For a man who’s influenced everyone from Jimmy Page and Neil Young through to Johnny Marr & Bernard Butler, it’s unsurprising that the current wave of folkies has finally caught up with him. Sharing bills with the Fence crew and Adem, and it’s heartening to see that the ‘new folk’ has embraced this affable and still-entertaining artist.
Jansch, like most ‘`seminal’ artists is unheard of by all apart from a discerning few – never having come within a sniff of the charts (apart from his stint with ‘folk supergroup’ Pentangle), his following in his home country (which he left for London in the early 60s) is even more select. The accent has been replaced with a neutral twang, but as ever, this is a man who talks through his instrument, with that kind of between-songs chat that’s punctuated by little virtuoso licks on his acoustic.
The ABC is a venue more used to packed-out rock shows but the organisers have cleverly set up tables giving a cabaret setting with a good throng packed standing at the back. It’s also well-suited to the whoops of recognition at the opening chords of some of the more obscure tunes in the set.
The songs are in the main self-penned and there’s a clutch from his legendary debut eponymous debut – his “psychedelic era” as he announces opener ‘`I Have No Time’, delivered as with all tonight’s selection in that distinctively folky, slightly nasal twang.
If Donovan was Scotland’s answer to Dylan, it’s uncertain where Jansch fitted in at that time – he announces ‘Strolling Down The Highway’ as his equivalent of Dylan doing Route 66 (an undoubted slip of the tongue). The between-song patter becomes more surreal, tales of afternoons on Paris’ left bank with bread hats and mice-infested hair.
Scattered among Jansch’s own material there’s plenty of ancient tunes such as ‘She Moves Through the Fair’ as well as the original songs which chart his 40-year career. Surprisingly perhaps there’s no ‘Needle of Death’, but given a dedication for Victor Jara (a Chilean singer murdered by Pinochet’s regime) and the less-than-cheery ‘Poison’ to close, perhaps it’s just as well. After all, with a new album The Black Swan forthcoming and featuring Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart, and the current folk scene finally embracing this past master, things are looking up for Bert Jansch. (Stuart McHugh)
