Search - Bert Jansch :: Birthday Blues

Jansch and the Pentangle rhythm section play the blues

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 05/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Neil Young once said that Bert Jansch did for the acoustic guitar in the 1960s what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar, and you can take that statement at face value or you can listen to just about any album Jansch ever recorded and hear for yourself. "Birthday Blues" is a 1969 album from the period when Jansch was playing with John Renbourn in Pentangle, and the rhythm section from the group (Danny Thompson on bass and Terry Cox on drums) show up on some of these tracks to support Jansch. The result is pretty much in between a purely Jansch album, where it is just him and his guitar, and a full-blown Pentangle effort.



All of the songs are written by Jansch (with "Wishing Well" co-written with Anne Briggs) and while this still qualifies as a British folk album he is definitely playing the blues more than we usually find on such albums. The most atypical track on "Birthday Blues" is the opening song, "Come Sing Me a Happy Song to Prove We All Can Get Along the Lumpy, Bump" (the title should prove it. This is a cheerful little tune, followed by the melancholy "The Bright New Year," which is closer to the mark. The two best blues tracks on the album are "I've Got a Woman" (at 5:15 this is a very long track for Jansch), while the title track is actual one of those songs that reminds you of the Renaissance.



I always look forward to the instrumental tracks on these albums, because first and foremost Jansch is one of the premier guitar-pickers of his generation. On this one that would be "Miss Heather Rosemary Sewell," "Birthday Blues," and "Blues." "Poison" is the other album that made it to the "Best of Bert Jansch" collection. The other thing that stands out on this album is that there are a couple of tracks that remind me of other groups. "A Woman Like You" has a Doors sound to it and "Promised Land" definitely reminds me of Jethro Tull, which is rather a surprise. That might be why I ended up rounding up on this one, but even when I do not like his music choices I have always enjoyed listening to Jansch play."