British Artist
John
terriffic.. got an email from an old friend that he saw John Renhbourne in
Canada and that he was excellent...got to wondering if Bert Jansch performs
anymore...he must be 60 and had arthritis years ago.. but he was an
original..what makes those British fingerstyle artists so talented?...Is it
because of all the rain there and they have to stay inside and thus practice
more? skinny fingers perhaps?
ChrisRockcliffe
The UK folk and blues revivals of the late 1960s saw Jansch and
Renbourne touring first separately and then together. I saw all three
concerts around 67 and the two of them together was particularly
amazing. They appeared so relaxed and were truly having fun and
improvising all over the place.
They then formed Pentangle - a folk band which was not only big on the
folk and folk-rock scene, but entered the mainstream pop market and had
several top 20 hits. John Renbourne continues to tour very extensively
worldwide (I missed him playing locally about two weeks ago on his
return from the US/Canada tour (Damn!). Bert Jansch is something of a
recluse these days, but appears for the odd folk festival or two. Sorry
I can't be more help there.
Other than these guys, Martin Simpson is probably the most well-known of
UK fingerstylists and marrying an American and living in the US, has
helped his career enormously. He's over here about once a year for
concerts and seminars and sells out everywhere. But there are also a
number of brilliant younger UK players around too and most of them have
to work extremely hard and be lucky to make any impact at all over
here.
The UK's Doug B. Smith who's been at the last two UK Meets, has said as
much - and grabs any decent booking he can get. He's the first to admit
that there are players much better than himself who are really
struggling. He explained the UK situation to me...
Take all the weekly, bi-weekly and monthly folk and acoustic venues plus
a few festivals and add up all the potential gig opportunities - for
roughly nine months of the year. (Folk clubs close at Xmas/New Year in
July/August here because of the many folk festivals.) Then subtract
those weeks where most folk clubs don't have a paid artist or can't
afford one. Then divide the remainder between all the famous major acts
on the UK folk scene and those who tour from abroad each year and always
get a booking at particular venues.
Assume that clubs would only want you for one booking a year - very
occasionally perhaps two. It's a sobering calculation! There just
aren't enough paying opportunities to go around. In addition to
teaching guitar, Doug does a lot of free spots to raise his profile and
just can't get a promoter to take any real interest in him.
Getting the promoters to take an interest in fingerstyle guitarists -
let alone the more traditionally minded folk club organisers - is an
uphill task. Some venue organisers ARE very interested and many not at
all in guitar music.
It may be adversely affecting the acoustic guitar scene over here. It's
a fact that many people on the traditional folk scene are not guitar
enthusiasts and a few even hate the instrument. Acoustic music venue -
as against folk venues - are not as fully formed as in America, but
there has been a slow change over the last decade or so.
Of the younger, newer guys, Tony McManus (also at UK3 Belper) is making
very big waves and working very hard. Our own George Duff (who is a
friend of Tony's) said to me at UK3 that Tony had suddenly appeared on
the guitar scene here 'fully formed'.
I loved that expression, and even Tony's own guitar heroes - like for
instance Pierre Bensusan and Stefan Grossman - were amazed at seeing his
skill and unusual technique. However, I'm sure he'd tell us just how
difficult it is to break through to the higher levels of success.
As for the rain... I'm not sure... but it must further inspire the blues
as well as keeping the wonderful malt whisky flowing!
Gan canny,
Chris Rockcliffe
Ronan Toomey
<chrisro...@scripto99.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>return from the US/Canada tour (Damn!). Bert Jansch is something of a
>recluse these days, but appears for the odd folk festival or two. Sorry
>I can't be more help there.
I cant say how regularily Bert Jansch tours or performs but I saw him
here on tour last year sometime.
__
Beir bua agus beannacht,
Rónán.
Chris Stern
Martin Simpson here and I missed it!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!
(Sick as a parrot) Chris Stern
"John" <bel...@hotmail.comnospam> wrote in message
news:8fmh2j$qqr$1...@slb0.atl.mindspring.net...
ChrisRockcliffe
>
> I can't believe I knew nothing about it!
> Martin Simpson here and I missed it!
> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!
> (Sick as a parrot) Chris Stern
Chris,
Martin is of course now based in New Orleans since his move a while back
from California. I don't know how that helps you in Florida though
except that he may visit more often... if I see dates, I'll let you know
though.
Ronan Toomey said:
> I can't say how regularly Bert Jansch tours or performs but I saw him
> here on tour last year sometime.
Ronan,
I remember you asking here at the time about him. How was that Bert
Jansch concert... was it good? I haven't seen him play for mamy years.
Gan canny,
Chris Rockcliffe
David Sutton
fingers
perhaps aren't as nimble as they once were but he's still a great
player.
David Sutton
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Frank Hudson
> Jansch concert... was it good? I haven't seen him play for mamy years.
I saw him a couple of years ago in a dual bill with Archie Fisher. He
didn't come out blazing like a younger player might, but he **was** Bert
Jansch.
-Frank Hudson
remove the "x" when replying
Web page with sound samples, gear pics and tributes at:
http://www.users.uswest.net/~fhudson/
esth...@my-deja.com
chance to see him unfortunately. His name cropped up when I was talking
to an aquaintance at a jam last week who told me he'd played with Bert
Jansch a while back...
Spookily enough, Bert Jansch is one of the guests on 'Later...With Jools
Holland' this coming Saturday, on BBC2 here in the UK. Other guests on
the show will be Lou Reed, Al Jarreau and, ahem, Kylie Minogue, but
we'll skip over that...It'll be interesting to hear what he's up to
these days.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Ronan Toomey
<chrisro...@scripto99.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Ronan,
>I remember you asking here at the time about him. How was that Bert
>Jansch concert... was it good? I haven't seen him play for mamy years.
>
It was a good gig but not a great gig <G>. I felt at the time that he
was having difficulty singing and the guitar sound was pretty average.
It was in a venue that I have been in many times and the sound setup
is usually fairly good. Enjoyable nonetheless. Was at another great
gig last night (Monday - wow - the stress I put myself under!). Guy
Davis, an American Blues singer/guitarist/harmonicist (if that's a
word). Very witty bloke, super voice, and some great blues, ragtime
and country blues, and slide, and plenty of microbrewery beer.
>Gan canny,
>Chris Rockcliffe
no...@home.com
<chrisro...@scripto99.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>They then formed Pentangle - a folk band which was not only big on the
>folk and folk-rock scene, but entered the mainstream pop market and had
>several top 20 hits. John Renbourne continues to tour very extensively
>worldwide (I missed him playing locally about two weeks ago on his
>return from the US/Canada tour (Damn!). Bert Jansch is something of a
>recluse these days, but appears for the odd folk festival or two. Sorry
>I can't be more help there.
Renbourne played our club at the end of April in Toronto. We were
packed, standing room. One patron asked me how many people I thought
were in the room. When I said 150, he looked around and told me I was
crazy. I said it has to be 150 since that's what our occupancy permit
allows.
Renbourne played a nice mix of old and new, trad., bluesy and a few
jazzy numbers. I can't give any sort of playlist since I was working
the door and was busy all night. He played 3 encores, almost an hour.
You could tell the guitar players in the audience by the slight leaning
forward in their chairs and the intense concentration on John's finger
work.
When he was done, he spent almost another hour talking and answering
questions. Pretty good for someone on the last night of a long North
American tour.
I had taken a pile of money out of the bank to buy any recordings he had
for sale (so had a lot of others). I asked him why he hadn't brought
any product along. He said he has a habit of getting drunk and
forgetting the box of CD's somewhere so he doesn't bother anymore. You
gotta like an answer like that.
If John Renbourn is playing anywhere near you, go see him.
Doug Isherwood
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