CD-Charts Position 1
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Bert & John

by: Bert Jansch John Renbourn

Release Date February 26, 2008
Why does Amazon attribute this to Bert Jansch? If ever you were looking for an inspired collaboration of two equal partners, then surely this delivers the goods. More than forty years on and it still gives me shivers. I have several versions of 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' and this version stands with the best of them. 'Stepping Stones' continues to make me wince with delight, though I must have heard it a hundred times. And 'After the Dance' always leaves me wanting more. John Renbourn came up, less than two years later, with 'Sir John Alot Of Merrie Englandes Musyk Thyng And Ye Grene Knyghte', surely one of the most cringemaking titles ever contrived but also a seminal and utterly brilliant album which I still rank amongst my top ten of all ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Jack Orion

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date February 26, 2008
Born on the eastern outskirts of Glasgow at Stobhill Hospital in 1943 and brought up in north Edinburgh, Bert Jansch is perhaps an unlikely practitioner of the type of folk music you hear on Jack Orion.

Billy Connolly's "Winchburgh Junction" or The Corries' "Sound Of The Pibroch" this assuredly isn't. The Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar? Maybe, but I think the Juan Atkins of the acoustic guitar would be more like it. Ghosts probably dance to this music in the ether.

Seven of the eight tracks are traditional songs, but Jansch has breathed a new and hypnotic life into them. Unlike anti-folk, alt-folk or whatever you get these days, Jansch's renditions of these songs have a mediumistic quality that is almost uncanny. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Bert Jansch

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date February 26, 2008
Dylan is revered. Robert Johnson, Skip James are re-discovered. But, this album by Bert Jansch is a milesone in folk blues. Vastly underated, his lyrics have am impact today and his guitar technique as displayed on this CD leave his songwriter acoustic contemporaries standing. He has produced many things since but this is his seminal work, as fresh now as it was when it left a crack in the ground. Listen.

CD-Charts Position 4
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Rosemary Lane

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date February 26, 2008
For anyone who has never heard Bert Jansch solo, this would be an ideal place to start. His style encompasses folk, renaissance, blues and conveys an ethereal quality that marks his work from his contemporaries. This particular album displays in my view, that wistfullness of the mysterious bard the best. There isn't a bad track on here. Reminds me of winds playing over moor and heath just as the sun sets below the horizon.

CD-Charts Position 5
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Avocet

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date February 26, 2008
The first track Avocet is 17 or so minutes long, and within its weaving tapestry one can hear restraints of other instrumentals recorded with Pentangle, so its not entirely original, although these motifs are entirely reworked, or maybe thats just Jansch returning to themes of his younger days, happily jamming with friends. It is by far and away for me the best track on the album. The other pieces are fine, especially Kingfisher. However as an instrumental album I dont think it works as well as others in the same genre, its a pity Jansch didn't do more - its felt that he could have improved on this.
The same ethereal quality that pervades his other earlier work is still here however, its just not as listenable for me as for example Rosemary Lane. Despite it being ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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Legend: the Classic Recordings

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date August 11, 2003
The first track Avocet is 17 or so minutes long, and within its weaving tapestry one can hear restraints of other instrumentals recorded with Pentangle, so its not entirely original, although these motifs are entirely reworked, or maybe thats just Jansch returning to themes of his younger days, happily jamming with friends. It is by far and away for me the best track on the album. The other pieces are fine, especially Kingfisher. However as an instrumental album I dont think it works as well as others in the same genre, its a pity Jansch didn't do more - its felt that he could have improved on this.
The same ethereal quality that pervades his other earlier work is still here however, its just not as listenable for me as for example Rosemary Lane. Despite it being ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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The Black Swan

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date February 26, 2008
Ok let's get the guest star issue over with first.

Yes they are wyrdy beardie folkies but speaking as one who loves the lysergic twist this is not a bad thing. Beth Orton has a modicum of beatastic fame and has come out the other side relatively unscathed. The Espers crew know how to spook things up deliciously. Love that Cello. Devendra is just Devendra and keeps things mellow, So far so wyrd,

All of this frippery obviously keeps young Bert atuned to the contempoary ether because this is a fine album. The title song is the best one here; it is a belter and stands in my top 5 Bert tunes (I accept I have not heard all of 304 odd or something but a fair smatterring over the years.) Anyway the hairs on my neck tell me it's a goody.

As regards ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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The Best of Bert Jansch

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date December 31, 1993
Neil Young once said that Bert Jansch did for the acoustic guitar in the 1960s what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar, and you can take that statement at face value or you can listen to "The Best of Bert Jansch" and decide for yourself. Chances are you will recognize the first track, "Blackwaterside" as being the inspiration, so to speak, for Jimmy Page's "Black Mountain Side" on "Led Zeppelin I." Which reminds me, that as long as we are throwing around comparisons of acoustic guitar playing to electric guitar playing when Jansch joined up with John Renbourn in the group Pentacle it was the equivalent of having Page and Jeff Beck playing with the Yardbirds at the same time. You might also recognize "Angi" from an early Simon & Garfunkle album, an instrumental piece written ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Birthday Blues

by: Bert Jansch

Release Date February 26, 2008
This album, like several of bert's, is uneven, seemingly un-themed or without even a consistant mood or constant style to tie its disparate pieces together. That said, the notion that albums must all be concept pieces is a mistaken one, and what we have here is an excellent innovator & skilled interpretor presenting us with a cluster of diverse, highly imaginative songs in 'folk, blues & beyond', with a voice & guitar style that are uniquely personal; dissonances & harmonies of unexpected shapes emerge continuously through both. He is joined by excellent, complementary musicians (often absent from his later releases) who are allowed themselves to contribute to oblique, open-ended mini-masterpieces such as 'a woman like you' & 'i am lonely'. For the artist's individuality ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Pentangling

by: Bert Jansch John Renbourn Pentangle

Release Date February 26, 2008
Great collection of songs. Don't know if its just Amazon's batch but there is a fault with this set the songs that should be on disc one are on disc three and the songs that should be on disc three are on disc one