JACK ORION

The third part of the archetype for the sound of future folk rock band The Pentangle, along with John Renbourn's Another Monday and the Jansch/Renbourn collaboration tilted Bert & John. The solo Jansch album Jack Orion, to me, may be the least accessible but the most important. By this time Bert Jansch hit upon adding musical accompaniment to traditional British folk songs using alternate guitar tunings such as DADGAD to create droning pseudo Celtic musical atmospheres. Employing his future Pentangle band mate John Renbourn to supplement his singing and playing on songs like 'Pretty Polly', 'The Wagoner's Lad', 'Henry Martin', and the stunning 9 minute long title track. Indeed, 'Jack Orion' may seem like a song with overlong verbiage but it is a long detailed Shakespearian-like drama that rewards close listening as the lyrics deal with deceit, betrayal, revenge, murder and suicide. All the key musical and lyrical elements that would soon find its way into the Pentangle's sound and make the band so great and so unique. Other album highlights include an instrumental acoustic reading of Ewan MacColl's 'The First Time Ever I saw Your Face' and Jansch's seminal adaption of the evergreen traditional song 'Blackwater Side'. Jansch's vocals are still a little on the rip-shod side, but better then those found on It Don't Bother Me. 3.5 stars rounded off to 4.