Dear Nathaniel,
Hello again my love, I hope everything is wonderful for you my angel. I've been back down home today and I brought home the guitar and computer so maybe I can start learning to play again. I'm still not getting the right inspiration to write something for you yet my sweet but I'm sure it will come. In the meantime I can always surround myself with good guitarists and good songwriting for inspiration.
When I was driving back up here I was listening to obituaries on Radio 4 and was shocked to hear Bert Jansch had died. I had always wanted to hear him live and witness a wizard of the acoustic guitar at work, but like many things it was never to be. Bert Jansch is ultimately what every other guitarist I'm going to tell you about wish they were. He has been an inspiration to many guitarists acoustic or otherwise and had kept alive the art of finger picking outside of classical guitars for years.
You've already heard some Nick Drake finger picking style but it really doesn't compare, Jansch wasn't afraid to make it his trademark and no one will deny his position at the top of the hill when it comes to the acoustic guitar. His voice is very much an acquired taste it's such a small part of the performance that it barely matters. Jansch delivers his lyrics adequately enough to understand them and to not at all take away from the experience.
Jimmy Page plays a tribute to Jansch on their debut album with Black Mountain Side, we'll get to listen to that soon enough, I know I keep saying that but be patient my love, your first Led Zeppelin experience is something to savour. I suppose it barely needs saying that we're staying in the 60's still, 1965 to be exact. But with acoustic folk music I don't really suppose it matters much.
Jansch himself has always been fascinated by the guitar since he saw one in school at a very early age. Bert Jansch also formed Pentangle a lovely folk band that we can maybe listen to tomorrow. I love being able to show you all these great bands and artists and talk about them to you. It just really helps me put my mind at ease while I'm doing it, and I know eventually it will help me even more than that.
Another thing that's important about Jansch was his jazz influence, as is evidenced by his Mingus inspired piece on this album, Alice's Wonderland. I have a lot of respect for the Hard Bop Jazz artists and the influence they've had on music. There's something so amazing about a talented artist like Jansch drawing influence from Hard Bop as it's really noticeable in quite a bit of his work. There's something brilliant about jazz influenced rock music such as Canterbury progressive rock or even straight up Jazz fusion. There's so much exciting music out there and I can't wait to show everything to you.
I wish I could just tell you about everything right now, but there's so much to say that it would just become jumbled. That's why I love being able to listen to an album with you every night. It's a nice methodical way of introducing you to the music that I love. I know I started out quite scattered but I've been able to create some themes and I've given you a good cross-section of the 60's so far in showing you what it had to offer. I have by no means exhausted the 60's of course, there will be plenty more to come back to when we finally do get out of the decade.
I'm not entirely sure what style of music I will move onto after I get out of this 60's mood. Perhaps starting with Led Zeppelin we will launch ourselves into the hard rock of the 70's. Most likely though I'll probably introduce you to more of the wonderful progressive rock that decade has to offer. We'll see.
Bert Jansch was always one to shy away from the spotlight and he still remains quite an underground figure outside of a guitarist or folk lover perspective. It's quite a shame in some ways but he kept making music and has left behind a great legacy of work so his lack of fame never stopped him doing what he loved. I wish he had gotten more acknowledgement for his amazing talent in his lifetime, but I suppose the endorsement of every guitarist work their salt is all the acknowledgement he ever wanted.
I love you, and miss you more than words can express. I hope you've enjoyed Bert Jansch's debut. Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.
Love from Dad.
No comments:
Post a Comment