ONE MORE ROAD

Of all The Pentangle´s latter albums, this is my favorite. The band has come a long way and their sound changed a lot: gone were the R&B, gospel and jazz influences, but the folk roots, the great musicanship and tasteful arrangements are all there. And with legendary singers like Jaqui McShee and Bert jansh, who could ask for more? The new band members Peter Kirtley (guitars), Nigel Portman-Smith (bass and keyboards) and Gerry Conway (drums, percussion) gave the band a new, more folk rock imput to their early basic acoustic sound. Ex member Mike Piggott guests on three tracks playing the fiddle.

The tracklist is simply one of their best, a good selection of tradtional folk numbers arranged by the band mixed with some original material. of the former is interesting tonotice the re-recording of two songs included on Salomon´s Seal (their last record issued with the original line up in the 70´s): High Germany and Willy Of Winsbury. Both are better than tha album´s versions, specially the latter, with the piano introduction making them sound like early Renaissance (McShee´s voice never cease to surprise me of how similar her timbre is of that of Annie Haslam´s).

Jansh´s trademark terrific acoustic guitar technique is, fortunatly, all over the place and is one fo the record´s highlights. His vocals are also great and he can handle such obvious traditional numbers like Are You Going to Scaraborough Fair and still make it sound like it was completely new. Together he and McShee are really a tremendous team few folk bands, fi any, can beat. The Pentangle even include for the first time an ´ethic´ based song in the form of their original Somali (fine percussion job done by Conway), The recording is very well done and balanced.

Sure there is little prog in here, but, boy, are they good! If you´re into prog folk, folk rock or melodic music in general, you should not miss this one! Their original line up may be their best remembered by traditionalists, but their latter day releases are not to be overlooked. Rating: four stars.