Record Reviews - RecordDB

Artist	Title	Review
Bob James	Hands Down
Colin James	Bad Habits
Elmore James	Anthology Of The Blues Vol 1
Elmore James	Anthology Of The Blues Vol 10
Elmore James	Best Of Elmore James
Elmore James	History Of Elmore James
Elmore James	Original Folk Blues
Elmore James	To Know A Man
Elmore James	Black and Blues
Elmore James	Crossroads
Elmore James	Dust My Broom
Skip James	Cypress Grove Blues
Jeno Jando	Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2.
Bert Jansch	Lucky Thirteen	<p>Many fans of the British folk revival hold this as the quintessential Burt Jansch document. While including career highlights in his interpretation of Davey Graham's "Angie" and his own stunning answer song "Veronica" as the introduction and centrifugal instrumentals, the album also contains "Needle of Death," which must be the darkest rumination on drug addiction recorded. The song's blue spirit and ambience has been interpreted by Roy Harper and Wizz Jones, both of whom present the song as an awestruck tribute to the greatly modest Jansch. On Lucky Thirteen, the guitarist swings between his Anglo-inflected circular songs and the blues form that he so loved and later abandoned, not so much replacing it as homogenizing it into his own self-defined style. Titles such as "Rambling's Gonna Be the Death of Me acknowledge his debt to the great blues artists such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, while "Running From Home" and "Casbah" expose a great affection for traditional Scottish and Irish music. To call the recording style pragmatic would be an understatement; the intimacy touches on desolation, with an almost overly private air in which gasps of breath and scratching of strings become as much a part of the music as his astonishing technique and exquisite baritone.</p><p>— <strong>Dean McFarlane</strong></p>
Bert Jansch	Lucky Thirteen	<p>Many fans of the British folk revival hold this as the quintessential Burt Jansch document. While including career highlights in his interpretation of Davey Graham's "Angie" and his own stunning answer song "Veronica" as the introduction and centrifugal instrumentals, the album also contains "Needle of Death," which must be the darkest rumination on drug addiction recorded. The song's blue spirit and ambience has been interpreted by Roy Harper and Wizz Jones, both of whom present the song as an awestruck tribute to the greatly modest Jansch. On Lucky Thirteen, the guitarist swings between his Anglo-inflected circular songs and the blues form that he so loved and later abandoned, not so much replacing it as homogenizing it into his own self-defined style. Titles such as "Rambling's Gonna Be the Death of Me acknowledge his debt to the great blues artists such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, while "Running From Home" and "Casbah" expose a great affection for traditional Scottish and Irish music. To call the recording style pragmatic would be an understatement; the intimacy touches on desolation, with an almost overly private air in which gasps of breath and scratching of strings become as much a part of the music as his astonishing technique and exquisite baritone.</p><p>— <strong>Dean McFarlane</strong></p>
Bert Jansch	Jack Orion	<p>After presenting almost all-original sets on his first two albums (albeit originals that sometimes borrowed heavily from traditional folk themes), Jansch opted to devote all of his third LP to traditional folk numbers. His future Pentangle partner John Renbourn joins him on four of the eight songs. Highlights include the ten-minute title track (whose length was a real oddity on contemporary folk albums of the time) and a cover of "Nottamun Town" (whose melody Dylan lifted for "Masters of War"). Not as original as the artist's first two LPs, the guitar and vocal work on these adaptations were still as influential to the '60s folk world as anything else in Jansch's catalog.</p><p>— <strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p>
Bert Jansch	Jack Orion	<p>After presenting almost all-original sets on his first two albums (albeit originals that sometimes borrowed heavily from traditional folk themes), Jansch opted to devote all of his third LP to traditional folk numbers. His future Pentangle partner John Renbourn joins him on four of the eight songs. Highlights include the ten-minute title track (whose length was a real oddity on contemporary folk albums of the time) and a cover of "Nottamun Town" (whose melody Dylan lifted for "Masters of War"). Not as original as the artist's first two LPs, the guitar and vocal work on these adaptations were still as influential to the '60s folk world as anything else in Jansch's catalog.</p><p>— <strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p>
Bert Jansch	Nicola	<p>Jansch's third solo album is perhaps too lightly dismissed by both folk critics and the artist himself. Bowing slightly to commercial pressures, he allowed orchestration to be used on five of the 12 tracks. Actually, the orchestrated cuts aren't that bad at all, and the remainder are pretty much keeping with the character and high standard of his other '60s work. Nine of the 12 cuts are Jansch originals, and ably display his nimble guitar work, incorporation of blues, traditional British Isles folk influences into a contemporary style, and his Donovan-esque vocals. For the first and only time, he played both electric and acoustic guitars on this LP; it's also his first work to feature drumming. Some of the orchestrated numbers, especially "Woe Is Love, My Dear," were actually deemed to have potential as singles. That didn't happen (the cut "Wish My Baby Was Here" would have been a better choice in any event), but that doesn't take away from their fey period charm.</p><p>— <strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p>
Bert Jansch	Nicola	<p>Jansch's third solo album is perhaps too lightly dismissed by both folk critics and the artist himself. Bowing slightly to commercial pressures, he allowed orchestration to be used on five of the 12 tracks. Actually, the orchestrated cuts aren't that bad at all, and the remainder are pretty much keeping with the character and high standard of his other '60s work. Nine of the 12 cuts are Jansch originals, and ably display his nimble guitar work, incorporation of blues, traditional British Isles folk influences into a contemporary style, and his Donovan-esque vocals. For the first and only time, he played both electric and acoustic guitars on this LP; it's also his first work to feature drumming. Some of the orchestrated numbers, especially "Woe Is Love, My Dear," were actually deemed to have potential as singles. That didn't happen (the cut "Wish My Baby Was Here" would have been a better choice in any event), but that doesn't take away from their fey period charm.</p><p>— <strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p>
Bert Jansch	Birthday Blues	<p>It's no accident that Jansch's 1969 album sounds like a modified version of the Pentangle. He was a member of the great British folk-rock group at the time of this album's release, which was produced by Shel Talmy (who also worked with the Pentangle). And he's backed by the group's sterling rhythm section of Danny Thompson (bass) and Terry Cox (drums), with occasional touches of harmonica (played by British blues singer Duffy Power), alto sax, and flute. The effect is akin to hearing an unbalanced Pentangle, with no John Renbourn on dueling guitar or Jacqui McShee on vocals. That's not at all a bad thing -- Jansch was one of the group's main motors, and can still be a compelling writer and performer on his own. All of the cuts on this LP are originals, showing the artist leaning a little more toward bluesy styles than usual, though the mood is predominantly British folk. It's a pleasant effort, but not his best work, either as a solo performer or within a group context.<p><p>— <strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p>

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