John Renbourn - Any recs?

[foxwelljsly]

I have the Pentangle albums, sirjohnalotof and The lady and The Unicorn, all of which are excellent.

Anything else by him that's worth hearing? I always imagined the law of diminishing returns would apply to his later work - although I would be delighted if this assumption proved to be incorrect.

Cheers Chaps

Simon

 

[Tony L]

'Bert And John', with Bert Jansch from the 60s on Transatlantic is just amazing. I'm sure more are too, but I haven't got round to listening to them yet! He is a hell of a good guitarist IMO.

Tony.

 

[Nick_S]

Renbourn, John & Grossman, Stefan ~ Three Kingdoms, The

Very enjoyable,

Nick

 

[foxwelljsly]

Cheers Tony, forgot, I have that one too. It is indeed very good.

 

[kasperhauser]

"The Black Balloon" is my fave, with "Under the Volcano" (with Stefan Grossman) a close second.

 

[johnfromnorwich]

'Bert And John', with Bert Jansch from the 60s on Transatlantic is just amazing. I'm sure more are too, but I haven't got round to listening to them yet! He is a hell of a good guitarist IMO.

Tony.

Ditto. The 2 guitars are panned hard left and right for maximum effect. Pity it's so short..

 

[david ellwood]

I saw john renbourn tour with issac guillory as a duo some years back.
One of them was struggling to keep up as the other was holding back to avoid embarrassment.

Obviously he is touring at the moment with the reformed pentangle.

looking forward to seeing again the genius of danny thompson.

 

[The Captain]

'Bert And John', with Bert Jansch from the 60s on Transatlantic is just amazing. I'm sure more are too, but I haven't got round to listening to them yet! He is a hell of a good guitarist IMO.

Tony.

what's the betting the sales didn't go through the roof, with a title as inspred as 'Bert and John'..

I was introduced to John Renbourne once- very kindly and down to earth sort of gent, not that it's of any interest here.

 

[Central Audio]

The Hermit,one of my all time favourite guitar albums.

 

[foxwelljsly]

Thanks all, will get 'The Hermit' and 'The Black Balloon'.

May check out some of the Stefan Grossman collaborations, but have have to confess an aversion to this chap as he's always struck me as a bit of a honky Gary Davis show-off fanboy type (I have 2 studio and 1 live lp of his).

 

[2by2]

May check out some of the Stefan Grossman collaborations, but have have to confess an aversion to this chap as he's always struck me as a bit of a honky Gary Davis show-off fanboy type (I have 2 studio and 1 live lp of his).

I can understand that reaction, but are you aware that he studied with Gary Davis? Also that he was close to John Hurt (who used one of Grossman's Martins for some studio recordings). He puts out very good instructional books and DVDs and rare footage DVDs. He is a fine guitarist, but not a great singer.

 

[foxwelljsly]

Wasn't aware he'd studied with Gary Davis and John Hurt, although from his proficiency with many of their compositions, I'm not surprised.

I think the reason I like Gary Davis and John Hurt is because they express lively run-ins with humanity. Stefan Grossman expresses a life spent practicing the guitar.

Same goes for a lot of musos. Ry Cooder is a notable exception.

 

[Darth Vader]

I've met them all over the years mainly in a pub on the river bank in Putney and also the same in Richmond. Both places are on the Thames.

Bert Jansch always had a fag (reefer?) in his gob..........

All their stuff is good and Jansch is a lot more creative than Renbourne er um I think! Anywho they are all great musicians. Probably the weakest link was Jacquie but then she fitted in extremely well.

I love em all! Oh! and I still play their stuff!

Cheers,

DV

 

[bottleneck]

relatively recent discovery for me - john renbourne.. although I have SSB to thank for Bert Jansch

Pentangle have reformed for some gigs by the way, some of which are next week.

I only have 2 John Renbourn albums, but of the two I listen to this one most - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000005C5E/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21 .. which has 35 tracks on it.

The version of 'Jack Orion' on here I like better than Bert's version on the album of the same name. I should probably be shot in the ear for that or something.

 

[foxwelljsly]

The version of 'Jack Orion' on here I like better than Bert's version on the album of the same name. I should probably be shot in the ear for that or something.

Pentangle's version on 'Cruel Sister' is worth hearing, too. John Renbourn goes all prog freakout on it.

 

[paulfromcamden]

I've kinda got mixed feelings about Stefan Grossman too. He can clearly play but his records feel more like learning aids than records to be listened to for pleasure.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Anyway, so far it sounds like any John Renbourne is good John Renbourne.

Are there any absolute stinkers one should avoid?

 

[2by2]

I've kinda got mixed feelings about Stefan Grossman too. He can clearly play but his records feel more like learning aids than records to be listened to for pleasure.

That's fair to say. On Renbourn, I saw him some while back in that club-under-a-pub in Crouch End (London). Forget the name. Really good. Jacqui Shea sang some stuff too. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that he played a Joseph Spence tune. Spence is maybe not so widely known, but his playing was something very special. His "singing" is to be treasured too.

 

[foxwelljsly]

That's fair to say. On Renbourn, I saw him some while back in that club-under-a-pub in Crouch End (London). Forget the name. Really good. Jacqui Shea sang some stuff too. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that he played a Joseph Spence tune. Spence is maybe not so widely known, but his playing was something very special. His "singing" is to be treasured too.

2by2

There's 3 Joseph Spence adaptations on the Jazz LP by Ry Cooder and I've been meaning to investigate his work for a while. Can you link to some recs?

BTW, I think the club/pub you refer to is the Kings Head.

 

[kasperhauser]

I have this one. I learn something new every time I hear it.