Neil Young once said that Bert Jansch did for the acoustic guitar in the 1960s what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar, and you can take that statement at face value or you can listen to "Smokey River," the second track on Jansch's debut album and make up your own mind (ironically, it is one of the few songs Jansch did not write). Chances are you will not have heard any of these songs before. The most recognizable would be "Angi," an instrumental piece written by Davey Graham, that Paul Simon later recorded on an early Simon & Garfunkel album. This album also has Jansch's biggest "hit," the haunting "Needle of Death," written about the death of a friend because of heroin. But you would need to have at least a passing familiarity with the British Folk scene in the Sixties to probably have heard it before.
The first song, "Strolling Down the Highway" is a good choice simple because Jansch gets to ask, "can you hear my guitar rockin'?" His singing is pleasant enough, but it is his finger-picking on that acoustic guitar that draws our attention from start to finish. On some songs, such as "Oh How Your Love Is Strong" I had to catch myself from being disappointed that he was going to start singing, because the introduction was compelling enough that lyrics seemed somewhat superfluous. But the same would be true for "I Have No Time" or most any non-instrumental song on the album. The lyrics consist of rather simple and standard folk images, such as birds and cherry trees. Besides "Smokey River," the other instrumental tracks are "Finches," "Alice's Wonderland," "Casbah," and "Angie," with my favorite being "Veronica." Of course, you can add the bonus "Instrumental Medley" track to this list as well. Of the ones with lyrics, besides "Needle of Death" it would have to be "Running From Home" that stands out for me, but "Dreams of Love" is good too.
What is even more impressive about this stunning debut album is that Jansch recorded it on a borrowed guitar on a tape machine in his flat. His guitar playing mixes classical and jazz guitar with American acoustic blues, and it is no wonder that when someone like Jimmy Page was learning to play the guitar that he would listen to Jansch's recordings ("Black Mountain Side" off of Led Zeppelin's debut album is Page's reworking of Jansch's "Blackwaterside"). If you like what you hear here there are plenty of other Bert Jansch albums to check out, including several in which he teams up with fellow guitarist John Renbourn, which eventually led to their work with the group Pentangle.