THE TOP Acoustic PLAYERS

THE TOP Acoustic PLAYERS

01 BERT JANSCH Folk-blues pioneer

Wizz Jones shares his memories of and reflections of the influential virtuoso

In the mid-60s, it was Jansch’s folk and blues contemporaries in London, such as Roy Harper, Martin Carthy, John Renbourn, Ralph McTell, and Long John Baldry who were the first to be mesmerised by this outrageously talented young troubadour from Edinburgh. Then Paul Simon, Pete Townshend, Nick Drake, Jimmy Page, and Neil Young all latched on to Bert’s genius during the remainder of the 60s. In more recent decades, Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Beth Orton, Graham Coxon, Pete Doherty, and Jonathan Wilson have all heralded the enduring influence of Jansch’s timeless music on their own work. Quite the legacy, then! Back in 2011, shortly after Bert’s death, Wizz Jones, who was one of the first guitarists on the early 60s English scene to tackle acoustic blues, related to TG his vivid memories of the evening he saw a 20-year old Jansch take the floor at a London folk club in 1964.