Album: Basket of Light
Artist: Pentangle
Born: St John's Wood, London
Released: October 1969
Genre: Folk
Influenced: Traffic, John Martyn, Joanna Newsom, Alasdair Roberts
Just months before Fairport's brand of electric folk would capture the public imagination, Pentangle pioneered their own unique form of folk music, mixing elements of jazz, and achieved some fleeting success. Pentangle and Fairport were similar in many ways; composed of highly talented musicians, many of whom had cut their teeth on the London folk scene, who decided to group together in the late 60s fronted by a female singer. Bert Jansch and John Renbourn were the two who formed the bedrock of the group, having put out albums as a duo in the mid-60s. The supremely talented and prolific Danny Thompson was the double bassist, with Terry Cox on drums and Jacqui McShee providing distinctive vocals. Some find her voice a bit too "folk" and the unusual time signatures of many of the songs, notably on Night Flight, are also off-putting for the uninitiated. Night Flight's use as the theme tune of a BBC drama helped it chart as a No.5 single in 1969, a feat completely unimaginable for a jazzy folk song today (and no, in case you were wondering, Mumford & Sons is not folk).
As well as Night Flight, other highlights on side 1 are the mediaeval ballad, Springtime Promises (Renbourn was fascinated with the Middle Ages and poems like Sir Gawain & The Green Knight), and The Train Song, which like the Kinks' Last of the Steam-Powered Trains is a lament for the passing of the steam train. Side 2 gets off to a magical start with the Hunting Song, a lyrically and musically intricate song in which each group member plays a prominent role. Sally Go Round The Roses hints at the influence of Jefferson Airplane on many of the British folk groups of the era, summoning up that San Francisco sound. The final two songs are traditional, The Cuckoo (a folk song from Somerset that Jansch learned from his neighbour's children) and House Carpenter (an American gothic ballad derived from the British folk song, The Daemon Lover); Renbourn's sitar playing on the latter is especially impressive. Pentangle would follow Fairport into electric folk with their subsequent albums, but never reached the same heights; for me, this will always be their best work.
Just months before Fairport's brand of electric folk would capture the public imagination, Pentangle pioneered their own unique form of folk music, mixing elements of jazz, and achieved some fleeting success. Pentangle and Fairport were similar in many ways; composed of highly talented musicians, many of whom had cut their teeth on the London folk scene, who decided to group together in the late 60s fronted by a female singer. Bert Jansch and John Renbourn were the two who formed the bedrock of the group, having put out albums as a duo in the mid-60s. The supremely talented and prolific Danny Thompson was the double bassist, with Terry Cox on drums and Jacqui McShee providing distinctive vocals. Some find her voice a bit too "folk" and the unusual time signatures of many of the songs, notably on Night Flight, are also off-putting for the uninitiated. Night Flight's use as the theme tune of a BBC drama helped it chart as a No.5 single in 1969, a feat completely unimaginable for a jazzy folk song today (and no, in case you were wondering, Mumford & Sons is not folk).
As well as Night Flight, other highlights on side 1 are the mediaeval ballad, Springtime Promises (Renbourn was fascinated with the Middle Ages and poems like Sir Gawain & The Green Knight), and The Train Song, which like the Kinks' Last of the Steam-Powered Trains is a lament for the passing of the steam train. Side 2 gets off to a magical start with the Hunting Song, a lyrically and musically intricate song in which each group member plays a prominent role. Sally Go Round The Roses hints at the influence of Jefferson Airplane on many of the British folk groups of the era, summoning up that San Francisco sound. The final two songs are traditional, The Cuckoo (a folk song from Somerset that Jansch learned from his neighbour's children) and House Carpenter (an American gothic ballad derived from the British folk song, The Daemon Lover); Renbourn's sitar playing on the latter is especially impressive. Pentangle would follow Fairport into electric folk with their subsequent albums, but never reached the same heights; for me, this will always be their best work.
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