One Angle

Another compilation album, this one somewhat clunkily entitled Bert Jansch Legend The Classic Recordings. It does what it inelegantly says though. with twenty representative tracks from back in the sixties. Since Jansch's music is mainly acoustic with little accompaniment from others it doesn't sound at all dated, either in terms of style or production. Labelled a folk singer mainly because of the venues he first played, his work is varied. There are interpretations of traditional songs but also self penned numbers, songs by other contemporaries, blues and jazz. Jansch has the blues and jazzy idiom pretty much down, he has been as influential as he was himself influenced by Davy Graham. But the guitar playing is perhaps most interesting when it goes into that peculiarly folky area resonant of church bells and ancient aires. His voice is one of those non voices that somehow seems to work in popular music and manages to sound soulful and affecting while always seeming to be on the edge of falling apart. Most of the songs are performed solo, there is one number from Pentangle and a couple of others where various Pentangle members assist, plus nice flute contributions from Ray Warleigh.