What an album. Oh, what an album. One of those albums that made me want to wrap it up and put it away for safekeeping. It's inspiration spelled out. What do you mean you don't like folk music?

To start off with, Jansch recorded his self-titled debut album at nineteen years of age, on a portable recorder, in a kitchen, using a borrowed guitar. Probably not unheard of, but brave. And you'd think how bad the quality must be. And you'd think how bad Jansch's voice must be without studio tampering. And you'd be thinking wrong. Bert Jansch is a great guitarist. At nineteen he seemed to be stroking, loving and dismantling the acoustic guitar. There are ageless melodies and harmonies that cradle your heart. His voice varies with a youthful desperation whilst the lyrical content is very strong.

Smokey River is a fast paced guitar solo that carries you, with its tempo, down the river. It's an indication of Jansch's guitar skills. I Have No Time has a magical quality about it, with an interesting lyrical quality, talking in ifs and results, 'if famine crossed the waters that be the death of you' for example. Rambling's Going To Be The Death Of Me is personal, a song that people could relate to, 'girl don't deny the freedom that's bored me, girl don't deny that a rambler must always be free'. Apparently Needle Of Death was quite the popular song in 1965, symbolising times of drugs and paranoia. Needle Of Death is obviously an anti-heroin song, 'your troubled young life had made you turn to a needle of death'. Do You Hear Me Now? Has that desperate quality I mentioned earlier, being a protest song spat out with anxiety. Dreams Of Love sounds slightly Beatlesque but has an overwhelming sound of a lone folk musician dreaming of love. Jansch's version of Davey Graham's tune Angie, which closes out the album, is a guitar solo that you probably have heard before somewhere in the background and have been unconsciously amazed at its mood.

I think it's harder to explain something you love than something you dislike. Place this album alongside your Dylans and Guthries. At times Bert Jansch is more musically powerful than the aforementioned.

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4.5/5