John Renbourn
Johns first album (1965) was heavily into blues guitar, but with his second, a year later, he’d made some interesting shifts of emphasis. For one thing, he’d met a fellow guitarist on the West End club circuit - Bert Jansch; and for another, both had been knocked out by the work of guitarist Davey Graham. In 1966 John recorded what was to become a classic album with Bert Jansch entitled ‘Bert & John’, in which Jazz and Folk elements mingled with Blues in a flurry of heterophonic dialogues that the critics were quick to label ‘Folk-Baroque’. This new development reached its apogee with the formation of Pentangle in 1967, an awesome fusion which burst traditional categories thoroughly, but so tastefully, that protagonists in the traditional versus contemporary dogfight were shamed into contrition. During, and after the 5 year life of Pentangle, John had been following up another, totally different direction, producing an album in 1968 which on one side offered a selection of jazzy up-tempo blues and acoustic Rock’n’Roll numbers, and on the other, folk tune arrangements, authentic Tudor pieces, and some extended self-penned tunes in the Tudor style. This album proved to be the starting point which led him to making the many classic solo albums for which he has now become famous. Currently, John tours the world regularly both as a solo artist and with The John Renbourn Group.
