SOLOMON'S SEAL

This final album featuring the original Pentangle lineup of Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Jaqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox is not a bad album, and in fact is quite enjoyable taken on it's own merits. Gone forever, however, is the astounding guitar interplay between Jansch and Renbourn and the exciting experimental guitar based instrumentals in which they were performed. Instead, we have mix of traditional British and American folksongs, along with a handful of originals penned by both Jansch ("Jump Bay Jump", "People On The Highway") and double bassist Thompson ("No Love Is Sorrow"), which are excellent. Of The trad. songs "The Snows", "Willy O' Winsbury" and "Lady Of Carlisle" are the best, with the rest more than pleasant. Jacqui McShee's vocal is especially stellar on "Winsbury". The group manage to shake things up a bit by still employing eclectic instrumentation such as banjo and sitar, with Renbourn even playing recorder on three songs. The group's languorous cover of "Sally Free And Easy" is also a standout, with Jansch performing a perfect heartbroken sailor's lament with his made for the song lead vocal while McShee contributes a haunting wordless vocal to cap off the tune.

The down side is that the group has morphed into exactly what they claimed never to be. A British folk rock band. And that's exactly what they are on Solomon's Seal. Not much different from either Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span, who perfected the formula of playing traditional folksongs in a rock format just a few short years earlier. This Pentangle lineup was soon to dissolve after this album, so it's a fitting swansong as this lineup would not reunite until 2008! But what I would give to hear just one more experimental jazz/blues instrumental by these amazing musicians. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.