Bert & John

A humble, intimate set, this one, from the time when Bert Jansch and John Renbourn were living in a building in St. John’s Wood, London, hanging out with nascent folk revival royalty – Anne Briggs and The Young Tradition were living in the downstairs apartment, too. Bert & John landed at a particularly creative juncture for both guitarists, with Jansch readying his Jack Orion album, and Renbourn about to release Another Monday, and the formation of their boundary-breaking quintet, The Pentangle, mere months away. Nothing here sounds like a dry run for any of that action, though – if Bert & John sounds casual, it’s simply down to the joy of two friends and fellow musicians weaving their six strings around each other. There’s a jazzy freedom to the playing here, their take on Mingus’s “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” a good indication of where they’re at, though the songs shine the brightest, with Jansch’s brooding “Soho,” and a wistful take on Briggs’s “The Time Has Come” the album’s strongest moments.