Jack Orion

iTunes Review

For British acoustic-folk heavyweight Bert Jansch’s third album, he decided to record a set of traditional tunes in their unadulterated form. Future Pentangle collaborator John Renbourn again joins Jansch on four of the album’s eight tracks and the result is another automatic classic for the British folk canon. The playing is solid and dexterous, flashy but never for its own sake. “The Wagonner’s Lad” is a swift, spirited instrumental. Ewan MacColl’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” is a modest, brief and touching instrumental piece. “The Gardener” is a brief but excited vocal and guitar number. “Nottamun Town” (where Dylan swiped the melody for “Masters of War”) is timeless. “Blackwater Side” would be adapted soonafter by Led Zeppelin in a heavier format as the instrumental “Black Mountain Side.”  The nearly ten-minute title track is epic. Aside from a brief period in the mid-‘70s, Jansch would rarely feel the need to go much beyond his folk roots, but his performances of his beloved genre remain the gold standard to which many aspire.