Bert Jansch- L.A. Turnaround

I’m not a big singer songwriter guy. I like Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Paul Simon et al, well enough, but not enough to have any of their work on heavy rotation. The same holds true for Bert Jansch. After this review, I might check out his first album, the one that got him famous and see if there’s anything there, but if that doesn’t yield anything I’ll move on.

Part of it is that Jansch’s lyrics don’t have the kind of bite I like. There’re some truly lovely sentiments: “If I was a bird I’d nest in your hair just to be near you.” But those are rather fewer and farther between than they need to be to get my interest. It doesn’t help that this is a very earnest album so there’s not that tang of irony I’ve grown to love.

One thing that I can say for Jansch is that he’s an excellent guitar player. I only know that because I know some excellent guitar players and he sounds like them. I read a description of his style and it sounded like someone was trying to teach me fractions all over again. He likes to “decorate” his chords with ninths which leads to a “lumpy” sound. (Source: Wikipedia) He also likes to bend the top note of a chord. What effect that has I have no idea, but it sounds impressive on paper.

3/5 Bert Jansch will always sound like the best guy at the open mic. He’s a great guitar player and an interesting songwriter. He’s influenced Paul Simon, Nick Drake and a handful of others. For some, there is definitely something here worth checking out. Just maybe not for me.