Search - John Renbourn :: Sir John Alot

Renbourn at his most creative

C. H Smith | Bowling Green, Kentucky United States | 12/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought the lp of this title way back when, and at the time it became one of my favorite recordings. Released in 1968 on the old Transatlantic label, it came out just as Pentangle was beginning to peak in popularity. Some of the material sounds a bit like Pentangle, especially since their percussionist Terry Cox is represented on several cuts on hand drums (also present, though uncredited here, is the prominent jazz flutist Ray Warleigh), but mostly what you have is John Renbourn up front in a set of astoundingly virtuostic solo, or nearly so, guitar pieces.The amazing thing about Pentangle was the fact that its three outstanding instrumentalists, Renbourn, Bert Jansch, and double-bassist Danny Thompson (Cox was flexible and dependable, but not as much a standout), were and still are absolutely unmistakable whenever and wherever they show up on disc. In "Sir John Alot..." we see Renbourn stepping away from the traditional blues-dominated material of his first two solo releases and into a world combining Renaissance music and jazz--in short, the creative step that has defined his solo music ever since. The original album was pretty short, and it helps to have the three bonus alternate tracks--they're pretty different from the kept takes. Excellent liner notes by Colin Harper. A small warning: the sound quality is generally good, but there is still quite a bit of the original tape hiss present."