***LIMITED QTY RESTOCK!!! Bert Jansch’s freewheeling fifth album, Birthday Blues, occupies a unique place in his solo discography. Released in 1969, the same year Basket of Light propelled Pentangle into the UK pop charts, Birthday Blues almost sounds like a Pentangle LP missing John Renbourn and Jacqui McShee. Backed-up by bandmates Danny Thompson and Terry Cox, Jansch neither holds back his characteristic moodiness nor takes himself too seriously. What’s more, Jansch is in love. Heather Rosemary Sewell isn’t just the inspiration for one of the song titles; she also designed the cover, whose Hans Feurer front photo shows Bert holding the couple’s puppy. With just enough of a Donovanesque pop sense, Pentangle producer Shel Talmy keeps the overall feel of these recordings fresh, warm and immediate. As its playfully ambivalent title suggests, Birthday Blues reveals an artist fully comfortable in his own skin. Blues and folk influences are woven together into songs at once directly personal, yet generously light and free. The most “pop” of Jansch’s ‘60s solo recordings and perhaps one of his most underrated, Birthday Blues is a deep and rewarding family affair at the height of his musical powers. This vinyl release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes and features liner notes by Richie Unterberger.
LP $20.25
04/21/2017
By the time Rosemary Lane was released in 1971, Bert Jansch had covered a great deal of territory on numerous albums as a solo artist, collaborations with John Renbourn and records by the band in which he and Renbourn sang and played guitar, Pentangle. Returning to the intimate economy of his self-titled debut LP from a half-dozen or so years earlier, Rosemary Lane was recorded on portable equipment by engineer/producer Bill Leader and featured Jansch with no accompaniment save his guitar and voice. Rosemary Lane has elements of many of the styles Jansch covered in his extraordinarily eclectic career — from the folk and blues that were his bedrock to medieval music — yet cuts to the heart of his strength as spell-binding storyteller and empathic interpreter of isolation and want. Occasional instrumentals vary the mood that, like much of his work, is usually somber and introspective. Jansch once again lights the way forward with detours through the past. His sparse arrangements seamlessly merge original songwriting and traditional folk songs, while Jansch’s imaginative lyrics charm every step of the way — as if speaking directly to the listener alone. This vinyl release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes and features liner notes by Richie Unterberger.
LP $20.25
04/21/2017
Jack Orion, Bert Jansch’s third album, may have surprised some fans upon its 1966 release, as it features no original compositions by Jansch. While nearly all of the eight tracks (four of which include guitarist John Renbourn) are interpretations of traditional folk songs, Jansch’s experimental approach breathes new life into this repertoire through his exploratory use of open tunings and passionate, gritty vocals. According to Melody Maker, “his interpretations illuminate the songs from a completely new angle. As sung by him, with brilliant accompaniments, the brutal world that created the old ballads doesn’t seem so very far off.” The ten-minute title song foreshadows the future through the past: with his sublime retelling of this dark tale of desire and revenge, Jansch embarks on a musical trajectory he would further develop with his group Pentangle. In “Black Water Slide,” a haunting ballad he first heard from Anne Briggs, Jansch plants the seeds for future versions by Led Zeppelin and Sandy Denny. Jack Orion’s unique combination of medieval themes and progressive arrangements would pave the way for the next wave of the British folk revival and beyond. This vinyl release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes and features liner notes by Richie Unterberger.
LP $20.25
01/27/2017
Bert Jansch recorded his second album in 1965, just after his self-titled debut earlier that same year. The sessions were a step-up from the intimate, field-recording setting of his first album, although still not labored over too much in the studio. "I figured that the faster I put down the tracks, the faster I could get out of the place," Jansch told NME, "so I just ordered about a dozen bottles of wine, put the microphone in front of me and off I went, for three hours." The lyrics of It Don't Bother Me shift vividly between pure poetic imagery and the hollow resonance of pain. The LP's underrated title song stands as a manifesto for the way Jansch lived at the time. "My Lover," featuring guitarist John Renbourn, has almost sitar-like drones, while "Lucky Thirteen" is a captivating, melancholy instrumental that shimmers with brilliant fingerpicking. This first-time domestic release is remastered from the original tapes and features liner notes by Richie Unterberger. Bert Jansch's It Don't Bother Me remains another essential British folk LP that belongs next to Nick Drake, Roy Harper and John Martyn in every record collection.
LP $20.25
11/18/2016
Scottish singer-songwriter Bert Jansch recorded his first album in producer Bill Leader's London flat with a borrowed guitar, sitting on the edge of the bed and singing into a portable tape recorder. As author Richie Unterberger writes in the liner notes, "When Bert Jansch's self-titled debut LP was issued in April 1965, he was already a major figure on the British folk scene. His synthesis of traditional British folk with blues and a bit of jazz was at the vanguard of a new generation of UK folk performers, well-versed in past forms but unafraid to venture into new territory. His virtuosic guitar was complemented by a plaintive rough-hewn voice that didn't just document the on-the-road experience, but lived it." Bert Jansch contains all original material, except a shattered cover of Davy Graham's "Angie" that Jansch makes all his own. "Needle of Death," one of the first folk songs to address the consequences of heroin use, yields to a restraint uncommon for Jansch, yet beautifully encapsulates the album's tone of heartfelt conviction. Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time domestic release of Bert Jansch's debut, remastered from the original master tapes. For those interested in a unique strand of music that would become a major influence on everyone from Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Donovan, Neil Young and more – there is no better place to start than here.
LP $20.25
10/07/2016
***Recalling the elegant simplicity of Jansch's early works, 'From The Outside' sees Jansch return to the uncomplicated yet supremely effective sound of his eponymous debut. This is Bert laid bare – eschewing the more intricate arrangements of his surrounding works for the holy trinity of guitar, banjo and voice, perhaps reflective of his state of mind at the time. Stand-out tracks include ‘River Running’ and ‘Blackbird In The Morning’ which were both (amazingly) omitted from the original vinyl release. One of Bert's rarest releases, this 1985 LP was originally issued as an edition of just 500 copies on the small Belgian label, Konexion. This issue unites the varied track listing of previous versions – both LP and CD, with many cuts appearing here on vinyl for the first time. Remastered from original tapes by Brian Pyle. Limited to 1000 coloured vinyl copies worldwide - 500 gold, 500 red.
CD $19.25
06/10/2016
***Recalling the elegant simplicity of Jansch's early works, 'From The Outside' sees Jansch return to the uncomplicated yet supremely effective sound of his eponymous debut. This is Bert laid bare – eschewing the more intricate arrangements of his surrounding works for the holy trinity of guitar, banjo and voice, perhaps reflective of his state of mind at the time. Stand-out tracks include ‘River Running’ and ‘Blackbird In The Morning’ which were both (amazingly) omitted from the original vinyl release. One of Bert's rarest releases, this 1985 LP was originally issued as an edition of just 500 copies on the small Belgian label, Konexion. This issue unites the varied track listing of previous versions – both LP and CD, with many cuts appearing here on vinyl for the first time. Remastered from original tapes by Brian Pyle. Limited to 1000 coloured vinyl copies worldwide - 500 gold, 500 red.
LP $29.50
06/10/2016
***Recalling the elegant simplicity of Jansch's early works, 'From The Outside' sees Jansch return to the uncomplicated yet supremely effective sound of his eponymous debut. This is Bert laid bare – eschewing the more intricate arrangements of his surrounding works for the holy trinity of guitar, banjo and voice, perhaps reflective of his state of mind at the time. Stand-out tracks include ‘River Running’ and ‘Blackbird In The Morning’ which were both (amazingly) omitted from the original vinyl release. One of Bert's rarest releases, this 1985 LP was originally issued as an edition of just 500 copies on the small Belgian label, Konexion. This issue unites the varied track listing of previous versions – both LP and CD, with many cuts appearing here on vinyl for the first time. Remastered from original tapes by Brian Pyle. Limited to 1000 coloured vinyl copies worldwide - 500 gold, 500 red.
LP $29.50
06/10/2016
Bert Jansch, legendary songwriter and guitarist, is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential musicians of all time. Since the mid-1960s, generation after generation has been held spellbound by his extraordinary, groundbreaking acoustic guitar playing and classic emotive songs. Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Nick Drake, Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Graham Coxon and Beth Orton have all been devotees, and newer generations, including Pete Doherty and Laura Marling, are still discovering Jansch for themselves. Spiritual Pajamas is honored to present this two-track 7-inch of previously released, but long out-of-print recordings. Mastered exclusively for vinyl by Paul Stubblebine, it includes liner notes edited from the transcript of an unpublished interview with Neil Young, as told to Sylvie Simmons. This one-time pressing is strictly limited to 1000 copies. “At one point, I was absolutely obsessed with Bert Jansch. When I first heard that LP [1965], I couldn’t believe it. It was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing. No one in America could touch that.” —Jimmy Page “He completely re-invented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequaled today ... without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the ’60s and ’70s would have been very different. You hear him in Nick Drake, Pete Townshend, Donovan, The Beatles, Jimmy Page and Neil Young. There are people playing guitar who don’t even realise they’ve been influenced by him one step removed.” —Johnny Marr
7" $9.75
11/23/2012