Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

I was sad to hear of Bert's passing earlier this week, wish I could have seen him play. Another legend gone but not forgotten. Here's his 1974 album LA Turnaround I shared back in April of 2010, for those so inclined: http://out-sounds.blogspot.com/2010/04/bert-jansch-la-turnaround-1974.html

But here's the 1965 debut; his guitar playing is deft and nimble- I remember reading somewhere that Jimmy Page lifted Bron-Yr-Aur from one of Jansch's arrangements. He was also highly regarded by (as well as being an influence on) Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, Johnny Marr and Neil Young.

Bert was 67 years old.

Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965, Transatlantic Records)

Mississippi John Hurt - The Immortal (1967)

You planning on doing any chillin' on your front porch this summer? 

Then let this be the soundtrack to those lazy, hazy summer evenings. 

The undisputed King of Piedmont and Country blues, allow me to introduce Mississippi John Hurt to the uninitiated. Hailing from tiny Teoc, MS, right where the farmland meets the hill country, this man could be found finger pick and grin to his heart's content. 

Living in relative obscurity until his career was resurrected in the early 1960s at the ripe old age of 70, he was nearly forgotten- having released a handful of singles to regional acclaim in the late-1920s he was all but left to the dustbin of history.

Long live the immortal John Hurt.
Mississippi John Hurt - The Immortal (1967; Vanguard Records)

Gene Clark - No Other (1974)

SoCal folk legend Gene Clark, late of The New Christy Minstrels and The Byrds nails it here on one of the finest yet weirdly obscure country rock gems this side of Bakersfield. 
Gene Clark - No Other (1974; Asylum Records)

Two Albums from... Roy Harper

Roy Harper is the best singer/songwriter that you aren't listening to; don't ask me how I know that you're not listening to him, but I know you're not.

Now you can. Here's two of his records from 1970 and '71 respectively; Flat Baroque and Berserk & Stormcock. One is 12 songs recorded in a more conventional format with lengths ranging between a minute-and-a-half and eight-plus minutes, with some straight-ahead Brit-folk interspersed with contemporary sounding rock and blues. The other is a sprawling, massive four-suite prog folk masterpiece.

Harper was name-checked by Led Zeppelin on the track Hats Off To (Roy Harper) on their third album and also the featured vocalist on Pink Floyd's Have a Cigar from Wish You Were Here. So he's your favorite musician's favorite musician. So you should be listening to him. A lot...

Flat Baroque and Berserk (1970; Harvest Records)

Stormcock (1971; Harvest Records)

Dirty Three - Ocean Songs (1998)

Besides being consummate musicians; Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White craft a sincere emotionality unlike no other, all without the use of words. Masters of their respective instruments (violin, guitar and drums) this Australian trio was founded in Melbourne in 1992 after the classically trained Ellis found being a schoolteacher to be a bit much. Attaching a guitar pickup to his violin... the story writes itself.

This may not be the consensus pick among fans as their best, but it's my favorite- as are most things with a nautical theme. Enjoy one of the most unique bands in music today, stuck somewhere between post-rock, slowcore and traditional folk...

Dirty Three - Ocean Songs (1998; Touch And Go Records)

John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death (1965)

If you play guitar and love all forms of it being played, then John Fahey is like a revelation. I've been playing for about 12 years now and no amount of practice or performance will ever get me anywhere near Fahey's playing (and I consider myself an above-average guitarist).

Fahey's story is as quintessential an American story as they come: born in 1939 to a nice family in Washington, DC; moving to a suburb after the war; falling in love with both the guitar and record collecting; starts his own record label (Takoma Records) with money he saved working at a gas station; graduates from college (degrees in philosophy & religion); moves to California to attend UC-Berkeley in 1963 (leaves after a year) and get's his master's degree at UCLA in folklore studies (his thesis was on the music of Charley Patton). He also traveled to Memphis to record blues legend Bukka White and put out an album of his in the meantime, and would eventually go on to release albums by other great guitarists like Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho and a then unknown George Winston. He'd later expand the label and sign some rock acts, like Canned Heat and The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Of course, since it's an American story the second act is the obligatory "where he loses it all" with a divorce, alcoholism, health problems and poverty; and of course the third act is one of redemption- working again with heavyweights in the experimental guitar scene like Jim O'Rourke, Derek Bailey, Sir Richard Bishop and pianist Cecil Taylor. Fahey died in 2002 from complications during a sextuple bypass open-heart surgery.

So enjoy an early album from the greatest folk-blues-primitive guitar legend of all-time...

John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death (1965; Riverboat Records)

Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Out Of Season (2002)

This album is the missing link between Talk Talk and Portishead; it's no wonder that Rustin Man (Paul Webb of Talk Talk) and Beth Gibbons were attracted to each other- I always thought Talk Talk was one of the main influences behind the whole trip-hop movement. Except this takes out almost all the acid jazz influence and replaces it with an even more downtempo approach (dare I say loungey vibe?) and inserts Gibbons' wavering and sometimes ancient sounding voice on top of Rustin Man's pastoral and fragile (as well as creepy at times) music.

Listen to one of the decade's best hidden gems; if you missed this one and liked Portishead's "comeback" album, you'll be able to hear Webb's influence on that record as well...

Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Out of Season (2002; Go! Beat Records)
-link opens to YouTube-

Alexander "Skip" Spence - Oar (1969)

File Skip Spence along with Nick Drake, Syd Barrett and Roky Erickson under the unfortunate category of "mental illness exacerbated by excessive drug use" casualties of the late 1960s; they all got a chance to record wonderful albums before (Drake), during (Barrett & Spence), or after (Erickson) complete breaks from reality.

Skip's story is a tough one; he was the original drummer for Jefferson Airplane, leaving after their first record and trading his drum kit for a guitar and amp. He then went on to have a successful few years as the main songwriter and guitarist for Moby Grape, but during the recording of their second record in New York, Skip had a bum LSD trip and he went off his nuts, trying to attack band mates Jerry Miller & Don Stevenson with an axe, chopping down their hotel door in the process. Then he went to CBS Records' executive offices and tried to attack their producer, David Rubinson. Skip was sent to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital for six months and pumped full of thorazine, this is the record he wrote while in the asylum. He went to Nashville, recorded this whole album in a few weeks on a three-track and disappeared to the woods near Santa Cruz, where he lived in a trailer until he passed away in '99.

It's a haunting and deeply affected personal statement from a man in the midst of some serious inner turmoil; there's some solace to be taken here in Spence's beautiful honesty and dark confessional lyrics. Listen to this album now!

Alexander "Skip" Spence - Oar (1969; CBS Records)

Kings Of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street (2004)

When I'm in a foul mood, this is one of the albums I put on. It has that certain something that creates just the right amount of perspective shift until I'm right sized again. 

Kings Of Convenience craft soft and folky melodies, courtesy the Norwegian duo of Eirik Glambek Bøe and Erlend Øye. 

Leslie Feist also appears on two tracks; this is really a pretty record, one of my favorite pop albums of the decade...

Kings Of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street (2004; Astralwerks Records)

Bert Jansch - L.A. Turnaround (1974)

Bert Jansch is better known for his associations with Brit-folk mainstays The Pentangle, as well as his duo work with band-mate John Renbourn. This album isn't even considered by his fans to be one of his best, I think the two records preceding this one (Rosemary Lane & Moonshine) are the two mentioned as the apex of his solo work.

I can understand why, here on L.A. Turnaround he abandoned his traditional British folk leanings and went to Los Angeles to record an album steeped in California-esque country folk-rock, not to mention ex-Monkee Mike Nesmith played on and produced this album.

If you dig the singer/songwriter country/folk thing, then this one's for you...

Bert Jansch - L.A. Turnaround (1974; The Famous Charisma Label)

Smog - Red Apple Falls (1997)

Bill Callahan, the one-man "band" hiding behind the Smog moniker, is one of my favorite modern-day miserablists. That's not even a word, according to spell check, but fuck it; I'm using it. He's up there with Leonard Cohen, Morrissey and Will Oldham. Of course, they've all softened with their ages; Cohen's art is usually centered around the broken-hearted; Mozza's become too self-aware, his misery is almost comedy these days and Oldham's as well is laughably ironic. But Callahan, you are a miserable sunnuvabitch.

Wilco wrote a song years ago called I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Bill never had to try to break your heart, he crushes it with this record...

Smog - Red Apple Falls (1997; Drag City Records)

Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains (1984)

Psych-tinged folk ditties from the quirky mind of Robyn Hitchcock. It's like he went through his old diaries, cleaned up the prose to make it rhyme and set it to this bare-bones and fragile music. Somewhat whimsical and zany, often times disturbing and dark; it's one of those albums I listen to and wonder if this is what Syd Barrett would've done if he hadn't gone batshit bonkers and retreated to his mum's basement to watch British soaps on the telly all day.

Maybe that's what Hitchcock imagined this record was; an homage of sorts to the crazy diamond himself.

Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains (1984; Midnight Music)

Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking (1969)

My favorite Fairport Convention record. This was the second of three albums released in 1969 (today's bands aren't even as good on one record every three years), and this line-up was the best they assembled. Sandy Denny is a goddess, vocally. And Richard Thompson- everything this man touches is golden. Add Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Martin Lamble; pure Brit-folk rock excellence. This is considered a "transitional" album, being the middle point between the straight ahead folk rock on What We Did On Our Holidays and the more-or-less traditional British folk with Liege & Lief all completed in the scope of less than 12 months.

It's up there with Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, John Martyn, The Pentangle, Steeleye Span and Richard & Linda Thompson's records. Masterpiece...

Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking (1969; Island Records)

Jack Rose - Kensington Blues (2005)

I was just reading a tribute to the recently departed Jack Rose in the most recent Signal To Noise magazine, and there's a touching story about his first encounter with German guitarist Steffen Basho-Junghans. "You have zee gut", remarking that Rose, like himself and John Fahey before them, had that chunky mid-section that shows years and years of devotion to the 6-and-12 string muse. Nobody stays in decent shape from sitting on their ass all day, but they sure can fingerpick some really nice tunes- so in a way the thing that Rose was living for was the thing that may have caused his heart attack at age 38.

This record, Kensington Blues, is named after the section of Philly that Rose called home for many years- if you've ever been then you know the sort of blues a place like that can instill in a man. Rose himself has said of this record that it's going to be the hardest to live up to; he really set the bar high with its eclectic mix of British folk, Indian ragas, ragtime and the blues.

So it's a shame that Jack Rose doesn't get the attention he deserves while he was alive, but here's my tribute to the man. Let's celebrate his life and his music; which probably is still a few years away from the world finally saying, "Holy shit, this man was a genius..."

Jack Rose - Kensington Blues (2005; VHF Records)