The Lady and the Unicorn / The Hermit

Album Review

This CD combines some of the contents of two John Renbourn albums, his 1976 LP The Hermit and The Lady and the Unicorn from 1970. The tracks from The Lady and the Unicorn come first, oddly enough, but at least that album is presented in its entirety as tracks one through eight. Tracks nine through 16 constitute a truncated, re-sequenced version of The Hermit, missing the tracks "Faro's Rag," "Goat Island," "Bicycle Tune," and "John's Tune." The two albums make a good combination, as both find Renbourn addressing classically influenced traditional British folk music effectively, though he uses group arrangements on The Lady and the Unicorn, while the tracks from The Hermit are guitar performances. Perhaps the two LPs wouldn't fit on a single CD complete, however, and that's the reason for this curious arrangement.