Now this really is a switch: Scottish guitar hero and songwriter
Bert Jansch
(
Pentangle
) recording for
Drag City
, with a host of admirers in tow --
Beth Orton
,
Devendra Banhart
Noah Georgeson
(who performed and co-produced with
Jansch
),
Helena Espvall
, son
Adam Jansch
, and more.
Black Swan
is a collection of original and
traditional
tunes.
turns in a performance that shows his typical restraint, and within it his wonder as a guitarist. His use of the
blues
, American,
Celtic
, and British Isles
folk
forms is also informed by music from Eastern Europe, and he ties them all together seamlessly.
"High Days,"
a solo track, uses all three, as he winds out an elegy for a friend.
"When the Sun Comes Up"
begins with
Orton
's vocal and
David Roback
's slide guitar and
Otto Hauser
's drums, shuffling underneath.
spills it
modal
and bluesy,
grabs onto his changes and effortlessly lets her voice wrap around his lyric lines. Her signing on the
number
"Katie Cruel"
has been brilliantly rearranged by
.
Banhart
sings in a muted duet with
, but his vocal was unnecessary. It's a spooky track that's been prepared for by the preceding cuts. The slippery
Piedmont blues
style
tucks into his
British folk
on
"My Pocket's Empty"
is evocative of an earlier, simpler time, though as revealed by the tune, times were hard then, too.
's singing is at its most expressive here; he's moaning in his reedy baritone.
makes one more appearance here on the gorgeous and-all-too-brief arrangement of the
tune
"Watch the Stars."
Hers and
's vocals take the tine out of the song's Southern American birthplace and brings it into the world, one grainy line at a time. It's a singalong
that reveals the sheer expanse of the universe in the grain of their voices. Ultimately, this disc is not so different from
's others, but it is wonderfully spirited and loose. It feels live, and backroomish. It's as informal a date as one can find among superstars -- and make no mistake, you may or may not know his name, but his large catalog proves it --
is one. As for the rest, the hardscrabble dirty, slide guitar-drenched English
of
"A Woman Like You"
rings as true as a
Texas blues
love song by
Lightnin' Hopkins
Traditional
public domain nuggets such as
"The Old Triangle"
are almost radically reworked and ring spookily true for the current era. The
blues-rock
of the humorously political
"Texas Cowboy Blues,"
complete with keyboards and popping acoustic 12-strings, shimmies and even shakes in places. The last few cuts, a gorgeous
instrumental
called
"Magdalina's Dance,"
and
"Hey Pretty Girl"
(performed solo), are drenched in historical tropes, but are thoroughly modern and soulful. The bottom line is this: for the past ten years
has been undergoing a creative renaissance akin to
Bob Dylan
's and people are slowly but surely finding what he has on offer.
proves that the guitarist and songwriter has a bounty at his disposal. He is writing and recording music that is profound, funny, topical, worldly, and ultimately, necessary. ~ Thom Jurek