Bert Jansch
Bert Jansch, legendary songwriter and guitarist, is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential musicians of all time. Since the mid-1960s, generation after generation have been held spellbound by his extraordinary ground-breaking guitar playing and classic emotive songs.
Bert Jansch, legendary songwriter and guitarist, is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential musicians of all time. Since the mid-1960s, generation after generation have been held spellbound by his extraordinary ground-breaking guitar playing and classic emotive songs.
Bert At The BBC
Bert At the BBC is a comprehensive collection of Jansch’s appearances at the BBC, featuring over eight hours of rare and unreleased recordings, including live-on-air spots, studio sessions and full concerts straight from the BBC vaults, delving further into this legendary performer’s canon. Bert Jansch was the very essence of folk music, providing inspiration for everyone from Paul Simon and Neil Young to Led Zeppelin and countless folk revivalists. This unparalleled limited-edition compendium i…
The Black Swan
* 2020 stock. Last Copies * Originally found on Jansch’s final album of the same name, The Black Swan is featured here on a 7” single, flanked by an early demo. The two songs are at parallels; where the demo shows the bare bones of the track (working title: ’Space Highway’), the finished article is something altogether more orchestral, with Helena Espvall’s (then of Espers) soaring cello providing a foil for Jansch’s supremely melodic refrain.
Fans will surely be intrigued to see the process inv…
Santa Barbara Honeymoon
The second of two albums that Bert wrote in America in the mid 70s, ‘Santa Barbara Honeymoon’ foregrounds some of Bert Jansch’s most charming and addictive melodies. Album highlights include ‘Baby Blue’, ‘Lost and Gone’ and a reworking of Jackson C. Frank’s ‘Blues Run The Game’. It was recorded in America over a two month period and is another departure for Bert Jansch, mixing his familiar style with a more produced sound – utilising backing singers and session players including horns, steel dru…
L.A. Turnaround
First of a diptych of albums recorded in and influenced by Bert Jansch’s time in America. As the title suggests, this album was something of a contrast to Jansch’s usual style – taking in swathes of Nashville-infused pedal steel to sparkling effect. Produced in part by the Monkees’ Mike Nesmith, whose guidance is much in evidence on this perfectly measured slice of British country-rock.
A Rare Conundrum
Though recorded in England, Bert Jansch’s time in America recording the preceding ‘L.A. Turnaround’ and ‘Santa Barbara Honeymoon’ is still much in evidence. The breezy, bluesy style carries effortless across standout tracks ‘Looking For a Home’ and ‘3AM’, alongside the more familiar UK folk territory of ‘The Curragh of Kildare’ and ‘Pretty Saro’. Recorded at London’s now-legendary Air Studios, the production – steered by Jansch and new collaborator Rod Clements – has a wonderful lightness of tou…
A Man I'd Rather Be (Part 1) - 4LP Book
Comprising Bert Jansch’s seminal 1960s output (alongside his only album as a duet with Pentangle bandmate John Renbourn) this four disc set covers an era that forged creative paths for everyone from Neil Young to Johnny Marr. New listening notes from Bill Leader, as well as unseen photographs from Brian Shuel complete this special collection. Where to start with a career as prolific as that of Bert Jansch? Why, the beginning of course. Bert’s first studio (though as Bill Leader rightly poin…
Rosemary Lane
Release Date on May 5th. By the time Rosemary Lane was released in 1971, Bert Jansch had covered a great deal of territory on numerous albums as a solo artist, collaborations with John Renbourn and records by the band in which he and Renbourn sang and played guitar, Pentangle. Returning to the intimate economy of his self-titled debut LP from a half-dozen or so years earlier, Rosemary Lane was recorded on portable equipment by engineer/producer Bill Leader and featured Jansch with no accompani…
Birthday Blues
Release Date on May 5th. Bert Jansch's freewheeling fifth album, Birthday Blues, occupies a unique place in his solo discography. Released in 1969, the same year Basket of Light propelled Pentangle into the UK pop charts, Birthday Blues almost sounds like a Pentangle LP missing John Renbourn and Jacqui McShee. Backed-up by bandmates Danny Thompson and Terry Cox, Jansch neither holds back his characteristic moodiness nor takes himself too seriously. What's more, Jansch is in love. Heather Rosem…
Living In The Shadows
Signifying a return to form that heralded one of the most prolific periods of his life, this special collection features some of Jansch’s finest work. Living In the Shadows includes an extra disc of demos, alternate versions and never-before heard tracks, transferred from Jansch’s personal tapes, alongside the three studio albums of the 1990s: The Ornament Tree, When The Circus Comes To Town and Toy Balloon. This trio of works represents quite different facets of Jansch’s talent; where Circus is…
Live In Australia
Bert Jansch, playing Live In Australia, in a cafe in 1998. This is a highly direct set, being mostly comprised only of Bert and his guitar, singing familiar favourite songs and newer lat-90’s material alike. The audio has been carefully remastered for this release, which is available on CD or LP, both with liner notes by Colin Harper. On Earth Recordings.
Jack Orion
Jack Orion, Bert Jansch's third album, may have surprised some fans upon its 1966 release, as it features no original compositions by Jansch. While nearly all of the eight tracks (four of which include guitarist John Renbourn) are interpretations of traditional folk songs, Jansch's experimental approach breathes new life into this repertoire through his exploratory use of open tunings and passionate, gritty vocals.According to Melody Maker, "his interpretations illuminate the songs from a comple…
It Don't Bother Me
Bert Jansch recorded his second album in 1965, just after his self-titled debut earlier that same year. The sessions were a step-up from the intimate, field-recording setting of his first album, although still not labored over too much in the studio. 'I figured that the faster I put down the tracks, the faster I could get out of the place,' Jansch told NME, 'so I just ordered about a dozen bottles of wine, put the microphone in front of me and off I went, for three hours.' The lyrics of I…
Bert Jansch
Scottish singer-songwriter Bert Jansch recorded his first album in producer Bill Leader's London flat with a borrowed guitar, sitting on the edge of the bed and singing into a portable tape recorder. As author Richie Unterberger writes in the liner notes, "When Bert Jansch's self-titled debut LP was issued in April 1965, he was already a major figure on the British folk scene. His synthesis of traditional British folk with blues and a bit of jazz was at the vanguard of a new generation of UK fol…
The river session
Recorded live at City Hall in Glasgow in 1974, this is an extraordinary set drawing from the 2 albums of the period: "LA Turnaround" & "Santa Barbara Honeymoon"