BERT JANSCH

Bert At The BBC EARTH

Superior summary of spectacular talent.

Bert Jansch’s influence is justly celebrated. His presence on the British folk scene from 1960 onwards as a solo artist and later, as one of folk-jazz supergroup Pentangle, led to him being in the line of artists that at one time were christened the ‘British Bob Dylan’. His influence on guitarists such as Jimmy Page, Mike Oldfield and Neil Young was enormous.

Bert At The BBC is an eight-disc, 147-track overview gathering all Jansch’s existing material recorded for the BBC from 1966 onwards. Compiled chronologically, it offers glimpses as to how reverentially folk music was once treated, and no matter how disarming, Jansch only seemed truly comfortable when playing. All of his classics are here, including Blues Run The Game, Angie, Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning, Black Water Side and much beyond. There are fascinating collaborations with everyone from Mary Hopkin to former Smiths guitarist/ Jansch acolyte Johnny Marr, and guest appearances galore in the company of the earnest young

John Peel, Bob Harris, Russell Harty and more. Jansch’s virtuoso playing is a given, yet it’s his intriguing, fragile and charming vocal delivery that mesmerises throughout. It offers a vulnerability, a counterpoint to either the rabble rousing or nasality of other folk voices.

In the last few years of his life,

Jansch underwent a loving reappraisal of his work; thanks to reissue packages, adoption by a generation of younger artists that ranged far beyond the folk scene, the reformation of Pentangle and his thoroughly credible 2006 album, Black Swan, he won awards left, right and centre and supported Neil Young on tour in the US. Unlike similar sets that either conclude way back in an artist’s career or gloomily oversee an inexorable decline, Jansch’s celebrated dénouement gives this set a prolonged, happy ending.

With an expansive essay, and written tributes from friends, peers and presenters, Bert At The BBC is an exemplary release.