Folk Blues & Beyond - Discographies, Biographies, Information and more

This collection combines my first two solo albums for the little independent record company - Transatlantic. The recordings weren't totally solo - I had the support of Bert Jansch and also Jacqui McShee on a few tracks - and were made in the mid-sixties before we all got together as Pentangle. I would have been about twenty-one at the time and had been sitting around London playing my guitar since being honourably discharged from Kingston Art School a couple of years earlier. I had done a bit of recording already but this was the first time my name and my picture had graced an LP cover. The release of the first album was a great moment for me.
One thing, however, bothered me - I noticed after the company photographer had dug me out of deepest West Hampstead, stood me up and clicked that I didn't come out looking all that smart. Not entirely in keeping with the image of all the other recording stars that lined the record racks. As soon as some money came my way I set out to rectify that. I bought myself a smooth suede jacket, some electric-blue elephant cord trousers and brand new desert boots, got a haircut and began sporting a big silver ring. I even hung up my trusty five quid Scarth and acquired a much-coveted fifty quid Gibson jumbo. The transformation was complete and I was ready.
My first out-of-town gig was at the old Troubadour in Bristol. I stopped to admire my reflection in the front window and breezed in - Mister Cool. 'Who are you?' they said, 'and what do you want?'. I put them straight in no uncertain terms, whereupon they held up the record cover, pointed to that photo and said 'You're not him, **** off!'.
Ah yes, the memories come flooding back. To be fair I never really had any burning ambition to make a career out of music. It just kind of happened, more or less by default. Even now it takes me by surprise to come across 'Profession; Folksinger' stamped on my official documents, and is not a little amusing, particularly the 'singer' bit. But I'm certainly not complaining: the guise of folksinger has taken me around the world several times, set me up on stages as far removed as Carnegie Hall and Les Cousins and put me in company with a wonderful bunch of people. Along the way I have always retained a soft spot for the little company that set me on course, so it's good to see that old Transatlantic air balloon flying again.
My approach to the music has changed a bit over the years. Back in the early days I listened closely to the playing of friends like Mac McLeod, Mick Softley, Gerry Lockran, Wizz Jones and, a little later, Bert Jansch and Davy Graham. And we, in turn, all listened closely to American folk and blues players, some of whom had recorded as far back as the twenties and thirties. For me folk-blues and country picking is timeless stuff and recently I have been running into more and more young players who have been going back to the same roots and coming up with some fine results. All in all, it's a very good sign. One thing I notice though is that some of them look a bit like the way I did in that photo - not smart at all. Well, now that I'm getting to be an old stager, quoted as an authority, cited as an influence, and sought after for my considered opinion, maybe I could offer a quiet word of fatherly advice: 'Keep up the good picking, but think twice about the electric-blue elephant-cord trousers'.

- Original sleeve notes by John Renbourn