Island,
'1990')
Beirut/Searchin'/Fair
Isle Friends/Women In War//Musing Mingus/Freedom/Dance/ Thanksgiving
"Whatever gets you through the
night..."
Danny's
third solo record is more of the same, with a touch more brass this time around,
this time written for a film soundtrack although that doesn't make much
difference to the overall sound. The 'Whatever Next' band now includes Paul
Dunmall on saxophone and guitarist John
Etheridge which puts this album even further down the road to modern
jazz, although it has to be said that of all of Danny's albums this is also the
closest to Renbourn's natural style - authentic Medieval pieces played more or
less as they would have been at the time, just with a saxophone solo and lots
of jazz guitar! There's yet another tribute to Charlie Mingus here too, while
the second side isn't quite up to the first with the rather generic titles
'Freedom' and 'Dance' pointing to how low some of the original instrumentals
are heading. The first side, however, is still very much full of life with
'Beirut' in particular one of the better hybrids of cool jazz and even cooler
sixteenth century folk. I must confess I've never seen the film and can' even
find reference to what it's about, but judging by the soundtrack record it
includes a lot of dancing and friends begging forgiveness. My guess is the band
got halfway through the record when they got the commission and finished off
the record in a bit of a hurry to fit to the soundtrack - the two halves don't
seem as they fit to my ears. Get it if you liked the other two - but I'd start
there first if you have the choice.
"Think Of Tomorrow"
(Hypertension,
October 1991)
O'er
The Lonely Mountain/Baby Now It's Over/Share A Dream/Storyteller (Paddy's
Song)/Meat On The Bone/Ever Yes Ever No/Straight Ahead/Toss Of Golden Hair/Lark
In The Clear Air/Bonny Boy/Colour My Paintbook
"It's so hard to bear when a
hungry mouth cries for more"
So far
our discussion of the Pentangle reunion albums have revolved around the idea
that they've been largely the same, but lacking something and usually with some
other new ingredient added to the mixture that doesn't quite fit. None of them
are that bad - it's just that compared to the glory days none of them are that
good either. 'Think Of Tomorrow' is the one reunion album that you can easily
imagine the 'old' Pentangle making: it's almost all traditional folk songs with
a bit of a twist and there's lots of Bert and Jacqui (which is just as well,
given as they're the only original members left by now) who really spark off
each across each other across this album, with her purity against her gruffness
on several shared tracks exactly what Pentangle should have been doing years
hence (everyone else is the same, apart from Peter Kirtley replacing Mike
Piggott as the 'second guitarist'). Given that the original Pentangle never
quite decided on what their original sound was anyway, changing it from album
to album, there's a case to be made that 'Think Of Tomorrow' is Pentangle' most
Pentangly album, the one that closest resembles what fans will expect from the
review of their 'updated folk sound' always given in reviews (including our
ones). In many ways it's the album fans had been pleading with Pentangle to
make for a quarter century or so, full of traditional sounding traditional folk
tunes and some glorious new Bert Jansch compositions.
So why
does it all fall slightly flat, with even less memorable moments than the
previous inconsistent reunion CDs? Well, there's a case to be made that the
'other' Pentangle sound always involved pushing back the envelope and trying to
things that had never been done before, even if what that was changed from
album to album. Even the reunion albums have tried to do something off-kilter
every few tracks, as if searching for a new sound that never quite came.
Ironically given the title, 'Think Of Tomorrow' is the first Pentangle album to
always be looking over its shoulder and that never tries to challenge your idea
of what a Pentangle album should be. Now that approach isn't necessarily bad.
Pentangle may have been slightly ramshackle in their early days, but by now
they're a streamlined unit good at conveying emotion in a contemporary setting
and there's nothing here that's weak for once. However, by the same token,
there's no magic track that makes you wonder 'where did that come from?' as the
band suddenly add jazz/blues/psychedelia/pop or start using banjos, sitars and
fifteenth century baroque instruments. There's nothing here you can't get from
any other leading folk-rock band of the era, which is a tragedy - but Pentangle
also do this sort of thing better than most anyone still, which is a triumph.
No
reviewers seem to agree about whether 'Think Of Tomorrow' is the only Pentangle
reunion album that works or the only one that doesn't. To be honest, it's
somewhere around the middle, lacking the charm of 'Open The Door' or the
sophistication of 'So Early In The Spring, but it makes less mistakes than 'In
The Round' or 'One More Road'. Is it an essential purchase? Not really. Is it
an abomination unworthy of the Pentangle name? No, it's not really that either.
Even the cover seems to split fans with it's plain computer-generated image of
the Earth overlaid with a distinctive new five-star logo for the modern age:
like the record it's very like everything else around at the time, though done
slightly better than most, without having the distinctiveness of earlier
Pentangle covers and logos. In short, 'Thinks Of Tomorrow' may well be the only
album (with 'Basket Of Light' the honourable exception) where you won't
secretly consider using the 'skip' button on first hearing - but also the only
one you won't remember at all after the record stops playing. The album was
recorded in Hamburg, by the way, but you wouldn't know that from the contents
which are all originals or English and Irish folk songs as usual (particularly
Irish - this is the most Irish album Pentangle ever made together, though it
was probably inspired by Bert's own period discovery of Celtic music).
The
album highlight by far is the opening folk song 'O'er The Lonely Mountains' which starts as the
purest Jacqui ballad imaginable (complete with pan pipes and flutes) before
taking a left turn and turning into a shadowy Bert Jansch style number full of
howling guitar parts and a pretty good attempt at recapturing the aggression of
Danny Thompson's bass. The two parts fit far better than they should and new
boy Peter Kirtley's electric guitar is already stealing the show.
Bert's 'Baby Now It's Over' finds
him at last coming to terms with his second marriage, which has been haunting
him rather across the Pentangle reunion years. Now that the fighting is a
distant memory, he can remember the good times as well, promising to 'think of
tomorrow and pick up the pieces' and Bert even promises to visit again once his
broken heart is finally fixed by time. Of course, this being a Bert song it
doesn't sound like a happy go lucky song of forgiveness but a dour song of doom
and gloom.
'Share A Dream' sounds like one of those Eurovision torch ballads that everybody
likes but not enough to actually vote for. Jacqui's warm voice makes Maddy
Prior sound like an amateur, but the lyrics are second-rate (the wind and sea
comfort each other in their loneliness by playing a tune) and the production is
so 1980s it practically comes with shoulder pads. And when a band who usually
come dressed in baroque finery or Camelot armour start wearing musical shoulder
pads, you know something's gone badly wrong.
'The Storyteller' sounds as if it dates back a thousand years at least, a sweet
tale of an Irish folk singer passing through towns singing towns and spreading
stories, although it's another period Pentangle original credited to the whole
group. Though it sounds as anonymous as all the other songs on here on first
hearing, repeated listenings reveal this as the quiet highlight of the album,
with a gorgeous rustic melody beautifully sung by Jacqui again and a clever
Irish tin whistle riff that merrily dances around the song without a care in
the world. Recorded at the peak of Ireland being the coolest place on Earth
(thanks to multiple wins at Eurovision), had this been released as a single it
would surely have been a hit - alas record label Hypertension went with 'Colour
My Paintbook' instead.
Peter
Kirtley's blues song 'Meat On
The Bone' is certainly the oddest song on the record and the only that's
really trying to do something out the usual. Except that Pentangle did better
blues songs than this in years gone by and Peter's deep growl is too like
Bert's (though not quite as good) to stand out. This is another track that gets
better the more you hear it, though, and any song that rhymes 'sin' with 'gin'
is surely Pentanglish however odd the song ended up becoming.
The
pretty 'Ever Yes, Ever No'
is Jacqui as another of her maidens keeping her options pen, stuck at a
crossroad and unsure which path to take. Unfortunately there's no resolution in
this song which just sits there repeating it's nursery rhyme melody over and
over - all apart from a glorious and all too brief middle eight that features
Jacqui growling more like Bert and more Pentangle bird references (sparrows
this time).
'Straight Ahead' is a funky guitar jam that would have sounded pretty good had it
been recorded a few years before, but somehow the tacky wordless treated vocals
and the very early 1990s drum sound ruin what might have been an interesting
instrumental.
Traditional
song 'Toss Of Golden Hair'
is so Pentangle it hurts, with a charming synth part (see, they can be a
blessing not a burden when used the right way) with Jacqui a maiden who meets a
man with a dying wife who offers to, err, take his mind off things, 'the truest
love I have ever found'.
'The Lark In The Clear Air' is another breathy folk song but one that's a little more
anonymous with Pentangle getting a bit too classical for their own good here.
Sir Samuel Ferguson wrote the song around 1850 and it 'should' be sung by a man
being bewitched by a female skylark, although that's not what Jacqui vocal
hints at here.
Another
traditional song is 'Bonny
Boy', although it's English despite the similarities to 'Danny Boy' in
title and tune. Vaughan Williams recorded the most famous version as part of
his very Pentanglish 'Folk Song Suite' though its more in keeping with
Pentangle's style and recalls 'The Trees They Do Grow High' with Jacqui as the
older wife waiting for her betrothed to grow up.
The
album ends with the pop nonsense of 'Colour My Paintbook', a song curiously listed out of order in the
lyric booklet (did the order get changed at the last moment?) Jacqui wants a
bedtime story, a splash of colour and a rainbow in her life - she must be very
difficult to buy Christmas presents for. Though the most famous moment on the
album thanks to being released as a rare single from this period of Pentangle,
it's one of the weakest things here and sadly points the way to the noisier
emptier songs of the later Pentangle records.
Overall,
though 'Think Of Tomorrow' isn't too bad - it's just not that great either. Of
all the albums the original Pentangle did this one most recalls 'Reflection' -
a little bit of everything but not enough, with a similar packaging involving
the band at work, rest and play. The difference is back then Pentangle could
afford to have the odd lacklustre album because they were still so inventive -
this album runs out of ideas early one and seems to be going through the
motions just to get an LP out without any of the old drive or hunger. That
said, this band are too talented to get it all wrong and there are some very
lovely moments across this record. When you think of Pentangle albums to play
almost no one thinks of 'Think Of Tomorrow', but it's an album that deserves
it's three Pentangle stars at least.
"People
On The Highway"
(Demon, '1992')
Pentangling/Travelling Song/In
Time/Bells/Way Behind The Sun/Waltz/The Time Has Come/Sweet Child/Moon Dog/I
Saw An Angel/Light Flight/Sally Go Round The Roses/Train Song/Once I Had A
Sweetheart/Wedding Dress/Helping Hand/Rain and Snow/When I Get Home/Cold
Mountain
"I've
wondered down your lonesome highways, I've chased the stars most of my
days"
A British-only compilation that's impressively
thorough, this nineteen track set features a large helping from all five of
Pentangle's original albums for Transatlantic all in the right chronological
order (well, apart from B-side 'Cold Mountain' tacked on the end) and by and
large everything you could want to own (though 'Let No Man Steal Your Thyme'
'The Trees They Do Grow High' and 'Lyke Wake Dirge' are all conspicuous by
their absence). However there's one curious fact about this LP: because
'Solomon's Seal' came out on Warner Brothers none of those songs were available
for use on this compilation - including the title track. Which must have left
all of Pentangle's new fans who picked this album up out of curiosity really
scratching their heads over the name. It's still as good an attempt as any to
sum up the band's early years, though, with a nicely eclectic mix featuring
pretty much all their many extremes of style.
"Early Classics"
(Shanachie,
'1992')
Let
No Man Steal Your Thyme/Mirage/Train Song/In Time/The Trees They Do Grow
High/Lyke Wake Dirge/A Woman Like You/Once I Had A Sweetheart/Springtime
Promises/Hunting Song/Pentangling/Bruton Town/No More My Lord/House Carpenter
"The springtime promises all came
true!"
The cover proudly boasts that this is a 'double
album at a single album price', the specially colour tinted sleeve makes
Pentangle look like the Addams Family (honestly: Terry in shades is a vampire,
Jacqui's a banshee, Danny has the look of a zombie and Bert with his sprouting
hair - so like my own before you think I'm being rude - is clearly halfway into
becoming a werewolf, while all four have their arms on a worried John's
shoulders, looking every bit the victim) and the track listing is blindingly
obvious, but as one stop Pentangle shops go this is about the best 'single
CD/double vinyl' group compilations around. The songs are all chosen from the
better received first three albums, which might be why this set is called
'Early Classics' - or it might just be so that contemporary fans didn't think
they were buying an album by the current 'reunion' band. One oddity though:
this must surely be the only Pentangle compilation not to include their biggest
song (their only real hit song) 'Light Flight'. What happened?!
"Anniversary"
(Hypertension,
'1992')
Play
The Game/Reynardine/Dragonfly/Share A Dream/So Early In The Spring/Can't Find
Love (Jansch)/Mother Earth/Colour My Paint Book (Jansch)/Ever Yes and Ever No
(Jansch)/Bonny Portmore (Jansch)/The Trees They Grow So High
(McShee/Renbourn)/Willie O'Winsbury (McShee/Renbourn)/Sally Free and Easy/Tell
Me What Is True Love/I've Got A Feeling/Come Sing Me A Happy Song/She Moved
Through The Fair/Straight Ahead/I Won't Ask You Anymore
"They should listen to her singing
sweet songs from all sides"
An interesting
retrospective released for the band's twenty-fifth birthday, which is a useful
way for fans of the 'classic' Pentangle tears to sample the reunion era on a
single disc without having to track down all the many single records. The track
choice is sensible, containing gorgeous tracks like the re-makes of 'So Early
In The Spring' and 'Reynardine' plus the
new cover of 'Mother Earth' that were perhaps the three most successful
recordings from the four Pentangle reunion records. There's also an intriguing
seven song live reunion concert celebrating the life of American folksinger
Derroll Adams, who was enjoying semi-retirement at the time (four songs of
which had been made available on the full various artists tribute concert)
which features Jacqui, Bert, John and Danny, with Peter Kirtley filling in for
Terry Cox (the first time so many members of Pentangle had been in one place
since their 1973 split!) Oddly the best songs are the ones cut from the final
version: A bluesy 'I've Got A Feeling' and a breezy 'Sally Free And Easy'. The
set further entices collectors with two previously unheard studio recordings -
an alternate version of 'Colour My Paint Book'
and 'Come Sing Me A Happy Song', a surprisingly cheerful number for
Pentangle! You could argue that the presence of solo songs from Bert and
especially from Peter are superfluous and that there could be a lot more here
from the reunion albums ('Market Song' and 'Share A Dream', for instance, are
as good as anything on this compilation). You could most certainly make the
case that nothing on this album matches anything but the worst releases by the
original band, who were far more daring and adventurous than this line-up, who
are a little stuck in their ways. However this is still a strong compilation, kindly
rounding up many extra highlights collectors might have missed and making the
reunion years sound an awful lot more interesting than they actually were.
Bert Jansch "The Gardener"
(**,
'1992')
The
Gardener/Alice's Wonderland/Running From Home/Tinker's Blues/It Don't Bother
Me/The Waggoner's Lad/The First Time Ever/Go Your Way My Love/My Lover/Woe Is
Love My Dear/Backwaterslide/Rabbit Run/A Woman Like You (Studio and
Live)/Market Song/Wishing Well/Rosemary Lane/Peregrinations/Poison/Miss Heather
Rosemary Sewell/Reynardine/ Bird Song/When I Get Home/I Am Lonely
"Drawing water from the well,
water spilling on the grass"
I'm not
sure I'd exactly call Bert a 'gardener' (he spent most of his life living in
flats without one) but there sure were a lot of glorious flowers growing in his
imagination. Here are a generous 26 of the best of them on a compilation that's
more expensive but slightly more interesting than the later 'Angie' collection
that's more or less replaced it in the catalogues. The tracks are all taken
from the Transatlantic years and only cover the first five solo albums plus
'Bert and John' plus a (very) small handful of Pentangle recordings. Even so,
there are so many good recordings across those early recordings that this set
has quality just as much as quantity and as a bonus includes the comparatively
rare 'Miss Heather Rosemary Sewell' once included on as Pentangle compilation
too. One minus point though: while pretty much everything else you'd expect is
here there' no 'Needle Of Death', which is the equivalent of including a Simon
and Garfunkel compilation without including 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' or a
Stones set without 'Satisfaction'. That might be because the mood of this
compilation is comparatively upbeat and without the blues songs and trippier
instrumentals sounds more like a straight folk-pop album full of happy songs.
That's a little bit unfair - Bert's imagination wielded as many weeping willows
as it did sunflowers - but as a
beginner's introduction to Bert's solo music it's hard to beat, with all of the
weeds removed for easier listening (not that there were ever that many!)
"One More Road"
(SPV
Records, May 1993)
Travelling
City/Oxford City/Endless Sky/The Lily Of The West/One More Road/High
Germany/Hey Hey Soldier/Willy Of Winsbury/Somali/Manuel/Are You Going To
Scarborough Fair?
"Remember me to one who was
there"
One last
road more like it, with 'Pentangle' as a name bowing out with this record, the
last collaboration between Jacqui and Bert. It is, at least a good place to say
goodbye with the 'new' Pentangle now technically more experienced than the old
had been, lasting eight years compared to six and releasing four records to the
original Pentangle's six. They sound as if they've finally worked out how to
update the Pentangle sound to the then-present day of 80s/early 90s
synthesisers without the production getting in the way of good story-telling
and the band have gone back to choosing superior folk songs that are less
obvious than those picked by other bands, but still with much to say for our
modern age. Though still nowhere near as good as even the last 'proper'
Pentangle album 'Solomon's Seal', there's a sense here that things are turning
for the better which makes it the single most enjoyable Pentangle record since
'Open The Door' eight years earlier.
If
nothing else, this record is a bit more 'bonkers' than the band have been of
late, adding a bit of the playfulness back that's been missing for so long. The
album cover, for instance, features lots of 'flying pullovers' , disrupted by a
giant lightning bolt that flies out of the 'A' in the band's vibrant new logo -
a reference perhaps to critics and and fans who've been asking the band to take
a 'flying jump' into the unknown. The music has become slightly less respectful
too, with Peter Kirtley taking more of a lead with an electric guitar howl
that's quite different to Renbourn's old style, even if most of the songs are
still built up from the usual templates of Bert's trusty acoustic and Jacqui's
trusty voice. Across the album Pentangle have turned even further down the road
to rock, but never at the expense of the folk at the band's core. Bert's songs,
for instance, still sound as gloriously unhinged and unpredictable as ever,
without any trace of modern noise on them and only Kirtley's contributions
sound a little too mainstream (though Jacqui's vocals help soften the blow). In
other circumstances you could call this album a 'stepping stone' back to
greatness and it's certainly an improvement on 'Think Of Tomorrow', with more
memorable moments even if there are a few more mistakes here too (as usual, AAA
albums get more respect from us if they at least try something daring that
doesn't come off, rather than playing things safe all the way through). Only,
of course, this is a farewell which slightly colours how you feel about this
album. Pentangle deserved a bigger 'farewell' than this - the closing standard
'Scarborough Fair' is, for example, the most obvious folk song cover in
Pentangle's history and this dreary slow cover is somewhere in the bottom half
of the hundreds of thousands of cover versions out there to hear. As just
another reunion album, though, this has more going for it than most and
suggests that the Pentangle road may yet have been worth following had the band
continued just that little bit longer.
Opener 'Travelling Solo' is
particularly strong, built around a nicely upright Bert Jansch guitar riff and
with lyrics that fittingly recall Bert's earlier 'farewell' song 'People On The
Highway'. There's a great instrumental that sounds like Dire Straits, with the
keyboards trying to drag the guitarists down as they battle over and over as if
trying to rise over a bump in the road. Jacqui, meanwhile, sounds terrific
caught somewhere between fear of the unknown and delight of possible new
beginnings.
'Oxford City'
is one of the 'newer' folk songs Pentangle covered, possibly dating back only
to 1908. It sounds very in keeping with their usual choices however, about a sailor who falls in love with a girl
but finds her dancing with another man. Poisoning her, he then drinks the foul
potion too so they can die in each other's arms, imagining them both falling
into an open grave. Which only goes to show: there are more murders per square
mile of Pentangle record than in an episode of 'Midsummer Murders', you have
been warned!
Though
credited to the band as a whole, Kirtley is very much the lead on 'Endless Sky', a track that's
a little too middle of the 'One for the Road' for taste. Slow and quiet, with
some lovely interaction between the two guitars, it's simply not as memorable
as most and Kirtley's 'Rocky' style vocals make Bert Jansch sound like Elvis.
Bert
sings on 'Lily Of The West',
a rare example of Pentangle borrowing from the Irish folk songbook on a song
made most famous by a Bob Dylan cover (it's on his forgotten 'Dylan' album of
1973, his best of the post-1960s). The Irish tin whistles and fiddles are a bit
distracting to be honest, though the song is another fitting song it's a
surprise Pentangle hadn't borrowed earlier. Another tale of deceit and murder,
this time the man stabs a love rival and finds himself in prison, shocked to
find his former beloved testifying to his innocence and helping him to be
freed.
The band
original 'One More Road'
is one of the better tracks on the album, a six minute epic that's performed
with more urgency than normal. Jacqui clearly enjoys getting her teeth into a
song with more emotion to perform than normal as she plays the part of a lover
in a long distance relationship, counting down the days till her partner can
meet up again that never seem to go down. Her restless energy is well mirrored
by the band and even the period booming drumming seems to 'fit' this song,
acting like a ticking clock.
'High Germany' starts side two on rather strong form too, with a new version of
the folk song first tried out on 'Solomon's Seal'. The 1973 version was more
'traditional' than this version, which has been given a new and trickier guitar
riff played with skill by Bert and Peter while Jacqui dances a merry jig over
the top of it all. The 80s trappings and more tin whistles mean it lacks the
charm of the original, but a Portmant-Smith fiddle solo is a delight and the
band haven't sound this 'tested' by a song in a long time.
'Hey Hey Soldier' is a most unusual Jansch song that's a rare slab of social
protest as the narrator picks up the picture of a young kid with a gun and
sighs 'wondering where it all began'. Jansch states that he realises the
argument of self-defence, but knows that the gun carriers never 'walk away'
after the battle is over but are always looking over their shoulder for another
enemy. Some lovely guitar interplay makes this another late period Pentangle
classic and it's great to hear Jacqui and Bert singing in tandem for the first
time in what seems like ages.
The
album's most talked about moment was another re-make, this time of the
traditional folk song 'Willie
O'Winsbury'. Though a little too 'Candle In The Wind' compared to the
original (also on 'Solomon's Seal'), performed by Jacqui to flowing piano notes
for the most part, this is another nice version with the piece slowed down to
the point where it sounds even more aching and longing. Jacqui always sounded
good on this one and her expressive vocals on this remake is perhaps her best
work of the reunion years.
The new
original 'Somali' is
another fascinating experiment too, even if the experiment isn't always
successful. Jamaica seems a long way from the usual predominantly English folk
ballads and reggae is a world away from folk, but Pentangle don't trip over as
much on this song as you'd think they might (certainly compared to over AAA
songs based around reggae and ska, this is paradise itself). The track loses
its way after a while, though, and it's something of a disappointment when you
realise the band are going to stick to the rigid opening groove all the way
through when there are so many other interesting places they could have taken
this song.
The
other album highlight is the haunting 'Manuel', another original very much in the Pentangle tradition
and which sounds like it could have been written centuries before. The
atmospheric opening makes Jacqui sound as if she's delivering some great secret
as she realises anew how wonderful life is and that a dream she once treasured
may now be possible again. Bert captures the mood with a wonderful solo full of
pinged jazzy chords and a sense of mystery, while the rest of the band have
really nailed updating Pentangle's old sound to the modern age. If only the
other reunion albums sounded more like this track!
Alas the
closing song is an oddly ugly Jansch-led cover of 'Scarborough Fair' that pushed his voice well past
its comfort range and whose unusual phrasings play havoc with the song's
distinctive melody. Pentangle sound as
if they barely know the song, with only a fiery Kirtley electric solo catching
the era. A sadly lacklustre way to bow out.
Overall,
though, 'One More Road' has more going for it than some other avenues Pentangle
have been down recently. Though the formula hasn't really changed all that
much, with the same mix of old folk songs made fresh (a little too fresh in
some cases) and new originals that sound more traditional than the traditional
songs, this album just feels a little more focussed somehow, as if the band
really know what they're doing. The tracks 'Travelling Solo' 'Manuel' 'One For The Road' and 'Hey Hey Soldier' are
all worthy new additions to the jewels in Pentangle's crown, while the re-makes
of 'Willie O'Winsbury' and 'High Germany' prove that Pentangle were still
thinking in this period, still coming up with new and valid ways of doing what
they'd always done. This isn't a perfect album by any means with the usual
half-hearted cover songs and new tracks that fall a bit flat, but even they
have a bit more life than we've heard recently, with 'Somali' especially the
biggest surprise since at least 'Open The Door' and possibly even 'Cruel Sister'.
This is a band who clearly had much more to give, but alas it wasn't to be -
dwindling sales figures and smaller audiences on tour meant that Pentangle just
wasn't sustainable in its current form. Bert, who never liked to stay in one
place for too long, drifted back to the solo career he'd been keeping on the
side, while Jacqui rebuilt the band around her with many of her new friends
from this last band a few even newer ones along for the ride. In terms of the
members of Pentangle bouncing ideas off each other, though, this will sadly be
it until a timely reunion of the original band just before Bert's death another
fifteen years away, one last road away.
Danny Thompson and Richard Thompson
"Live In Crawley"
(Flypaper, Recorded 1993 Released 1995)
Easy
There Steady Now/Mingus Eyes/Two Left Feet/Ghosts In The Wind/I Feel So Good/ Taking
My Business Elsewhere/Valerie/Al Bowly's In Heaven/MGB-GT/I Misunderstood/Don't
Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes At Me
"I traded my helmet and my
parachute for a pair of crutches and a de-mob suit"
This is
the first appearance on our list of the occasional pairing between namesakes
Danny and Richard Thompson. Folk pioneers both, via stints in Pentangle and
Fairport Convention as well as their solo careers, they offered what the other
didn't really have at the time: songs and jazz double bass playing. Danny often
appeared as part of Richard's backing bands and the pair even made a studio
album from scratch together in 1997, but this is the first release to be
jointly credited to the pair. It wasn't even meant to be an album initially and
was delayed two years until Richard got a bee in his bonnet about bootlegs and
decided to create his own 'official' series of his favourite gigs in the hopes
that fans would stick to just playing these instead (you wonder what Danny
thought about seeing a two years old concert released, given that Pentangle
were much 'freer' over their music and were never a band much troubled by
bootlegs). This set had after all already been a bootleg briefly, after the set
recorded at the Crawley Jazz Festival in 1993 was broadcast on Radio One and
thus an open goal for bootleggers with a tape recorder. For both men it was
their first live recording in many years and is most interesting for the jazz
twist Danny gives several earlier Richard songs. Sadly none of the true gems in
Richard's catalogue are here (the string of landmark albums he cut with his
Linda across the 1970s and early 1980s), which are clearly still too raw by
this time to sing. However there are still some great tracks on the later
albums, which all benefit from Danny's distinctive double bass playing: 'Two
Left Feet' from one of Richard's most under-rated albums 'Hand Of Kindness' for
one and the post-national service protest song 'Al Bowly's In heaven' which
must have struck a nerve with Danny who went through the exact same system, as
well as the live set's sole exclusive song, the acerbic and wonderfully named
'Don't Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes At Me'. You have to be a Richard Thompson fan
first to like this album, as Danny doesn't get to do that much and it's a shame
there isn't just one Pentangly/Whatever style moment for Danny to really strut
his stuff. No matter though - this is a good album and arguably slightly
superior to the 'official' album the pair made together four years later.
John Renbourn and Robin Williamson "Wheel
Of Fortune"
(Transatlantic,
'1994')
South
Wind-Blarney Pilgrim/The Curragh Of Kildare-Milliner's Daughter/Bunyan's Hymn-I
Saw Three Ships-English Dance/The Lights Of Sweet St Annes/The Snows/Finn and
the Old Man's House/Matt Highland/Little Niles/The Rocks Of Brawn/Lindsay/Port
Patrick/Wheel Of Fortune
"Round and round the wheel of
fortune - where it stops it wearies me"
This was
the first solo Pentangle album I ever came across after finding it tossed aside
in a charity shop on a battered cassette for 50p.It was a bit of a shock -
uncompromisingly traditional, massively Medieval and so true to the spirit of
the Middle Ages you can practically smell the dirty streets and desperation.
Getting to know some of the other Renbourn records in between has made this
trip to history a little easier, but it's still one of the most full-on heavy
going records in John's canon. The key new player on this live album is Robin
Williamson, once in The Incredible String Band (after Pentangle the folk-rock
band who never get enough credit - John wanted to name the duo 'The Incredible
String Tangle' based on their joint bands, but sadly wasn't 'allowed'!) and an
old friend of John's (they'd even been potato picking in the same field in
their early pre-musician days!) and it's interesting to hear the new take
Renbourn's latest partner takes to these old songs - many of which have become
firmly entrenched in the setlist by now. It's a shame though that the pair
never made a studio album as this live recording feels like it's on the verge
of going somewhere interesting it never quite reaches, with the pair not quite
sharing the same instant telepathy of Bert and John or Stefan and John.
Williamson's
voice, too, is even more of a you'll-love-it-or-you'll-loathe-it kind of a
voice than John's and will test your patience across the full hour (although
his guitar playing is first class throughout, as is his harp and whistle
playing). Some of the performances here a bit of a trial to sit through to be
honest, while the St Louis crowd sound downright confused over this performance
of almost entirely traditionally English and Irish music. There are, as usual,
good bits too though: oddly enough it's the narrated poem (with guitar) based
around the Irish folk hero Finn McCool that works best as Renbourn picks out
some fascinating glimpses of other songs as he improvises for a full eight
minutes behind Williamson's reading. Old concert favourite 'Lindsey' sparkles
particularly brightly tonight too. Nominated for a folk Grammy award, this
album lost out only to Bob Dylan's album 'Good As I Been To You', so somebody
clearly liked it. I'd leave this record
till near the end of the pack, though, even so.
"Live 1994"
(Hypertension,
'1994')
Bramble
Briar/Sally Free and Easy/Kingfisher/Come Back Baby/When I Was In My Prime/Meat
On The Bone/Travelling Solo/Bonny Boy/Chasing Love/Cruel
Sister/Yarrow/Reynardine
"I woke up this mornin' and baby
you'd gone - is this a crime?"
Pentangle
officially wave goodbye with only their second live release - and the only one
available as a 'separate' disc (following on from the half-live, half-studio
'Sweet Child' way back in 1968), recorded in Germany during ehat turned out to
be Pentangle's last tour. To put this in context, by 1994 The Rolling Stones
were preparing to release their sixth! It's worth pointing out though, before
you get too excited, that this isn't really Pentangle despite this being the
last album to officially use that name until the box set. Only Bert and Jacqui
survive from the original line-up and by now even the early reunion members
have moved on (leaving Peter Kirtley, Nigel Portman-Smith and Gerry Conway as
the rest of the band). And this album is far from an overview of the entire
Pentangle output; the only songs to pre-date the reunion years are 'Sally Free
and Easy' 'Cruel Sister' and 'When I Was In My Prime' - fans who come to this
album expecting to hear 'Light Flight' or 'Once I Had A Sweetheart' will likely
be disappointed. Many of the songs come from Bert's solo career anyway -
'Sally' for instance features Bert on lead - and sadly he's not in particularly
good voice for this show, while 'Bramble Briar' is the 'reunion' version of the
folk tune 'Bruton Town'. The playing is rather chaotic too - in the studio the
reunion Pentangle are a fine if slightly too slick band who know how to get the
best out of each other and the material, but here in the breathless rush of
getting these songs across they can sound a bit under-rehearsed and noisy (to
be fair they probably were a bit under-rehearsed what with Bert's drinking
problems reaching a peak around this time). Even Jacqui sounds as close to
being average as she ever will, not that she's given many chances to shine
across this concert anyway which is roughly split between her and Jansch (the a
capella 'When I Was In My Prime' is a brave stab though). This band thing is
starting to sound like something of a loose end to be honest and you can tell
that no one's heart is quite in it like it once was. There are though still a
few moments when things seem to be working themselves right again: 'Traveling
Solo' sounds pretty fine and an unplugged sparser reading of 'Cruel Sister',
while nowhere close to the original, is worth a listen. Both Bert and John
released far better live albums than this, though, as will Jacqui's revived
version of Pentangle in a few years' time.
Bert Jansch "When The Circus Comes
To Town"
(Cooking
Vinyl, August 1995)
Walk
Quietly By/Open Road/Back Home/No One Around/Step Back/When The Circus Comes To
Town/Summer Heat/Just A Dream/The Lady Doctor From Ashlington/Stealing The
Night Away/Honey Don't You Understand?/Born With The Blues/Morning Brings Peace
Of Mind/Living In The Shadows
"There's no rhyme or reason,
walking the streets of this wild world, can't find anything to rest this
troubled mind"
Greeted
as something of a comeback at the time, 'Circus' finds Jansch in ever growing
artistic voice but ever shrinking physical voice, with the singer sounding
unusually hoarse across this LP. The songs are however powerful enough to
overcome this problem and Jansch is clearly on something of a creative roll,
with only one cover on this latest LP. Most of the songs are performed solo and
acoustic, which is often the best way of hearing Bert, with the over-dramatics
and love of period technology from the 1980s LPs now long gone (well, part from
an ill-advised return on the chorus of 'Back Home' anyway). The highlights
include the Janie Romer cover 'No One Around', a song in praise of quiet
thinking time where Bert first pouts, then sulks, then gradually accepts that
he might have been wrong in an argument that's still bothering him. 'Step Back'
is a particularly interesting piece, a rare case of Bert going back to His
Scottish roots on a bagpipe-and-fiddles song that works well set against his
no-nonsense voice. The closing 'Live In The Shadows' is perhaps the most
lasting song here though, Bert sticking his head out from a parapet unusually
and commenting on 'the whole damn world' that doesn't seem to be working 'lead
by justice fools and hypocrites' and Bert hasn't sounded this cross in a long,
long time. On this evidence Bert could have been a great protest singer, but
sadly he rarely if ever used this side of his writing again. On the downside
'Summer Heat' really doesn't work, the most overtly jazzy song in Bert's
oeuvre, while the rocky 'Stealing The Night Away' is far too one-dimensional
for a writer of his talents, a love song to a 'sweet humming bird' who helps
him 'dance the night away'. Even so, there's far more here that works than
doesn't and the theme of 'escape' (though most characters choose to stick with
the safe and familiar and only the title track longs to run away and join the
circus) is well handled, enhancing the feeling that all these songs, even the
worst of them, somehow 'belong' on this album. Overall, then, an album that's
better than most without quite being the career peak that many fans and
reviewers took it to be, with a few
mistakes alongside the moments of near-perfection. Pentangle Mark II violinist
Mark Portmant and Lindisfarne spin-off Radiator's bassist Colin Gibson also
guest.
Jacqui McShee/Gerry Conway/Spencer
Cozens "About Thyme"
(GJS Records, '1995')
Jabalpur/Lovely
Joan/Thyme/Factory Girl/Would You?/Little Voices/Sandwood Down To
Kyle/Indiscretion/Don't Turn Off The Light/The Wife Of Usher's Well
"Can you answer yes and no why
these voices come and go?"
After
Bert left the reunion era Pentangle band, Jacqui continued with a stripped down
version of the group and added a new singer-songwriter in Spencer Cozens, who
got about as close to Bert's role as any mere mortal could. Sensibly sticking
to a similar formula of traditional folk standards and new songs that had
served Pentangle throughout their career, but less sensibly updating the band
sound to include even more sickly synths and strings than the late 1980s/early
1990s records, 'About Thyme' is, ironically enough, a record rather out of
thyme as it were. The album sounded horrifically dated for the mid-90s, with
most of the excesses of the mid-80s still intact and the productions really do
interfere with the beauty of the songs even more than before. However, it's
better to have any Jacqui than not and this is a record with plenty of hidden
promise if you're patient enough to look for it. 'Little Voices' is a sweet
little pop-folk-rocker in the grand Pentangle tradition, a song that could be
about inspiration or madness and the thin line between the two. 'Factory Girl'
is a pretty ballad about a working class victim that features some nice
criss-cross vocals from Jacqui and a guesting Ralph McTell and is very much in
keeping with the old Pentangle tradition of breathing new life into centuries
old songs that still have a place in the modern age of class and inequality.
There are some impressive guests too, with Albert Lee (of Ten Years After) and
folk legend John Martyn as well as returning band member Mike Portmant dotted
across the record. However this also means that the closest thing yet to a
Jacquie McShee solo record actually features comparatively little of Jacqui and
her voice is forever being drowned out by the synths, the guest stars or her
fellow vocalists. Not bad by any means, but not quite as thymeless as it should
be.
Bert Jansch "Live At The Twelve
Bar"
(Jansch
Records/Cooking Vinyl, Recorded 1995 Released August 1996)
Summer
Heat/Curragh Of Kildare/Walk Quietly By/Come Back Baby/Blackwaterside/Fresh As
A Sweet Sunday Morning/Morning Brings Peace Of Mind/The Lily Of The
West/Kingfisher/Trouble In Mind/Just A Dream/Blues Run The Game/Let Me
Sing/Strolling Down The Highway/A Woman Like You/Bett's Dance
"Let there be music to please, let
it be sunlight to brighten her day"
Bert
often performs best when he doesn't think anybody is listening to what he has
to say. This is one of his smallest gigs and while Bert knew it was being
recorded, it was originally intended for release only to the people who
actually attended the show - a miniscule but lucky audience who would treasure
the record instead of seeing it as some big official statement. Bert however
was just too good and there was such an outcry that his current record label
Cooking Vinyl asked to release it the following year (you can tell which copy
you have from the cover: original releases are a silhouette of Bert in black
and blue; later copies are the same silhouette in black and white). The result
was only the second live Jansch album in all his years of playing and as such
was treasured by fans, not least for including so much material Bert hadn't
played in years. The Pentangle era is represented by a noisy 'A Woman Like You'
that sounds more like traditional folk than ever, the early pre-fame years with
a poignant 'Blackwaterside' and a jazzy 'Strolling Down The Highway', with
everything else taken from more recent albums. Opener 'Summer Heat' from 'When
The Circus Comes To Town' sounds especially good, with a truly haunting guitar
refrain and Bert in great voice, while the instrumental 'Kingfisher' from
'Avocet' is even prettier in concert. Bert is on top humourous form too, joking
at the end of 'Kingfisher' when his playing receives rapturous applause 'don't
be daft...later maybe?' However the set as a whole isn't quite as strong or as
inventive as the one Bert played in the same era and released as 'Fresh As A
sweet Sunday Morning/Sweet Sweet Music' just before and just after his death.
If you have the one you don't really need the other, although heck it's Bert
Jansch - surely you'll want it all?
John Renbourn "The Lost
Sessions" (1996)
(Transatlantic,
Recorded 1973 Released '1996')
Sleepy
John/The Riverboat Song/Green Willow/Seven Sleepers/To Glastonbury/Floating
Stone/O Death/The Young Man's Song
"Now the summer tie is done it leaves
a memory that fades away, just like a dream"
I'm not entirely sure why John Renbourn was ever
entrusted by record companies with 'looking after' the master-tapes of his own
records. Just as he had once left the tapes of Pentangle's last album 'Solomon's
Seal' propped up under a harmonium (missing for some forty odd years), so too
John somehow 'lost' his copy of an album he'd intended to release back in 1973
as the sequel to 'Faro Annie', before the idea for 'The Hermit' had come along
and distracted him. To be fair, John was very distracted with the end of
Pentangle and probably never expected anyone would ever want to listen to the
album, but it's rediscovery and release in the 1990s was a welcome reminder of
why no Pentangle record from the 1970s should ever have been 'lost'. No one
quite knows what happened to Renbourn's masters, but luckily his friends had
taken copies and their friends and then their friends until the underground
Pentangle bootleg community (much as they were) came to know this record as
well as any of the unreleased ones. Though not quite as original or as
pioneering as the record that replaced it, 'The Hermit', it's more than worth a
release with a surprisingly light and poppy feel that makes it a good
'accessible' entry into his solo canon. The opening track 'Just Like Me' is
sublime, a slow and sleepy song that takes a long nostalgic look back on
Renbourn's career up to date and ponders what direction to take in the future
now that Pentangle are no more. The song cleverly picks up on Bert's 'farewell'
song 'People On The Highway' and has the narrator and his friends moving off
down several different branching paths. 'Riverboat Song' sounds like 'Lord Franklin'
out of his hammock and urgently doing things in fear of running out of time,
with a much faster version of the same chord pattern. The funky 'Green Willow'
is the single most 'contemporary' song any of Pentangle recorded in the 1970s
and out-stomps any glam rock band (it was also chosen for the 'Time Has Come'
band box set featuring as it does a mini Pentangle reunion). 'Floating Stone'
is a real nugget, an aching minor key ballad that never quite resolves in
either music or lyrics, with Renbourn pondering the sadness inherent in the
world. Weirdest of all is 'To Glastonbury', a folk song about druids given a
hippie lilt thanks to celtic flute and Indian sitar and drums. Though probably
the weakest song here, the spacey interpretation of folk song 'O Death' is also powerful, John
pleading with a stalking shadow to 'stay away another year' - this is a tough
one to hear now that John has passed over though he sounds more curious here
than scared. All members of the future John Renbourn Group guest on this album
on one song or another and Jacqui turns up to lend a hand too on closer 'Young
Man's Song', although almost everything else is played by John himself in an
impressive display of multi-instrumentalist skills.
Danny Thompson/Richard Thompson
"Industry"
(Hannibal, '1997')
Chorale/Sweetheart
On The Barricade/Children In The Dark/Big Chimney/Kitty-Tommy/Drifting Through
The Days/Lottery Land/Pitfalls/Saboteur/New Rhythms/Last Shift
"That's the place I used to work,
when I was a wild young turk"
The
Thompson twins had a lot more in common than just their names. Both folk-rock
pioneers with an eye for jazz and brave enough to bend the rules, there was
clearly a lot of mileage in this partnership and it's a shame the pair didn't
meet earlier, with only one album to their name (Danny's poignant bass whoops
would have made the run of albums Richard made with by now ex-wife Linda in the
70s even more harrowing and melancholy). Steeleye Span's Peter Knight also
guests as violinist, making this surely the only album to feature key
contributions from three of England's greatest folk-rock bands? (all they need
is Lindisfarne's Rod Clements in there too for the set!) Danny's uncles, both
coal miners who must surely have approved of the subject matter, appear briefly
too playing brass parts. Though Richard was arguably the bigger name by the
late 90s this is very much an equal partnership, matching six songs by Richard
with Danny's playing up loud and five of Danny's jazz instrumentals with a
large part for Richard's guitar. The title 'Industry' raises another key
interest for both men: mankind's progress, or not, since the Industrial
Revolution - a theme Richard had approached many times in his work and
Pentangle also touched on with their updated folk songs. The album cover is a
massive cog wheel, but given what the music world was doing in this period this
record couldn't be less like just another cog wheel - it's a daring album,
bordering on unlistenable at times, full of sudden lengthy solos and baroque
chords.
The
highlights include the lovely 'Children Of The Dark', a slow jazz waltz
credited to Danny and featuring lots of Medieval instruments but with Richard'
crystal clear guitar centre forward. It may well be the best melody Danny has
written in his career so far, the lovely Richard ballad 'Drifting Through The
Days' about workers in repetitive jobs living their lives in a daze and the
curious percussion piece 'New Rhythms' which is quite mesmerising across seven
action-packed minutes. As per usual, the rest of the album isn't quite as
strong and seems to vary repetitively between noisy instrumental by Danny into
slow paced ballad from Richard, many of them sounding as if they share the same
tune. The result is an album that sticks out like a sore thumb in both men's
catalogues and though Richard's guitar sounds good on Danny's work, Danny isn't
given the same space to shine on the songs which rather smother his distinctive
double bass sound. However it's a collaboration that's far from fruitless and
just needed a bit of tweaking on a second album before blooming into flower - a
second album which sadly never came. Instead Danny retreated back to 'Whatever'
and Richard ended up making a solo album that would have been even more up
Danny's street - the Middle Ages mix-up sound of 'Mock Tudor'.
"Light Flight: The Anthology"
(Essential/Sanctuary,
'1997')
Reflection/Light
Flight/Moon Dog/Lucky Thirteen/Sally Go Round The Roses/Pentangling/ The First
Time Ever I Saw Your Face/When I Get Home/Forty-Eight/Back On The
Road/Bells/Wedding Dress/So Clear/The Lady and The Unicorn/A Woman Like You/Cruel
Sister/Faro Annie/Lord Franklin/I've Got A Feeling/Shake Shake
Mama/Waltz/Helping Hand/The Trees They Do Grow High/Woe Is Love My Dear/Bicycle
Tune/Will The Circle Be Unbroken?/Tell Me What Is True Love?/Rain and
Snow/Tic-Tocative/Travelling Song/Earl Of Salisbury/Miss Heather Rosemary
Sewell/Once I Had A Sweetheart/Springtime Promises/Let No Man Steal Your
Thyme/I Know My Babe/The Time Has Come/Watch The Stars/Market Song/No More My
Lord
"Many chances were given, some
were taken - some were not"
Trust
Pentangle to keep collectors on their toes - there are two compilations named
'Light Flight: The Anthology' out there released just five years apart, both of
them double CD sets and both of them featuring the same 'silhouette' motif
(although the 2002 set also features the 'heads' picture of Pentangle lying on
the ground with their heads meeting in the middle as the 'picture' under the
silhouette - the easiest way of telling the two apart). This is sheer madness
and a source of confusion for many. What's odder still is how different the two
compilations are considering that Pentangle barely recorded more than two
eighty minute albums anyway in their career. The 1997 set we're dealing with
here is perhaps the inferior of the two with a very different criteria: it's
effectively a best of all the members of Pentangle on Transatlantic, which
means that we get tracks by the band together and apart. There's lots from the
'Bert and John' album, for instance, although most of the other solo tracks
tend to date from during and after Pentangle rather than before (which is what
most of Bert and John's solo best-ofs decide to do). There are more rarities
here than on the later set, including only the second ever appearance of the
live Bert Jansch instrumental 'Miss Heather Rosemary Sewell' and some songs you
don't often see but should, such as Bert's 'Tell Me What Is True Love?' and
John's 'Faro Annie'. Had these been included on a 'bonus' disc I might well
have greeted this set as a classic - but having two such different styles
jumbled on between Pentangle's already very different styles is just odd. I'd
wait and get the 'other' compilation if I were you - or the 'Pentangling' set
which takes the same approach but sensibly gives a disc each to the band, Bert
and John.
Bert Jansch "Toy Balloon"
(Cooking
Vinyl, March 1998)
Carnival/She
Moved Through The Fair/All I Got/Bett's Dance/Toy Balloon/Waitin' and
Wonderin'/Hey Doc/Sweet Talking Lady/Paper Houses/Born and Bred In Old
Ireland/How It All Came Down/Just A Simple Soul
"I'm a toy balloon on a windy day,
let go the string babe I might blow away"
So here
we are on Bert solo album number twenty, the follow-up to the widely love album
'Circus'. 'Balloon' is clearly trying to reap from the same mine, from the
childrensy title down to the largely acoustic performances, and it's another
strong album though perhaps not quite as refreshingly daring as its
predecessor. Perhaps the biggest change is with the guest stars: Dire Straits
drummer Pick Withers, pedal steel player B J Cole and Van Morrison saxophonist
Pee Wee Ellis all appear, though no other members of Pentangle do sadly. Bert
wrote every song on the album except a superior re-make of the folk song 'She
Moved Through The Fair' first recorded by the reunion Pentangle on 'In The
Round' twelve years earlier and Jackson C Frank's 'Carnival', which sounds good
in Bert's hands. As usual, though, it's the originals that appeal the most:
Bert is in a positive frame of mind, the darkness and worries of the past
disappearing into the distance as he sings not of alcoholism and guilt but
about family life and love. 'Sweet Talking Lady' was the biggest surprise of
the album - a jazzy rock song that's almost sexy and basically one long chat up
line, a million miles away from Bert's usual style. The more 'normal' songs are
better yet: 'Waitin' and Wonderin' could easily have appeared on the show-off
acoustic guitar performances of the first two albums with its delightful
shuffle rhythms and 'Born and Bred In Old Ireland' imagines a whole new
heritage for Bert he didn't actually have (although the Scots and Irish do share
more than a few similarities across their heritage - this is a rare record
recorded back 'home' - or nearly anyway - in the Isle of Arran). The real
highlight though is the breathtakingly beautiful song at the end, 'Just A
Simple Soul', which is as close as Bert has come to ever summing up his
character in song. Typically it's a lot more complex than it sounds! ('I have
no religion but I can tell between right and wrong!') The rest isn't quite the
best, which rather pulls this album down to somewhere near an 'average' rating
by Bert solo standards, but - hey! - that's by his standards so it's still
pretty darn high.
John Renbourn "Traveller's
Prayer"
(Schenachie
Records, '1998')
Bunyan's
Hymn/When The Wind Begins To Sing/Wexford Lullaby/I Saw Three Ships-Newgate
Hornpipe/Planxty Llanthony-Loftus Jones/Fagottanz/At The Break Of The
Day/Traveller's Prayer/South Wind-Feathered Nest/Estampie
"There are no strangers here, only
friends that have not yet met"
So far John has made
albums that are predominantly about English folk songs, very occasionally with
American variants thrown in. 'Traveller's Prayer', however, has him going all
the way to Ireland to record a series of Celtic folk songs with a few
contemporary sounding originals thrown in. This wasn't actually John's idea but
that of his new home Schenachie Records, a world music label based in Ireland
that translates as 'storytellers' and who urged John to physically connect with
Ireland - to stand on its soil, drink in its music and imbibe its drinks (the
guitarist did all three willingly). Period discussion seems varied as to how
much of an extent Renbourn agreed with the idea - though more broad-minded than most English
folk song enthusiasts, it's worth pointing out that outside this record
Renbourn never recorded any other Irish or Celtic pieces and there were, after
all, still another few million English folk songs to go through yet before the
pile got exhausted. Though Schenachie may well have genuinely been intrigued
about what a folk music historian could bring to the history of the Emerald
Isle, both the timing and production seem more as if everyone involved was
trying to cash in on the recent craze for all things Irish (this years was only
the third Eurovision Song Contest not held in Ireland, so endless was their
winning streak, with the 'interval' that was the multi-legged monster
Riverdance occurring in 1996). With a far more 80s production sound and values
than anything Renbourn actually made in that decade, there are a lot of reasons
why fans don't think too highly of this album compared to some of the others.
For starters there's less of John's guitar here than on any other of his
albums, drowned out by a sea of tin whistles and fiddles that sound like
second-rate Corrs, and when the guitar is the thing buried in the mix on a
Renbourn album you know you're in for something lower than a masterpiece.
There are, however,
many good things to say about this record that slowly reveal themselves over
time. Renbourn may not have travelled far geographically, but he is the
furthest out of his comfort zone than he's been for a while and he's getting to
grips with a whole new genre, half successfully. The original track 'When The
Winds Begin To Sing' is one of his loveliest instrumentals and perfectly cast
for melancholy fiddle and folky guitar. 'Planxty Llanthony' is wonderfully
atmospheric, a fascinating contrast to the period English Madrigals which lack
this piece's warmth while matching it's stateliness. The solo piece 'At The
Break Of The Day' gets rid of the production values for a delightful
instrumental that could easily have appeared on any other Renbourn LP. Only the
truly bizarre reading of 'Wexford Lullaby' on which John doesn't even appear
(it is instead his arrangement of an a capella reading featuring special guests
Gerry Cullen, Phil Callery, Fran McPhail and Mairead Ni Dhomhnail singing their
hearts out, though not all in the same key) is truly wretched. Though Renbourn
always sounds like a visitor, fascinated by the colours he sees around him
without investing as much in these songs as he does in his own English
heritage, he is at least open eared and hearted enough to 'get' the basics
right. Few Irish music fans would have guessed that Renbourn had no Irish blood
in him at all (so far as we know) and those with a Pentangle-shaped hole in
their collections assumed he was one of many period players rising through the
ranks in the 1990s and rated him higher than most. This is, however, an album
to buy if you're obsessed with either Renbourn's style, Irish music in general
or in getting a complete collection rather than because you'll learn anything
that new or hear anything that great you won't hear anywhere else.
John Renbourn "Nobody's Fault But
Mine: The Anthology"
(Transatlantic,
'1998')
Plainsong/The
Wildest Pig In Captivity/Lost Lover Blues/The Waggoner's Lad/Come Up
Horsey/Nobody's Fault But Mine/After The Dance/My Sweet Potato/Kokomo
Blues/Water Gypsy/Just Like Me/Shake Shake Mama/Faro's Rag/Catwalk/Dark
Island-Hymn-Great Dreams/Reflection One/Waltz On Sunday/Sally Go Round The
Roses/Cannonball Stomp/So Clear/The Lamentation Of Owen Roe O'Neill/Lord
Inchiquin/Carolan's Concerto/The Moon Looks Bright/The English Dance/Death and
the Lady/The Trees They Grow High/Talk About Suffering/Circle Dance/The Truth
From Above/My Johnny Was A Shoemaker/South Wind-Blarney Pilgrim/Lindsay/Sidi
Brahim/Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai/Traveller's Prayer/Variations On My Lady
Carey's Dompe/At The Break Of The Day/Going To Memphis
"The trees they do grow high and
the leaves they do grow green"
'But I had lots of help, don't blame it all on
me!' was John's typical response when he heard what Transatlantic were
interested in putting together a career anthology. Renbourn is, however, the
star of a fascinating and generous 37 track collection that mixes three
Pentangle recordings with an awful lot of highlights from the Renbourn
collection. A clever mix of originals and traditional folk covers, ranging from
the guitarist's beloved baroque up to his most contemporary sounding records,
this is an excellent collection that does exactly what a good collection should
- it gets under the skin of a performer to show off their many sides in turn
and goes some way to understanding what makes them tick. You could, of course,
challenge some of the track selection choices, especially from the Pentangle
years (what, no 'Lord Franklin'? no 'Lady Nothynge's Toy Puffe'?) and the
strange running order starts roughly chronologically and then goes a bit weird
in the second half. There is, as well, plenty for the long term collector here
with eight unreleased recordings and seven unreleased songs including a
delightful live rendition of 'The Trees They Do Grow High' by the John Renbourn
Group with a guesting Jacqui McShee (though taken perhaps a lick too fast), a
serious studio take of Robert Schumann's 'Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai'
translated onto guitar and a nicely flowing instrumental take of Merle
Haggard's 'Cannonball Stomp' that really show off Renbourn's guitar skills. How
lucky for us that Renbourn has spent so long being loyal to one record company,
so there are none of the usual problems of anthologies getting round 'missing'
years (this one really does span forty years!) However sadly that loyalty also
came at a cost when Transatlantic went bankrupt shortly after this compilation
had been released, meaning that it dies a death and went out of print far
quicker than it deserved to. Though comparatively rare now it's well worth
tracking down as a reminder of Renbourn's work, so often overshadowed by his
partner Bert's. The cover is fun, with 'dad' Renbourn playing on top of a
junkyard while in the foreground his son Joel - brought along to the photo
sessions - stares out the camera looking wet, cold and bored, as properly un-star-like
as a Pentangle picture should be!
John Renbourn "The Definitive
Transatlantic Collection"
(Transatlantic,
'1998')
One
For William/Waltz/After The Dance/Lady Nothynge's Toye Puffe/The Trees They Do
Grow High/Lady Goes To Church/Trottop-Saltalerro/Sweet Sweet Potato/Shake Shake
Mama/The Hermit/Three Pieces By O'Carolan/Lord Franklin/So Clear/The Moon
Shines Bright/The Pelican/Circle Dance/New Nothynge/Variations On My Lady
Carey's Dompe
"I dreamed a dream and I thought
it true"
It's a measure on how many fans love different
things in Renbourn's discography that the very same year as the two-disc
'Anthology' comes another single disc set which repeats only five of the same
pieces. This time around the emphasis is slightly different - though the label
doesn't say so this is really a selection from John's instrumental albums,
which means lots from LPs like 'Sir John A Lot' 'Another Monday' and 'The
Hermit' at the expense of the often better known vocal pieces from Renbourn's
discography. Pentangle is, however, again represented by two vocal tracks -
'Lord Franklin' and 'So Clear'. Though Renbourn looks a little too much like a
mad geography teacher on the front cover, the album is tastefully made and
carefully selected and makes for another fine career overview covering around
two decades' worth of continual music making. The 'Anthology' is, though, a
slightly better bet being both longer and more varied in style.
Danny Thompson "Whatever's
Best"
(**, November 1998)
Sandanska
Oro/Searchin'/Freedom/Hopdance/Women In War/Fair Isle Friends/Beanpole/Musing
Mingus/Dargai
"Whatever happened to Saturday
night?"
It looks
like a best-of. It feels like a best-of. If I liked the flavour of vinyl enough
to give it a go, I'm sure it would taste like a best-of. But sadly 'Whatever's
Best' isn't the cleverly tasted sampler of Danny Thompson's solo career you
might be expecting. It is instead a re-issue of two of his lesser known and to
be honest less interesting albums stuck together as if they're a new set with a
handful of songs removed from each. Second album 'Whatever's Next' hadn't sold
as many copies as the first album and the film score 'Elemental' hadn't even
sold that well. The good news is that largely the right songs have been kept
and the right ones removed, making this album sound even more disciplined and
interesting than 'Whatever' had been, although to be honest a full best-of
including most of the tracks from the first album alongside the best from the
others would have been a far more useful purchase. Ah well, whatever, it still
kinda works.
Jacqui McShee's Pentangle "Passe
Avant"
(Park
Records, March 1999)
House
Carpenter/The Nightingale/Gypsy Countess/That's The Way It Is (Matt's
Song)/Jaroin D'amour/We'll Be Together Again/Edsong/Lagan Love/Midnight Dance
(Ageing Salomi)/Just For You (Song For Cath)
"All we
Pentangle
come full circle - well sort of! 'Passe Abant' is the jazziest album released
under the band's name since the debut - but this is a peculiarly 90s version of
jazz, high on ballads and long extended instrumentals without any of the
dramatic tension of old. There's a case to be made that this is exactly the
sort of thing Jacqui's new-look version of the band should be doing - this
lineup doesn't have the virtuoso guitarists or the liveliest rhythm section in
folk but it does have Jacqui's velvet voice and she's always sounded good on
the ballads. Whereas 'About Thyme' was just another Pentangle album but not
quite as good, there's a really distinctive flavour about this album which at
least has a sense that everything heard on this album 'belongs' to it, rather
than left behind on the cutting room floor from earlier greater LPs. Had Jacqui
released this as a 'proper' solo album I have a sneaking suspicion that it
might have done a lot better than it did - especially as this sort of
sprinkled-with-saxophones backdrop was kind of 'in' back then in a way
Pentangle sound hadn't been for a while.
However
the banjo-wielding folk-singing elephant in the room this time is that 'Passe
Avant' is the first completely pointless Pentangle CD. There's nothing here
that wasn't been doing better by other bands and Jacqui's gorgeous vocals aside
nothing that sounds remotely like Pentangle. The band were many things, usually
good but occasionally bad, but they had never ever been boring. 'Passe Avant',
however, is at times very boring indeed. Every song is slow, to the point where
the ones that have any pace to them at all suddenly start sounding fast - until
you actually play the album back to back with something that is fast ('Train
Song' or 'Traveling Song' for instance) - at its slowest time feels like it's
running backwards. While Pentangle had always been versatile with the way they
handled their arrangements and were often at their best when adding period
sound to traditional songs, smothering pieces that have survived centuries
intact with a rather 1980s production sheen that already sounded horrifically
dated by 1999 is the antithesis of what Pentangle always stood for. The
performances are notably under-par even compared to the reunion LPs and you
know something has gone wrong when the most memorable moment of the whole
record is a posing saxophone solo.
Thank
goodness, then, for that voice, with Jacqui's gorgeous tones still getting the
band out of trouble just like yesteryear. Thank goodness too for the song
selection, which include many a traditional folk number you wish the 'proper'
Pentangle had done back in their heyday. 'The Nightingale' is the most uptempo
song on the album and works really well, adding another feathered species to
the Pentangle lists of Cuckoos and Sparrows. 'Jaroin D'amour' adds a touch of
French passion to the band's repertoire and Jacqui over a slow piano part is
truly gorgeous. The slow jazz of 'We'll Be Together Again' is quite sweet, even
if it skirts dangerously close to some anonymous modern jazz band. Joseph
Campbell's early 20th century Irish folk song 'My Lagan Love' (referring to a
stretch of land between Donegal and Derry) is another highlight, like many of
the band's Irish folk tunes recently, a love song from afar that's very
affecting. The obvious point of comparison between Pentangle past and present is
what Jacqui's band does to the opening track 'House Carpenter', once a busy folk
arrangement full of sitars and banjos and sung with urgency now turned into a
slow piano-synth ballad that works a lot better than it should. Only the horrid
modern-beats of 'That's The Way It Is' and 'Modern Dance' are completely
unlistenable and try too hard, rather than just uninspired and tired like a lot
of the songs. Far from essential then, but there are some good ideas here and
Jacqui can still match any other folk/jazz singer around.
Bert Jansch "Crimson Moon"
(Castle,
August 2000)
Caledonia/Goin'
Home/Crimson Moon/Down Under/October Song/Looking For Love/Fool's Mate/The
River Bank/Omie Wise/My Donald/Neptune's Daughter/Singing The Blues
"Come out to play in a grey day in
Autumn"
Solo
album number twenty and Bert has now become a superstar - well, in his own low
key way. The 1990s had seen a whole host of big name come out in support of
Jansch's records and a couple of them appear on this record: The Smith's Johnny
Marr and Suede's Bernard Butler, who both play the electric 'John Renbourn' role
to Bert's usual acoustic parts. More unusual yet, Bert - famously protective of
his family - invites two of his off-spring to play, with son Adam playing bass
across the album and daughter Loren the fine cameo lead on 'My Donald'. There's
also a return to the days of old in the songs department too, with Bert
becoming an interpreter as well three outside songs, including a bit of
'incest' by pinching John's old collaborator Robin Williamson for album
highlight 'October Song', a composition much closer in style to what Bert was
writing for his early string of solo albums than anything he's writing now.
Bert also returns to Pentangle favourite 'Omie Wise', as heard on the 1971
'Reflection' album, which sounds very different with Bert's dark and energetic
vocals, the 'shadow' of Jacqui's purity and calm. The new originals are a more
varied bunch than normal, including such oddities as the 'trucker' anthem
'Goin' Home' , the bluesy pop of the title track and Bert also returns to the
instrumental 'Downunder', a concert regular which will become the name of his
next live album. The best songs, though, are the ones that do what Bert has
always done: the blues-folk hybrid 'Looking For Love' and the atmospheric seven
minute chess game epic 'Fool's Mate'. Overall the mood is upbeat and
optimistic, with Bert back to finding positive signs about the way his life
loves and career are heading in nature and following on from the good work done
across the last two solo LPs - especially the mysterious alluring title track
about the hold our nearest celestial neighbour has on the tides of the human
race. Just to remind us this is a Jansch album though, the record is still bookended
by two of the gloomier songs in the Jansch canon - the yearning 'Caledonia'
about Bert's childhood memories ('Caledonia' being the old Latin name for
Scotland) and the most mournful cover yet of Melvin Endlesly's 'Singin' The
Blues'. It's hard to say whether it's better or worse than 'Circus' or
'Balloon', but 'Moon' shines roughly as bright as both and is another strong
addition to Jansch's more recent catalogue.
Bert Jansch "Dazzling Stranger:
The Anthology"
(Castle,
September 2000)
Strolling
Down The Highway/Angie/Running From Home/Needle Of Death/It Don't Bother
Me/Lucky Thirteen/Blackwaterside/The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face/Soho/Rabbit Run/Woe Is Love My Dear/Bells/Wishing Well/Poison/I Am
Lonely/Train Song/Nobody's Bar/January Man/Reynardine/Rosemary Lane/When I Get
Home/Oh My Father//Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning/Lost and Gone/The
Blacksmith/Chambertin/You Are My Sunshine/Blues Run The Game/One To A
Hundred/Sweet Mother Earth/Where Did My Life Go?/Blackbird In The
Morning/Playing The Game/Is It Real?/Lady Fair/The Old Routine/Three
Dreamers/The Ornament Tree/Summer Heat/Morning Brings Peace Of
Mind/Carnival/Toy Balloon/Looking For Love/October Song
"The rainbow man was traveling
this world to bring sunshine to your day, watch out for the rainbow man - he
carries a heavy load"
At last,
a comprehensive Bert Jansch set covering just about everything in terms of his
solo career, from the early pure folk records on Transatlantic to the poppier
stuff on Charisma and the more versatile records on Cooking Vinyl. Well, just
about anyway - sadly there' no room for some of the curiouser yet compelling
oddities like the instrumental bird-watching album 'Avocet', the overlooked
'Leather Laundrette' or - because of copyright reasons at the time - 1982's
under-rated 'Heartbreak'. Even so, there are eighteen albums covered by this
two-disc retrospective with more or less all of Bert's brightest moments here,
from the triple shock of tracks from the debut album which still remain
Jansch's greatest solo moments (the finger-picking great 'Anji/Angie' - one day
we'll get a spelling everyone agrees on - the chilling 'Needle Of Death' and
extraordinary 'Blackwaterside') to some of the best songs from the late period
albums including 'Carnival' and 'Toy Balloon' (actually, there's arguably a few
too many of the later years and not enough from the earlier ones, but you can't
blame record label Castle who effectively owned the last few Bert albums
outright and effectively got them 'for free').
Interestingly
Pentangle appear on three of the generous 44 track selection ('Train Song'
'When I Get Home' and, bizarrely, group jam 'Bells' - what happened to 'A Woman
Like You', the compilations' usual Pentangle song of choice?) - enough to show
that somebody somewhere at least thought about making this a true career
collection, without being enough to make this a real selling point of the set.
An excellent entry point for new collectors or those who only know the full
band albums, this set is also valuable for collectors too containing as it does
two rare collaborations with Bert's occasional collaborator and future wife Loren Auerbach from her 1985
album 'Playing The Game', which were limited to 1000 copies at the time of
release. The title track of that album, a Richard Newman song that mixes folk
and sci-fi (and sounds very Pentangle) is intriguing, while the track 'Is It
Real?' (re-recorded for 'Heartbreak', so at least that album's represented here
somewhere) is fascinating, a quite different take on one of Bert's deepest and
most thoughtful songs. Though you could pick a few holes in the track listing
(no 'Rosemary Lane' 'The Waggoner's Lad' 'A Dream A Dream A Dream' 'Change The
Song') this is as close to getting the best of Bert in one place as any group
of fans is ever going to agree to and should be your first stop if you've ever
wondered whether Bert sounds as good away from the band as with them. Even the
packaging seems quite 'Bert' somehow - rather than glowing liner notes full of
praise these are short and simple, while the front cover features Bert scowling
rather than smiling, looking as gloriously scruffy and unkempt and above all
'real' as ever, even when dressed up for a best-of. Just how fans remember him!
John Renbourn "Will The Circle Be
Unbroken? - The Collection"
(Castle,
'2000')
Judy/I
Know My Babe/One For William/Lucky Thirteen/Kokomo Blues/Tic-Tocative/Sally Go
Round The Roses/Forty-Eight/Lord Franklin/The Hermit/Goat Island/So Clear/The
Lady and The Unicorn/Will The Circle Be Unbroken?/Faro Annie/Transfusion/Willie
O' Winsbury/Lady Nothynge's Toy Puffe/Bicycle Tune/Back On The Road Again/No
Exit/Buffalo Skinners
"Leaving in the afternoon, all on
your own again"
Though
the cover looks cheap and tacky (mermaids? Who the heck listened to John's
output and decided to use a picture of mermaids?!) this is an excellent way of
getting lots of great music as cheaply as possible and a worthy introduction to
what the Pentangle guitarist got up to during his years before and after the
band. There's lots of John's eccentric humour here and his passion for obscure
Medieval texts and acoustic instrumentals as well as the more expected songs
closer in style to Pentangle's own. Oddly enough Pentangle's 'Lord Franklin'
'So Clear' and 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken?' are here again as the lone
un-credited tracks taken from the Pentangle albums and are again the highlights
alongside the charming solo version of 'Willy O Winsbury' (recorded by Jacqui
for the final Pentangle album 'Solomon's Seal' and the set's most rock and roll
moment 'Back On The Road Again'. Though Renbourn never won quite the same level
of applause for his music as Bert did, the best of it - most of it gathered
here - is more than a match for his old comrade. Though less comprehensive than
the earlier two disc best-ofs from 1998, this much cheaper set is still a
welcome way of getting the staple diet of Renbourn with 20 of the
'Transatlantic's 34 songs and an extra couple in 'Lady and the Unicorn' and
'Transfusion' at a much cheaper price (even if you're missing some excellent
puddings) and with added mermaids too!
"The Pentangle Family"
(Castle,
2000)
Lucky
Thirteen/My Lover/Blue Bones/Noah and Rabbit/The Waggoner's Lad/Goodbye Pork
Pie Hat/No Exit/The Time Has Come/Lost Lover Blues/Can't Keep From
Crying/Nobody's Fault But Mine/Traveling Song/Hear My Call/Pentngling/Let No
Man Steal Your Thyme/Bruton Town/The Earle Of Salisbury/The Trees They Do Grow
High/Forty-Eight
CD
Two: Market Song/Sweet Child/Hole In The Coal/A Woman Like You/Promised Land/I
saw An Angel/Once I Had A Sweetheart/Springtime Promises/The Cuckoo/When I Was
In My Prime/Lord Franklin/Sylvie/Tell Me What Is True Love?/Wedding
Dress/Helping Hand/Shake Shake Mama/Light Flight
"All we
Back in
the late 1990s Transatlantic finally released the first five Pentangle albums
made for the label on CD with liner notes, bonus tracks and a pretty decent
re-mastered sound. Fans wondered what they might do next - sadly it took a
while before we got Bert's and John's solo albums for the label re-released
with the same love and attention (both arrived ten years or so later) but as a
stopgap we got yet another Pentangle compilation. 'The Pentangle Family' is a
little different to usual, though, ignoring a lot of the usual the band
material in favour of the solo albums, with a particular emphasis on
collaborations between the band members (so you get lots from the 'Bert and
John' album, for instance, and McShee guesting on many a Renbourn LP). The set
is particularly interesting for the songs Bert and John went back to with
Pentangle ('Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' 'The Time Has Come' 'No Exit'). It's a shame,
actually, that Transatlantic didn't go the whole hog and just include a mixture
of the solo albums which would have made this set even more collectible for
fans who already owned the band recordings several times over. For instance,
the set seems to end when Pentangle do - with Bert and John's last albums
featured here being the ones they recorded around the 'Reflection' era, which
is a bit of a lost opportunity given that the two guitarists stayed with the
label for another decade in Bert's case and two in John's. 'Light Flight' also
seems tacked on the end and out of place too, whilst the absence of 'Once I Had
A Sweetheart' automatically loses this set half a mark. The end result is
somewhere around the middle then - a good introduction to Pentangle if you
already own (and like) the basic single-disc sets of hits and want something
more, without being interested enough to five head first into a Jamjar of
Jansch and a receptacle of Renbourn: especially on first release when this set
was, comparatively, dirt cheap (sadly it's gone up in value since!)
Bert Jansch "Downunder - Live In
Australia"
(Castle,
January 2001)
Blues
Run The Game/Come Back Baby/The Lily Of The West/Paper Houses/Toy Balloon/My
Donald/Born and Bred In Ireland/She Moved Through The Fair/Carnival/Little
Max/Strolling Down The Highway/Angie/Curragh Of Kildare/Downunder/How It All
Come Down
"Catch a boat to England baby,
maybe to Oz, wherever I've been and gone he's another live album - just
because"
After steering clear of them for most of his
career, Bert seemed to really take to live albums near the end of his life.
Thankfully most of his concert albums tend to be different to each other,
unlike some people's out there (*cough* Rolling Stones *cough*) and this track
selection is one of the best with a mixture of songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s and
90s. Bert's in good voice and sounds at home in this small Australian club with
the only accompaniment coming from Peter Howell's very Danny-style double bass
playing accompaniment. 'Lily Of The West' sounds all the better for the extra
lived-in feel of Bert's voice compared to his younger self, while he can still
play 'Anji/Angie' (why does she keep changing how she spells her name?!) as
fast as ever. There are also three songs exclusive to this live set: the
Norfolk folk song 'My Donald' where Bert plays the wife of a sailor stuck at
home and wondering if her man is safe, the cute original 'Little Max' about a
happy little boy that Bert had had knocking around for years but only ever made
this album and title track 'Downunder', a moody five minute instrumental that
sounds very like one of the later Pentangle reunion pieces, drenched in echo.
You don't really need either of these two songs - or indeed the whole album -
but both are nice to have, with Bert clearly enjoying himself and the crowd
clearly enjoying Bert. 'Live At The 12 Bar' may still have the edge, though, in
terms of track listing and performance.
Bert Jansch "Edge Of A Dream"
(Sanctuary,
'2002')
On
The Edge Of A Dream/All This Remains/What Is On Your Mind?/Sweet Death/I Cannot
Keep From Crying/La Luna/Gypsy Dave/Walking This Road/The Quiet Joys Of
Brotherhood/Black Cat Blues/Bright Sunny Morning
"Every second that you're living
will never ever be forgot"
Bert
surely saw most of his dreams true a long time ago, but it's a testament to his
creative urge that here he is, so many albums in, still on the edge of another
'dream' of doing something 'different'. The 'different' mainly comes in the
form of a pairing up between Bert and his longstanding friend and rival,
Fairport Convention's Dave Swarbrick whose fiddle is this album's main
collaborator to bounce ideas off. It's a new sound, much folkier than usual,
but even on the originals and covers it feels like Bert is trying to do
something a little bit different, with a lot more extremes than the usual
Jansch trick of combining lots of styles
at once. Take the gorgeous slow burning jazz of 'All This Remains' which
features one of the all time great Pentangle guest spots in singer Hope
Sandoval. Or the heavy rocking 'What Is On Your Mind?', which reads like one of
Bert's early acoustic folk songs but sounds like a hard-hitting Credence
Clearwater Revival track. The extra rock kick given to 'Walk This Road', with
Bernard Butler making even more noise on a return appearance. The gospel tinges of Richard Farina's
charming modern folk song 'The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood'. Or Bert's most full
on blues yet as he tackles Lightnin' Hopkins' mournful 'Black Cat Blues'.
Talking of ill omens, there are two incredibly moving songs here in Bert's
usual style which are again the overall album highlights. The first is album
closer 'Bright Sunny Morning', a gorgeous folk song about the events of 9/11
and the fall of the 'twin sister towers', played out on a gorgeous sunny
morning when everyone thinks at first that the hi-jacked aeroplanes are putting
on an aerial display. Even sadder is Bert singing of his own 'Sweet Death',
almost ten years to the week before it happened for real, and urging fans not
to be sad - it's a mystery Bert has been waiting to unlock all his life long. However
that's not the case with most of this album at all - even more than normal Bert
sounds like he has a lot still left to say and do and a lot still to prove if
only to himself. Given that we're on album twenty one now, released some
thirty-seven years after the first, with eleven Pentangle albums and a Bert and
John set in between, it's impressive just how Hungry Bert is to take his muse
somewhere new. Even amongst a collection of top-notch solo albums, this is one
of the better ones with less filler and more Bert, despite the range of guest
stars.
"Light Flight: The Anthology"
(Essential/Sanctuary,
'2002')
CD
One: Let No Man Steal Your Thyme/Waltz/I've Got A Feeling/Three-Part
Thing/Bruton Town/Lord Franklin/Once I Had A Sweetheart/Will The Circle Be
Unbroken?/Train Song/House Carpenter/Sovay/Sally Go Round The Roses/I Loved A
Lass/The Cuckoo/The Trees They Do Grow High/Rain and Snow
CD
Two: Omie Wise/Light Flight/A Maid That's Deep In Love/Cold Mountain/Goodbye
Pork Pie Hat/Wedding Dress/No More My Lord/Pentangling/Way Behind The
Sun/Traveling Song/When I Get Home/Sweet Child/Watch The Stars/So Clear/Cruel
Sister
"If ever thou gavest hosen and
shoon every nighte and alle, sit thee down and put this on and Christ'll recive
thy soul"
Note:
this is the 2002 release under the 'Light Flight Anthology' name and very
different to the first released in 1997! I realise only too well, dear reader,
that a lot of the albums I rave on about are either hard to find or deeply
expensive if you try to buy them all. There's an awful lot of music in these
books and even if you take the awful in the awful lot out there's still more
than most people will ever be able to find in a lifetime (as I know to my cost
many a time). So occasionally we put forward a compilation so good that it
contains pretty much all you need to own anyway in one handy budget-saving
package. 'Light Flight' puts the case forward for Pentangle: while the future
box set 'The Time Has Come' has double the length and ten times the rarities,
this double disc contains pretty much all the recordings you need from
Pentangle. It's not perfect: the track selection is often a little bit curious
(who in their right mind would take 'Three Part Thing' over, say 'Moon Dog')
and having the tracks in the right chronological order would have been nice (it
starts so well with two songs from the first album followed by two from the
second - and then whizzes all over the place, with the full collection ending
in the middle in 1970). And it's most certainly not complete - by rights this
should also be called 'The Transatlantic Years' or something similar as there
are no songs from last album 'Solomon's Seal' (released on Warner Brothers - at
the time of this set the master tapes were still 'missing') or the reunion
albums; it's a shame, too, given that we're only about ten tracks away from
having a complete Transatlantic collection that the label didn't just go the
whole hog and have done with it (though it is mainly the live tracks from
'Sweet Child' missing and the twenty minute 'Jack Orion' missing, mind, which
is fairly sensible I suppose - flop single 'Traveling Song' is here and one B
side 'Cold Mountain' interestingly, but no 'I saw An Angel' or already-released
outtakes). 'Light Flight' is anything but light though: it is instead a rather
tasty career overview for those who want to see what all the fuss is all about,
with a nicely varies track selection from each of the first five albums and a
more or less equal slicing of the pie between the five members' turns in the
spotlight. It's certainly the best Pentangle set out there if you can't afford
the full pricey box, together with the single most striking image in the
Pentangle canon (the 'silhouette' picture recycled from the first LP) and a
feeling of time and care being spent on the set at long last, unlike the
cheaper budget sets of the 1970s and 1980s.
Jacqui McShee/Ulrich Maske "The
Cat and The Fiddle" / "The Frog and The Mouse" (Book and CD)
(Jumbo,
August 2003/'Late' 2003)
The
Cat and The Fiddle Suite:
(Hokey
Pokey/Hickory Dickory Dock/The Cat and the Fiddle/Five On A Bike/Six Little
Ducks/Lucy Lockett/Ain't It Great To Be Crazy?/If All The World Was Paper/Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses/Lavender's
Blue/Did You Ever?/Mud Glorious Mud/If I Had A Donkey/Jack and Jill/Baa Baa
Black Sheep/Three Little Kittens/Alice The Camel/Mary Had A Little Lamb/Out In
The Woods)
The
Frog and The Mouse Suite:
(Morning
Has Broken/London Bridge Is Falling Down/Pop Goes The Weasel/This Old
Man/Simple Simon/Scarborough Fair)
"All we
We've
been receiving complaints recently, dear readers, that your childcare costs
have been ginormous while you sit and devour each AAA book every month in peace
and quiet so we've hatched a plan: your very own crèche! Yes that's right, a
review for the bairns to keep you amused while you go about your real business
of the day - tracking down these obscure Pentangle solo albums you didn't even
know existed! Are you sitting comfortably? Well then, children, which of you
can count up to five? Come on, don't be slow - you must know the 'Pentangle'
method by now! That's a five-pointed star see? That's one point for each member
of the band one for Jacqui, two for Bert, three for John, four for Danny and
five for Terry. That's pronounced 'Pen-tang-gul', it's a pen that's full of
tang, with a gull sitting on the top. That's right. Now who wants to spell our
next sentence 'Sir John Allotte Of Merrie Englande's Musik Thynge and Ye Green
Knightye'? Or how about 'Come Sing Me A Song To Prove We Can All Get Along The
Lumpy Bumpy Long and Dusty Road'? Hmm on
second thoughts this Pentangle crèche isn't really working - and put that thyme
back now! No stealing!
What I
really need right now is some obscure Pentangle-related children's release
everyone's forgotten about? How about two? Jacqui McShee was contacted by
children's writer and illustrator Ulrich Maske to collaborate on a book and CD
for pre-schoolers named 'The Cat and the Fiddle', which was successful enough
for a second volume 'The Frog and The Mouse' to follow a few months later.
Despite what you may have read, they're not actually designed to teach English
children how to read their native tongue, but to help youngsters in Germany
learn the English language (I'd love to see a cult member of a German band like
Kraftwerk repaying the complement sometime - 'Der Squirrel Und De Autobahn'
perhaps?) Very few toddlers in German
would have known who Jacqui was, but the books and especially the music proved
to be highly popular and I have high hopes yet that a whole new generation of
German youth (currently poised on the cusp of teenagers) may yet grow up into
Pentangle fans en masse after being exposed to Jacqui's voice.
The two
similar albums are, depending on your age, agoogooobahgahgah (baby talk for
'interesting in an existential sense regarding the semiotic links between the
primary and secondary animals' interactions and the anthropomorphic responses
thereof'), the weirdest collection filler you'll ever own in your desperation
to have a complete set of Pentangle albums, evidence that you can never start
your folk collection too young, evidence that Pentangle members are now
officially past it or a chance to hear
one of the world's greatest vocalists do the farmyard impressions you know they
were all secretly dying to do. For the record, Jacqui sings a killer version of
'Hickory Dickory Dock' and 'Lavender's Blue' is such an old folk song standards
it's a wonder none of Pentangle had ever sung it before. 'Ring A Ring O Roses',
a devastating song about the cruel deaths of the innocent during the black
death outbreak in the Middle Ages is practically a long lost Pentangle songs
anyway. However there's too much modern 'filler' material your average
musically-literate toddler will sniff his noise and pull faces at, such as
'Five On A Bike' and 'Lucy Locket'. I'm frankly concerned by the psychological
effects of listening to 'Ain't It Great To Be Crazy?!' on repeat (although it
might be a sneaky way to inspire a whole new bunch of folk guitarists while
they're young - clever thinking!) I was looking forward to a few updates that
never come either ('This old man, played guitar, he's playing to a crowd of
people in a bar, it's Bert don't get hurt, give that man a comb, this band were
once as famous as the Rolling Stones!') None of them last too long either,
being sung as part of a manic medley which makes two of the shortest
Pentangle-related records seem a lot longer than they really are. For the
record 'The Cat and the Fiddle' is the better of the two - 'The Frog and the
Mouse', like many a sequel, sounds like all the songs Jacqui refused to sing
the first time round and is noticeably shorter than the first album (unlike
Pentangle's first two albums, which were the other way around in terms of
length!) Right that's all for another week - class dismissed. Oh and did you
remember your homework from the Brian Wilson album 'Songs In The Key Of
Disney'? ('Why oh why oh why?') No? Heck nobody actually reads what kids hand
in anyway...
Jacqui McShee's Pentangle "At The
Little Theatre- Live"
(Park
Records, December 2008)
She
Moved Through The Fair/Jabalpur/Once I Had A Sweetheart/The Nightingale/That's
The Way It Is/House Carpenter/I've Got A Feeling/The Bonny Greenwood Side/Cruel
Sister/The Wife Of Usher's Well/Lovely Joan/We'll Be Together Again
"She left him to rage in the
meadows green"
After a
decade's pause, Jacqui revived the Pentangle name having received the blessing
of her fellow band members as long as she didn't actually advertise the shows
or album as being by 'Pentangle'. So Jacqui McShee's Pentangle it was, with the
singer backed by musicians 'borrowed' from friend and fellow folk mentor John
Martyn. More traditional than most Pentangle records, with a sparser feel than
the reunion albums and less adventure than the originals, it's the closest
we've yet come to hearing Jacqui make a solo album. Like Renbourn Jacqui's take
on the Pentangle sound is to be as traditionalist and authentic as possible,
although she doesn't go back quite so far or go to as many lengths as her sparring
partner in getting the antique settings right. Instead this is the prettier
ballad side of Pentangle's canon performed by a singer who still sounds
remarkably close to her younger self backed by a band who care enough about the
songs to make it work.
Sensibly
choosing to tape this record in a small intimate setting, closer in feel to a
folk club than a stadium, Jacqui set about picking out her favourite songs from
the past and those her audience would expect to hear alongside some of her
favourite traditional songs. There's a brave stab at 'Once I Had A Sweetheart'
with a trumpet filling in for John's sitar and a harp for Bert's guitar, a
slower and sadder 'Cruel Sister' with synthesisers and Medieval instruments
together and a percussion heavy 'House
Carpenter' complete with drum track. Reunion cover song 'She Moved Through The
Fair' might well eclipse them all despite being lesser known. Though nothing
comes close to eclipsing the originals, only a horrible modern jazz version of
'I've Got A Feeling' misses the spot completely. As for the material exclusive
to this set, it's a mixed bag: new song 'Jabulpar' is a terrific song in the
Pentangle tradition combining rock, folk and jazz, 'The Bonny Greenwood Side'
is another great Pentangly song about a maid who falls in love with her
father's clerk at work and hides the engagement until her lover betrays her and
eight minute epic 'The Wife Of Usher's Well' (best known from a Steeleye Span
cover) gets marks for ambition despite a hideous 1980s style saxophone solo (no
offence to the player - I hate most saxophone solos). 'Lovely Joan' is anything
but lovely, though, with a modern production sound that suggests if this really
was 'live' then one heck of a lot of extras have been added on top and 'The
Nightingale' is the closest Jacqui ever comes to being off-key across fifty odd
years of recording.
The end
result is a draw. It's nice to have Jacqui back still sounding - almost - as
good as ever and the band she's picked do their jobs. Some of the new arrangements
are pretty good - even if some are pretty poor. You can tell, though, that only
one original member of Pentangle is here and there's very little truly to link
this to the band's old sound except for their occasional vocalist. As with many
live albums made up mainly of live recordings from years past, you have to ask
who actually wants this stuff when you can just play the originals at the touch
of a button (and a lot of thrashing around in your CD collection if yours is
like mine - I'm sure it was in the right order last time I left it!) However
half-good Pentangle is still better than no Pentangle at all - bung it on the
'maybe' pile. The front cover is nicer than all of the 'reunion' sleeves by the
way, with a 'Pentangle' logo spotlit on stage in front of a Medieval looking
crowd (it looks, in fact, not unlike Jethro Tull's 'Minstrel In The Gallery').
"The Lost Broadcasts
1968-1972"
(**,
June 2004)
CD
One: Hear My Call/Turn Your Money Green/Traveling Song/Let No Man Steal Your
Thyme/Soho/No More My Lord/Every Night When The Sun Goes In/I Am
Lonely/Forty-Eight/Orlando/Three Dances/The Time Has Come/I've Got A
Feeling/Sweet Child/In Your Mind/I Loved A Lass/Sovay/Sally Go Round The Roses/Bruton
Town/Cold Mountain/I Am Lonely/The Cuckoo/Light Flight
CD
Two: Hunting Song/Moon Dog/House Carpenter/Name Of The Game/Train
Song/Springtime Promises/Country Blues/The Trees They Do Grow High/Lyke Wake
Dirge/Reynardine/Light Flight/A Maid That's Deep In Love/Will The Circle Be
Unbroken?/Lord Franklin/Lady Of Carlisle/People On The Highway/No Love Is
Sorrow/Jump Baby Jump/Cherry Tree Carol
"I am a fan whose deep in love,
but yet I still complain, this set is full of so many true loved, but the poor
quality is insane, because they did not clean the sound up I mourn so
constantly, but sometimes there through the murk Pentangle shine
brilliantly"
An
interesting collection of recovered songs (were they propping up John
Renbourn's harmonium as well as the 'Solomon's Seal' master-tapes?) this
glorified bootleg is sonically awful but historically fascinating. All 41
recordings are taken from various BBC appearances and like many similar sets
suffer from repetition and a sense of being rushed, although sometimes the
rawness of re-creating recordings you spent months crafting in an hour does
lead to some truly great moments: a deliciously intense 'Traveling Song', a
percussion heavy 'No More My Lord', a fast and messy-but-who-cares? 'Sweet
Child', an eerily slow 'The Trees They Do Grow High', two wonderfully loose and
floppy 'Light Flight's where Jacqui's vocal is even better than the finished
version and an impressively tight go at the a capella 'Lyke Wake Dirge' (here
helped along by some basic drumming).
The BBC sessions also lead to some rarities: a rare reprisal of Bert and
John's 'Soho' (sadly without the rest of the band); a unique song credited to
John and Jacqui in 'Every Night When The Sun Goes In' (a bluesy song of
loneliness and despair), John's solo 'Country Blues' and multiple readings of
Bert's solo song 'I Am Lonely', which sounds like something of an anthem by the
time you reach the end of the set. Most curious is an odd song credited to the
whole band, 'Name Of The Game', which seems oddly like the later Abba song of
the same name, a hybrid of disco and blues. Of course as with most BBC sets, up
against this are a bunch of early recordings that sound as if they recorded in
thick fog, lots of songs that lack the discipline and perfection of the records
and the most wretched version of great songs (such as 'People On The Highway')
as you'll ever dare to hear. Pentangle weren't a band necessarily suited to the
live setting and the lo-fi quality means that this collection is unlikely to
appeal to anyone except the hardened collector. However, for us it's a treasure
trove of arrangements that all sound as if they've been slightly tweaked and
the sort of set you can play 'spot the difference' with for hours. Oddly the
set only starts sounding good right at the very end during the sessions
plugging 'Solomon's Seal' in 1972, just when the band are falling apart and
sounding at their worst. Two better quality recordings from the earliest
sessions later appeared on the box set. Not the best BBC set around, but hardly
the worst either.
"The Guitar Of John Renbourn"
(Transatlantic,
Recorded 1976, Released '2004')
"Hey guys, for this next clip I
need the sound of an introspective bird reflecting on his life at Glastonbury
in the Summer while travelling down the deserted street of freedom road. Know
any good albums I could use?!"
Back in
the 1970s TV libraries weren't quite as large as they are now. Film-makers
after a specific sound, mood or feeling had to either use sound effects or
commission their own score - something that wasn't always cheap or achievable.
Sensing a gap in the market, some record labels began offering their own cheap
'mood music' records, which all emphasised certain feelings or emotions and
could be accessed by anyone. Renbourn, the sort of musician who always wore his
feelings loud and proud, was a perfect candidate and in 1976 agreed to record a
full album of 'mood' pieces, focusing on the English countryside and with the
mood distinctly 'mellow'. Sadly records don't list what programmes would have
used these songs, but they sound like the sort of thing that would have cropped
up in wildlife documentaries or tales around the campfire at the village pond,
quaint but lovely pieces featuring lots of that characteristic rolling guitar
sound and an un-credited flute player (whose rather good!) John brought Jacqui in
to embellish a couple of songs too, making this only the second** Pentangle
album since the split to feature a mini-reunion (she sings scat improvisations
and la-las on album highlights, the 'Scarborough Fair' style 'Portrait Of A
Village' and the delightfully sunny pop track 'Summer Song' which is a
typically Pentanglian mix of traditional English folk and Indian instruments!
The album's peak though must surely be the opening 'Swallow Flight', the one
track here that was occasionally performed in concert, and which sports one of
Renbourn's loveliest dreamiest melodies as the poignant melancholia of the
flute pulls against the safety harness of his sturdy guitar. All of the record
is pretty good though, less detailed than some other Renbourn albums (and without
anything coming close to a lyric) but far too good to waste on forgotten
documentaries for decades. Released as a limited edition disc in 2004 (mainly
in Japan, it seems, though available in Europe on import), it deserved to be
far better known, with a mood to suit every occasion and a gorgeous production
that makes every note ring like a bell. Recommended, if you can get hold of it
(a re-issue, please, soon?)
"Pentangling: The Collection"
(Sanctuary,
'2004')
CD
One (Pentangle): Travelling Song/Waltz/Pentangling/Hear My Call/Sweet Child/I
Loved A Lass/In Your Mind/Moon Dog/Light Flight/Once I Had A Sweetheart/Sally
Go Round The Roses/Cold Mountain/Lord Franklin/Cruel Sister/Reflection/So
Clear/People On The Highway
CD
Two (John Renbourn): Judy/Song/Down On The Barge/I Know My Babe/Another
Monday/Ladye Nothinge's Toy Puffe/Can't Keep From Crying/One For
William/Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/No Exit/The Earle Of
Salisburye/Transfusion/Forty-Eight/Sweet Potato/Sarabande/The Lady and The
Unicorn/Medley: My Johnny Was A Shoemaker-Westron Wynde-Scarborough Fair/White
House Blues/Shake Shake Mama/Faro Annie/Back On The Road Again/The Hermit
CD
Three (Bert Jansch): Strolling Down The Highway/Angie/Running From Home/Needle
Of Death/It Don't Bother Me/Lucky Thirteen/Blackwaterside/The First Time Ever I
Saw Your Face/Tic-Tocative/Orlando/Go Your Way My Love/Woe Is Love My
Dear/Nicola/Life Depends On Love/Rabbit Run/Wishing Well/Poison/I Am
Lonely/Bird Song/Tell Me What Is True Love?/Rosemary Lane/Yarrow
"I could be riding high, like the
floating cloud"
Before
we start, this isn't the beloved compilation from 1973 with the same name but a
new release for the CD age. A landmark in Pentangle compilations, this is the
first one that feels like a thorough method of telling the history rather than
a quick cash cow. In fact the story is so thorough, with a disc dedicated to
the band's heyday, John's career and Bert's career, that the only people who
wouldn't find anything new here are the sort of mad passionate fans who'd want
to own this album for the new packaging anyway. The first disc is one of the
better single disc attempts to nail the tricky multi-layered Pentangle sound
containing more or less what you'd expect (although 'Train Song' 'Let No Man
Steal Your Thyme' and 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken?' seem like odd omissions)
and is at long last equally spaced so that each Pentangle record gets fairly
equal space (though as ever the runt of the litter 'Solomon's Seal' is reduced
to one song, perhaps because of the costs of licensing tracks from Warner
Brothers - thankfully it's 'People On The Highway', the best possible choice to
close the collection). John's disc is by far the most traditional and folk
orientated of the three and will come as something of a surprise to fans who've
never delved into his solo work before. Predominantly instrumental and more
often than not written in or based on pieces written in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, it's a lot harder going than the band material but several
tracks are rewarding, with a good selection of songs from albums made before,
after and during Pentangle. 'Another Monday' 'Forty-Eight' and 'The Hermit' are
particularly strong. Bert's disc is somewhere in the middle, with the tradition
of Renbourn and the experiment of Pentangle all mixed in together. Though
Bert's disc is perhaps the most puzzling chosen of the three (you had a dozen
albums to choose from and you still picked the wretched cover of 'The First
Time Ever I saw Your Face'?!) there are several highlights once again including
'Needle Of Death' 'Blackwaterside' and 'Nicola'. It would have been great if
the set could have had a fourth disc containing the best of the reunion years
and Jacqui McShee's Pentangle but that would perhaps have been too
cost-prohibitive. This set should really be called 'Pentangling on
Transatlantic' (with a single song from Warner Brothers) but even so it's a
highly valuable way of getting to grips with three very different yet linked
sounds together and really goes a long way to teaching you about the ins and
outs of the Pentangle family. If you don't want to find all the original albums
after this compilation anyway then my ears feel sorry for you.
Jacqui McShee's Pentangle
"Feoffee's Lands"
(GJS,
August 2005)
Banks
Of The Nile/Nothing Really Changes/Acrobat (It's Just A Circus)/Now's The
Time/Hot Air - Hot Night/No Sweet Sorrow/Sovay/Two Magicians/You've
Changed/Broomfield Hill
"Parting from you is like parting
from me life"
By 2005
Jacqui was the only original member of Pentangle left, but she decided to
revive the band's name, after making an understanding with the rest of the band
that her name would be printed alongside the band's own. In truth the sound has
changed very little from the band's 'reunion' records in the 1990s with much
the same band: drummer Gerry Conway, keyboard player Spencer Cozens and a new
bass player in Alan Thompson. Bravely, Jacqui doesn't replace Bert with one
person, instead bringing on a string of
'special guest guitarists' who all add their distinctive characters into the
mix. Gerry's old Jethro Tull partner Martin Barre is perhaps the most
successful, enjoying a similarly understated feel (useful when playing behind
Ian Andersen's one-legged flute-playing camera-grabbing lead) and session
musician regular John Giblin is good too, bouncing between the guitar and
Danny's old double bass spot. The album even includes a guest appearance by
Jacqui's daughter Leah. The result is about as good a Pentangle record can be
without the Jansch-Renbourn interplay, the original songs or the jazziest
rhythm section in folk and roll. Nothing here is bad, much of it is pleasant
and despite the increasing years Jacqui still has one of the greatest voices in
the business. Occasionally, as with the nicely jazzy pop song original 'No
Sweet Sorrow' (exactly the sort of maiden-deep-in-love warning song Pentangle
have always done so well) and the eccentric prog rock arrangement of folk song
'Two Musicians' (which sounds makes Pentangle sound more like Jethro Tull than
ever) are as good as anything on any of the other Pentangle reunion albums. There
are two very fitting folk songs that you can imagine the 'old' Pentangle doing
too: the cross-dressing tale of adventure for a young girl 'The Banks Of The
Nile' and 'Broomfield HIlls', a notorious hangout for ruffians where a maiden
is warned not to go - and gets pregnant.
There is
however the big-elephant-in-the-room-with-a-guitar that prevents this album
from matching past heights: without Bert, or anyone like Bert, in the band
there just isn't the same sense of creativity and drive Pentangle once had.
Jacqui remains a formidable force and her songwriting (in partnership with
Gerry and Spencer, who have by now become quite a close-knit writing team) is
coming along nicely, but there's nothing surprising or dangerous here and the
lack of a second distinctive voice (with an earthiness Jacqui can't provide)
makes everything here sound a bit chocolate-boxey. Take, for instance, the remake
of Pentangle classic 'Sovay', which sounds lifeless and curiously 80s for a
21st century recording, full of booming drums and synth strings which to be
honest is really boring - a million miles away from the fascinating
ever-changing shades of the version on 'Sweet Child' back in 1968. I certainly
don't hate this record and it's about as good a record as it can be in the
circumstances, with several moments I'm quite happy to add to my Pentangle
collection. But this is the pretty side of Pentangle, not the
live-by-the-edge-of-your-seat what-are-they-going-to-do-next? side of Pentangle
and even compared to the reunion records that thrill of the unknown is long
gone, even if what's left behind is still perfectly respectable folk music.
Bert Jansch "The Black Swan"
(Drag
City, September 2006)
The
Black Swan/High Days/When The Sun Comes Up/Katie Cruel/My Pocket's Empty/Watch
The Stars/A Woman Like You/The Old Triangle/Bring Your Religion/Texas Cowboy
Blues/Magdalina's Dance/Hey Pretty Girl
"You play your guitar, but you
never ever finish your song"
It's
hard to believe that after 22 solo studio albums, six live albums, eleven
Pentangle albums and one album with John Renbourn that 'The Black Swan' really
is it. I still keep expecting to see another Bert Jansch album suddenly pop up
out of nowhere on the 'new release' listings or to see that familiar crumpled
coat, tousled hair and big grin staring out at me from a music blog where yet
another person has fallen in love with Bert's latest and has just been catapulted
into a whole new exciting world of Jansch. But alas, that cannot be and instead
we're left with 'The Black Swan', which hilariously ended up becoming Bert's
'Swansong' (he'd have laughed at that!) Bert's death is a double tragedy, not
because this is his greatest album like a few fans say but because it shows
Bert again changing his style and still trying to puzzle out new pieces of
himself on the eve of his 64th birthday. Far from being a solo album, this is
Bert's busiest sonically since the Pentangle days and he ropes in a whole load
of guests, all of whom work better here than on past records using the same
trick and all of whom are much younger: Noah Georgeson, Beth Orton, Devendra
Barnhart, Helena Espvall, David Roback, Otto Hauser, Adam Jansch...No I don't
have a clue who any of them are either (except for the latter, who is Bert's
increasingly impressive guitarist son) but having looked them up on the net
it's clear that Jansch has touched a real nerve with the 21st century folk
community and 'Black Swan' brought Bert a whole new audience like never before.
Bert was always a 'giver' when it came to music, generous with his support and
time - it's nice to hear the folk world giving something back and these are
clearly people who genuinely love his work and don't want to get in the way,
rather than wannabes trying to hang onto his coat tails.
Thanks
partly to Georgeson's impressively-modern-but-not-oppressively-so production,
the sound of this record feels like a good fit for both the Bert albums of old
and the modern folk sound. There's a lot of playing cat-and-mouse on this
album, as Bert's songs open up layer by layer instead of being built up round
ear-catching riffs or repeated refrains. Bert's in a nostalgic mood,
remembering both songs past (there are sweet re-makes of a much slower 'A Woman
Like You' and 'Watch The Stars' in a duet with Beth Orton, neither close to the
originals but sung with more care than the 'Sketches' album) and people, with
this record a real mix of all the themes of past Jansch LPs: 'When The Sun
Comes Up' is full of the yee-hah playful spirit of 'Nicola', 'Bring Your
Religion' recalls the bluesier sound of the first three solo albums with a
fascinating sonic landscape that's as 'modern' and yet simultaneously traditional
as Bert ever got and album highlight 'High Days' is Bert's best song of guilt,
seemingly still playing over the premature end of his second marriage out in
his mind. 'I'm sorry that I failed you - let me take the blame' Bert sighs, 'I
should have tried much harder to reach out when I could'. One of the best songs
on the album, 'Texas Cowboy Blues' unites them all: a
happy-reflective-melancholy song in the blues-folk-rock style that's utterly
Bert and a believable cowboy song despite the fact the guitarist had likely
never been near Texas in his life. The true classic though is the six minute
title track, an epic in the 'Jack Orion' mould that's full of random images
from his earliest years and in which the black swan appears to be death, taking
Bert's friends away one by one.
Yes the
guests often get in the way of the main attraction, as always there's quite a
large quantity of filler songs (though less instrumentals than ever this time
around) and Bert is clearly losing his voice as the lung cancer already in his
system makes it audibly painful for him to sing at times. But there are far
more reasons to love than loathe 'The Black Swan', which manages to both sum up
where Bert has been and explore somewhere slightly new. That's something Bert's
been trying to work out how to do at least since the original Pentangle split
up and it's great news that he found the formula at last, although a tragedy he
never got the chance to use it again. The black swan of the Jansch catalogue,
this isn't popular solely because of the sad events that followed it but
because it really is as good as anything else Bert made over the past thirty
years and can hold its wings up high against the work being made forty years
earlier. If Bert had to go before his time than at least it was in a fitting
way: like the swan, there's always been the sense with Bert that he's gliding
serenely on the surface and fighting hard to stay on top of the treacherous
currents underneath. 'The Black Swan' would have taken some beating for a
follow-up; sadly we never got the chance to hear one. You sense the 21-year-old
who made that first eponymous solo album back in 1965 would have been pretty
pleased overall with that progress and unlike some songwriters and musicians
who shift so much across forty-one years would have recognised a lot of his
early sound in this album.
John Renbourn "Live In Italy"
(**Transatlantic,
'2006')
Lord
Franklin/South Wind-Blarney Pilgrim/Sandwood Down To Kyle/Little Niles/Great
Dream From Heaven/The Mist Covered Mountains Of Home/Lindsay/Sweet Potato
"I hear the sound within the wind
that plays around your walls"
Unlike
Bert, who loved his live albums as a record where his head was at during any
one time, John had only enough never mind a solo live record. He'd made some
with the Renbourn Group and with Stefan Grossman before, but had never recorded
a truly solo live album before, featuring just him and his guitar. For the
recording John chose Italy, a country he'd always felt most at home in during
his round-the-world tours and he'd quickly met likeminded Italian folkies at
Rome's 'Folkstudio', the equivalent of Pentangle's own London Horseshoe Hotel.
Legend has it Renbourn didn't even know this album was being recorded - the
club boss Giancarlo Cesaroni was so pleased at having John visit he recorded it
without his knowing - which might be why for a modern album that isn't a
bootleg the sound is quite appalling. The performance, however, is anything
but. A journey through almost an entire career, this live set features John
teasing out more or less a song each from every album of his (with 'Lord
Franklin' the sole Pentangle track) and while he was never the sharpest
vocalist in Pentangle his older, wiser self in this sparse and intimate
settings suits his growling vocals well enough. Though there are relatively few
actual songs played, almost all of them are long, reaching out for lengthy
solos where there previously wasn't any or taking the long and scenic route
around songs fans know and love already. Not everything works by any means 'Lord Franklin's seen better days for instance
- but a delightful instrumental version of 'The Mist Covered Mountains Of Home'
and a very pretty cover of Archie Fisher's 'Lindsay' are both strong additions
to the Renbourn catalogue. All in all, molto bene.
Bert Jansch "Fresh As A Sweet
Sunday Morning" aka "Sweet Sweet Music"
(Secret
Records, Recorded April 2006 Released May 2009/February 2012)
Fresh
As A Sweet Sunday Morning: It Don't Bother Me/Strolling Down The
Highway/Rosemary Lane/Come Back Baby/Blackwaterside/The Lily Of The West/My
Pocket's Empty Baby/Morning Brings Peace Of Mind/Oh My Father/Fresh As A Sweet
Sunday Morning/My Donal/Blues Run The Game/Katie Cruel/Carnival/Trouble In
Mind/She Moved Through The Fair/High Days/Courting The Blues/Down Under/Reynardine/Poison/October
Song/Hey Pretty Girl
Sweet
Sweet Music: It Don't Bother Me/Strolling Down The Highway/Blackwaterside/My
Pocket's Empty Baby/Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning/Rosemary Lane/Blues Run The
Game/Courting The Blues/Reynardine/Poison/October Song/Hey Pretty Girl
"In the still of the evening birds
fly out behind the sun and with them I'll be leaving"
Released
as the last official Jansch recording in 2009 and again in tribute to Bert the
year after his death, this recording made on the 'Black Swan' tour was full of
'sweet sweet music' indeed. In all likelihood the last solo Bert concert
professionally recorded (though a few of the Pentangle reunion shows were taped
too for possible release one day), it's a fine way to bow out. Heavy on the old
favourites like 'Blackwaterside' and 'It
Don't Bother Me', it also contains some songs from yesteryear Bert hadn't
played in ages that pleased fans no end, tracks like 'Poison' and 'Blues Run
The Game'. All four of these sound excellent, but the best songs may well be those
taken from 'The Black Swan' - 'My
Pocket's Empty' and 'Hey Pretty Girl' especially, with a power even one of
Bert's better studio albums lacked. What's remarkable is how little has changed
since this list began, with Bert back playing at a humble folk club in
Sheffield armed with nothing more than a guitar and a set of great songs - the
way he first appeared back on his first recordings on 'Young Man Blues' a full
forty-four years earlier. The fame, the breadth of styles, the years of
Pentangling have all fallen away and left us back to the basics, when Bert
didn't need anything except himself and a battered acoustic to make great
music. Though never intended when recorded to be a tribute LP - Bert was in
fine health when he played this gig - 'Sweet Sweet Music' is as perfect a way
to bow out as could be wished for, the way the fans all remember him as a
simple, humble storyteller with big ideas.
If only
the review could end there. Unfortunately the release of these two albums has
in truth been a bit of a mess. Both sets are taken from the same gig - sadly but
inevitably the 2009 release under the name 'Fresh As A sweet Sunday Morning'
never got much attention, whereas after Bert's death record when the set was
re-issued as 'Sweet Sweet Music' reviewers were queuing up to give superlatives
over it. Given the lack of packaging and information fans have naturally
assumed that these are two different gigs: actually 'Music' is just a shortened
(around half) version of 'Morning' with a new title and cover and a tweaked
running order. Many of the more interesting songs from the late 1970s and 1980s
albums have been cut out for no apparent reason except to make more money (the
sets seemed to retail for around the same price from what I remember). Bert
would have been horrified to see his catalogue used and abused in this way - a
simple line o the back sleeve of 'Music' explaining that it was a 'highlights'
CD of a previously released show would have been all that was needed to keep
fans like me happy. What a shame that a career spent escaping the worst
excesses of record company narcissism and capitalism came to this!
"The Time Has Come (Box Set)"
(Castle,
'2007')
CD
One (Studio 1967-1968): Mirage/Waltz/Poison/Travelling Song/Forty-Eight/Koan/In
Your Mind/Sovay/In Time/Sweet Child/The Trees They Do Grow High (Alternate
Take)/Moon Dog/Light Flight/Once I Had A Sweetheart/I Saw An Angel/Springtime
Promises/Cold Mountain/Train Song/Hunting Song
CD
Two (Studio 1970-1973): Lord Franklin/Jack Orion (Excerpt)/Cruel Sister/Helping
Hand/Faro Annie/Reflection (Alternate Take)/So Clear (Alternate Take)/The
Snows/Jump Baby Jump/Yarrow/Tam Lin/The Best Part Of You/Green Willow
CD
Three (Live At The Royal Festival Hall 1968 (Waltz/Way Behind The Sun/The Time
Has Come/Let No Man Steal Your Thyme/So Early In The Spring/Hear My Call/No
More My Lord/Three
Dances/Market Song/Bruton Town/A Woman Like You/No
Exit/Haitian Fight Song/Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Bells/John Donne Song/Watch The
Stars/Turn Your Money Green/Travelling Song
CD
Four (Live, TV and Film 1970-1973): Pentangling/Sally Go Round The
Roses/Sarabande/ Sally Free And Easy/Wondrous Love/Sweet Child/Willy
O'Winsbury/Rain and Snow/No Love Is Sorrow/Wedding Dress/Furniture
Store/Christian The Lion/Reflection/People On The Highway
"Take me to the end of a rainbow
dream falling into your arms"
There were many ways that Pentangle could have
made their one and only box set (to date): with only six band albums and not
that many extra-curricular songs to choose from (or many unreleased rarities)
this could easily have been a very short affair, or a more vanilla 'complete
recordings' affair. They could, perhaps, have turned the box set into something
more like 'The Pentangle Family' set
that added a disc or three of what the band did before or went on to do
next (that's my recommendation, by the way, if the band ever decide to do
something like this again - thankfully most of the band's key solo moments are
also on the label 'Transatlantic' so getting the rights isn't the mess it might
be for some other bands; two songs - one each by Bert and John - are here,
though both are odd choices that don't add greatly to the set). However, rather
splendidly, Sanctuary have gone for an idea that's in keeping with the danger
and adventurous un-comformist nature of
the band, reducing the band's album tracks to the first two discs and following
them up with a complete disc of Pentangle live (a full length version of the
concert released as half of 'Sweet Child' back in 1968, controversially edited
compared to the 'deluxe' edition of that album, with most of the band chatter
and tuning removed; that's a shame given how much Pentangly character came
through the rehearsals and false starts, although it does make for an easier
listen) and a fourth disc full of TV and film soundtracks and radio broadcasts
that for Pentangle collectors starved of product for so long is manna from
heaven (well, music from Pentangle I suppose but that equates to more or less
the same thing).
The result is a cleverly arranged set that
serves both newbies and longterms fans well both - a tricky thing that so many
box sets fail to get right. In typical Pentangle style it doesn't look much: a
near plain black sleeve with a typically unglamorous shot of the band caught
mid-song in silhouette (it looks like they're playing a 'fast' song from the
body language) that will no doubt have put many curious newcomers off. But
those who dare to try this set out of curiosity will find it a 'pandora's box',
which once opened and heard may well be life-changing. The original six
Pentangle albums all tried to do something a little different from each other,
appealing to a slightly different audience in turn whether it was the jazz of
the debut, the folk of 'Sweet Child', the poppier tones of 'Basket Of Light' or
the more grown up sulky style of 'Cruel Sister'. Though you could stake a claim
for the 'Light Flight' Anthology, no other set before this one has tried to
capture the band in all its multi-faceted glory and it's that aspect that works
so well on 'The Time Has Come', showcasing each of their many influences in
turn.
The best thing to say about this box set is
that it easily captures the essence of the band, which wasn't found in any
particular sound but in all of them and at long last one of our AAA sets
actually includes everything (on discs one and two at least) in strict
chronological order, which makes the leaps from one sound to another sound
natural rather than disjointed. The set is quite brave in many of the choices
it takes too: only half (well, five of the nine songs) from the band's
best-selling 'Basket Of Light', while the first two albums are much better
represented (especially with the live disc taken into account), although
personally I'd have appreciated more from the hard to find second half of the
trilogy: there are just three, four and two songs respectively from 'Cruel
Sister' 'Reflection' and 'Solomon's Seal', albums that deserve much more
attention than that. I could also quibble with small details in the track
listing - are the B-sides 'Cold Mountain' and 'I saw An Angel' (readily
available on other discs) really more deserving of inclusion as career highs
'I've Got A Feeling' 'Lyke Wake Dirge' or 'So Early In The Spring' for
instance? I'd also wager that the vast majority of Pentangle fans would prefer
the studio recordings over the live ones where possible, especially the jazzy
jams from the debut LP which are turned from epics into bite-size pieces when
recorded at the same Royal Albert Hall gig as half of 'Sweet Child'. The
controversial decision to cut the twenty-minute 'Jack Orion' down to a five
minute edit of the instrumental section (plus a 'full' end) with no vocals also
seems like unnecessary butchery (why not just include something else? Or add a
fifth disc with more selections from the band's later career?) There's also
nothing here from the reunion albums, which weren't as good by any means but
the highlights of which would have made a nice five or six-track coda to the
last studio disc. A 'perfect' Pentangle set may well have felt equally 'wrong'
however, as they were never a 'perfect' band and never wanted to be. Pentangle
never claimed to have superhero musician skills (though goodness knows Bert and
John came close) and never quite made the perfect LP in six goes (though again
'Basket Of Light' comes close enough).
In many ways Pentangle are at their worst on
the previously unreleased material, scattered across obscure film soundtracks,
TV concerts and the occasional outtake left in the vaults. You can see why
almost all of it was left behind the first time round: the band will be either
a little slow, will head down a jam that never really quite takes off or will
wear their 'Medieval historian' badges on their sleeve with a little too much
pride for those more interested in their folk/rock/blues/jazz/ pscyhedelia
roots. Out of the impressive selection of twenty new recordings (including
eight entirely unknown songs - unless you were lucky enough to be one of the
about, ooh, one hundred people to catch the low-budget poorly publicised film
'Christian The Lion' on first release) nothing here matches the best of the
set. Normally at this point in a review of an AAA box set I'd be banding around
words like scraping barrels and pension plans, but that's not the case here:
Pentangle were around for such a short but explosive time that everything they
did is of interest to fans and every small nugget of their sound, however
small, adds to our understanding of a band who loved to experiment. There's
also nothing unlistenable here either: Bert's sad folk arrangement of Bert's
solo piece 'Yarrow' sounds a little too much like everything else, but the good
parts of everything else; the seven minute TV soundtrack 'Tam Lin' is another
of those folk song epics with Jacqui on particularly mesmerising form; three
minute TV performance 'The Best Part Of You' is the single poppiest thing the
band ever did - an obvious sequel to 'Light Flight' that another band would
have made the mass marketed single, not hidden away on a single TV appearance;
the surprisingly funky 'Green Willow' by Renbourn solo proves that the band
were staying up to date with trends even in their dying days; the faithful two
minute rendition of Bach's harpsichord piece 'Sarbande' on twin guitars is the
other side of Pentangle's inheritance, exquisitely performed; the minute long
instrumental fragment 'The Furniture Store' features more Bert and sitar which
is always a good thing however short and unfinished; finally the song that got
most fans talking was 'Christian The Lion', another middle ages epic originally
spread out across half the film but here compacted into a six minute medley
that's very Pentangle and keeps switching gears and refusing to fade. Perhaps
the best of all the new songs is the near a capella 'Wondrous Love' which mixes
Madrigal vocals with a very modern feel
of oppression and claustrophobia from an obscure TV soundtrack. As for the
other TV versions and outtakes, only even longer versions of 'Reflection' and
'So Clear' and a full-on rock swagger to a live 'Rain and Snow' add much we
didn't already know from the originals. But after scratching around trying to
hear most of these on glimpsed grainy and greatly rare bootlegs for decades
it's a wonderful feeling to have most of them together (sad there's nothing
here from Bert and John's first filmed collaboration on 'Folksangre' though or more from the Old Grey
Whistle Test and Granada TV shows: there could easily have been another
rarities disc out of this, although I suspect licensing rights may have been a
sticking point here).
Still, if there's little here you need to have
(assuming that you already own all the original Pentangle recordings) there's
still much here that's nice to have. Handsomely packaged, with excellent liner
notes that are long and detailed (just how we like them!) and notes about all
the songs included, it's the first overall Pentangle package in years worthy of
the band name (talking of packagaing, though, do be warned - Early copies
released in 2007 come with an over-fat booklet that came unstapled from the box
the minute you opened it - thankfully Sanctuary solved that problem for a
second printing in 2008 onwards). Released just after Pentangle's long awaited
reunion, the time had indeed come for a band who'd deserved so much longer in
the spotlight, however much all five shied away from it. Released a year before
Bert's death and five before John's, this is an excellent bookend to their
association with the band (all five members having chosen the tracks between
them) and I'm glad that both guitarists got to see the outpouring of gushing
praise from both the critics who'd once loved the band and forgotten all about
them and those who never even knew of the band's existence until the release of
this set before they died. Powerful, eclectic, traditional sounding yet
strangely modern in places even fifty or forty years on, it's a set that gives
all the band in turn chances to showcase their talents and may well be the
single best place to start your Pentangle collection (though you'll still need
to buy up all the original LPs to fill in what you're missing!) Let no man
steal your 'Time Has Come' box, a retrospective that keeps on giving the more
you play it and the more you realise just how much good stuff is here.
John Renbourn "Palermo Snow"
(**Transatlantic,
'2010')
Derry
Miss Grsk/Bella Terra/Cirque D'hiver/Ugly James/Sarabande/Cello Prelude In G/Weebles
Wobble (But They Won't Fall Down/Little Niles/Blueberry Hill
"The wind in the willow played
love's sweet melody"
Sadly
'Palermo Snow' turned out to be the last new album of Renbourn material in the
guitarist's lifetime. Happily, it's a good way to go out and even won John some
much deserved praise from a music world that seemed to have forgotten all about
him. There are a lot more Renbourn compositions here than normal and this is
very much a record of guitar instrumentals again rather than a faithful
recreation of the Middle Ages. The actual sound of this record is gorgeous: at
long last Renbourn has ground a studio and an engineer who know how to record
every last echoing ring of his distinctive playing. Though this isn't quite a
solo album - clarinet player Dick Lee features heavily - it sounds a lot more
like John's earliest albums for Transatlantic than anything he'd made in years
and is the first place to go to for fans who are here to listen to the pure
sound of Renbourn's guitar more than anything else.
There
are many who hailed this record then and now as Renbourn's best ever - I'm not
sure I quite agree (this is an instrumental album after all and I miss John's
voice with or without Jacqui along too) but it is a good one that manages to channel
each of John's passions in turn: pure folk, pure blues ('Weeble Wobble'), pure
jazz ('Ugly James' is the closest in feel to the first Pentangle album for a
very long time) and a hint of the Middle Ages with the adaptations of a
'different' 'Sarabande' (this one's by Erik Satie and more ponderous even than
the Bach one) and a different Bach piece ('Cello Prelude in G' now transposed
to guitar, which is livelier). There is perhaps less of a link between the
songs than usual, thematically or stylistically, but as a 'sampler' of
Renbourn's talents it's a welcome insight. IThe album has a slightly different
approach to it than normal too - in Renbourn's own words, 'The emerging mood
turned out to be more romantic than celtic – harmony rather than drones – something
I felt the seemingly disparate pieces had in common'. Renbourn sounds more than
ever like several players rolled into one, but sadly here there's less of a
sense of what made him truly unique - the ability to juggle all of those styles
at once. Even so, there's nothing weak here and if you're one of those fans who
think the acoustic guitar is the most gorgeous sounding instrument ever
invented then this album will make up a major part of your argument. Nicely
intimate (you can even hear John's breathing in rhythm on 'Little Nies'), but made with care,
'Palermo Snow' belies its wintry title and cover to be surprisingly warm and
affectionate. A fond farewell.
Bert Jansch "Angie - The
Collection"
(**,
'2011')
Angie/Blackwaterside/Needle
Of Death/Harvest Your Thoughts Of Love/A Little Sweet Sunshine/Nottamun
Time/Train Song/Tree Song/Stepping Stones/Soho/Rosemary Lane/No Love Is
Sorrow/The Waggoner's Lad/Come Sing Me A Happy Song To Prove We Can All Get
Along The Lumpy Bumpy Road/Do You Hear Me Now?/Love Is Woe My Dear/Reyanrdine/A
Woman Like You/As The Day Grows Longer Now/Sylvie/Poison/Courting Blues/Life
Depends On Love/East Wind
"Step inside where men before have
drunk to fill to senseless"
Released
in tribute to Bert after he died, 'Angie' is a low budget reminder of the man's
humble genius that brought in a whole rush of new followers after he died,
intrigued by the long lines of celebrities queuing up to mourn a legend they'd
never even heard of. 'Angie' is clearly not as wide or as eclectic as other
Jansch compilations released down the years - so that old-timers like 'us'
(you're surely old-timers too if you've taken a chance on a book by an author
you've never heard of!) can scoff at all the things this set gets 'wrong' - its
named after a cover song, for starters, while the track selection spends longer
than it should on the poppier 80s side of Bert's canon, which is a little like
having the entire Neil Young collection to play around with and deciding to
only choose tracks from the last few years. 'Blackwaterside' offers a much
better selection of songs, while 'The Gardener' gives much more of an insight
into what made Bert so different (and, by and large, better) than everyone
else. The minimal packaging doesn't give much away either. However, it's
important to remember that the main audience for this set wasn't 'us' at all,
but people who spotted this set at the till at their local HMV (sadly 2011 was
about the last year any of us had a local HMV), remembered the man's name from
their favourite stars talking about him in obits and went 'blimey £3.99, I'm
having that!' On that score alone 'Angie' is a success, with a nice collection
of Pentangle favourites (and not the obvious ones either: 'Train Song' 'My Love
Is Sorrow' and 'A Woman Like You') and early classics that are clearly the
class of the field and that every fan should own ('Blackwaterside' 'Needle Of
Death' 'Rosemary Lane' 'Reynardine'). Given that half the set gets things so
right, it seems almost churlish to complain about the songs here that didn't
make the grade and don't fit with the other tracks: the poppy 'A Little Sweet
Sunshine', the pompous orchestral track 'Woe Is Love My Dear' or the jazz
lounge 'Life Depends On Love'. There are
at least a hundred songs in the Jansch canon more impressive than any of these
and they seem to have picked at random. Even so, for the price this is a more
than fair retrospective and will hopefully have piqued the interests of more
than a few newcomers into checking out just how glorious the rest of the Jansch
canon is.
A Now Complete List Of Pentangle
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