The Steel Guitar Forum

One of my all time favorite groups. Anybody else into them?

Celtic folk rock from the sixties, Mike?

Yes,British folk with Celtic overtones.Pentangle featured two of Britains best acoustic guitarists of the time,Bert Jancsh and John Renbourn.What a GREAT band!

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Olli Haavisto
Polar steeler
Finland

Isn't that one of them Devil Worshipper signs?

Can They play the "Steel Guitar Rag"?

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Steeling is still legal in Arizona

<SMALL>Celtic folk rock from the sixties Mike?</SMALL>

GREATCeltic folk rock from the sixties Bobby. (Actually more folk than rock.)

Years ago I had a record of theirs that I really dug. I went to one of the CD retail websites recently and played the :30 sound clips of that record--was it Basket of Light?
I forget now--and I was disappointed that it didn't hold up for me nearly as well as I had hoped. But yes, Jansch and Renbourn are two fine guitarists.
I don't even want to go to the sound bites of the Incredible String Band. I was fanatical about them--even bought a sitar because of them (they should be in the sitar hall of fame with Harrison). I KNOW that they will not hold up. Ah--youth.

Hiya Mike, I always found them a little stiff, but interesting none the less.
My prefernce lies with Fairport Convention, especially the three 1969 albums where you can hear the group get more and more folky, then mix up the rock element more.
Plus Dave Swarbrick joins on fiddle halfway through the second '69 album, plus Sandy Denny is all over the album.

To me they have the same charm as the early Flying Burrito Brothers and a similar history of convulted ever changing line-ups, great early albums and someone leading a version of the group years after all the originals had split.

Definitely a fan Mike!
As far as I know they are nearly all still going strong too. Bert Jansch is still playing with his own band, mostly called Conundrum. Bert is a great guitar hero to many young players, because he was such an influence on Jimmy Page of Led Zep.
Jacquie McShee toured last year with "Jacquie McShee's Pentangle"- they did a gig just across the road from here.
Last time I was in Oxford I saw a poster for a John Renbourn gig, unfortunately it was that night and we had to get back.
My Bass playing colleague thinks Danny Thompson may be dead (chemicals probably) And I think Terry Cox was in Bill Wyman's (Rolling Stones) jazz band last time I saw it

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Cheers!

<SMALL>...Danny Thompson may be dead</SMALL>

If so, he must have died very recently. 2 or 3 years ago Bert Jansch and John Renbourne played a concert at a local venue called McCabe's. They each did a solo set, and then they and Danny Thompson played a set together. I got the impression there was some bad blood between Jansch and Renbourne and they did not like playing together, but were more or less forced into it.

There is a recording studio next door to McCabe's, with a direct feed from the stage to the studio. This concert was recorded, but I don't know what happened to the tapes.

Danny has been working with Richard Thompson on and off through the late 1990s as well. As far as I knew he was still with us?

By the way, I had heard of a CD of older jazz material with Danny.

Danny Thompson Trio "Live 1967" (Resurgent 4376)1999 CD.
Time 24:37
1. Celia (Parker) - 4:19
2. 3rd Floor Richard (Lloyd) - 3:53
3. Naima (Coltrane) - 4:25
4. All Blues (Davis) - 4:34
5. In Your Own Sweet Way (Brubeck) - 4:32
6. Anthropology (Parker) - 2:54

John McLaughlin on guitar by the way!

I've been getting into Jansch recently--what a beautiful style! Let's not forget that Paul Simon lifted "Angie" for one of the S&G records (I forget which).

Richard Thompson is still my all-time fave, tho.

I remember Pentangle but always thought John Renbourne was the best contributor.He did a song "In Search of Franklin" I think,that was a historical piece in a similar vein to The Band's "Accadian Driftwood".
I wouldn't call myself a fan but I did really like that song.I didn't mind the other stuff either.
Brendan

My bass-playing colleague might be wrong, I hope he is. (It would not be the first time!)
But normally he he is pretty well up to speed on the goings-on in the Folkie bass playing scene in the UK, which is why I asked him.
The style of music was called "Folk Baroque" at the time, mainly because of all the classical lute music influences on John Renbourne. A whole generation of guitar players still play odd bits of John Dowland as a result. Somebody once bought me a book of John Renbourne pieces which were all in different tunings and I went through four sets of strings in a week because of the constant retuning.
I have a wonderful Bert Jansch white label album which was given to me by a bass player who played on it when I auditioned him to play in a pantomime pit band.
He got the gig!

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Cheers!

I have to agree, John Renbourn's rendition of "Lord Frankln" (The actual song title) is one of the best things the group ever recorded, and definately the best thing on the LP on which it originally appeared. It is also ne of only 2 songs the group ever recorded using an electric guitar. John's solo, played with distortion, is very lyrical and beautiful, and shows that thje effect can be used for much more than the hard rock sound it's normally associated with.

Mike, have you thought of doing an acoustic project, like a Mann, Fahey to Renbourn series of interpretations?

Danny Thompson was very much alive and well when I saw him with Tim O'Brien on the Crossing tour a few months ago in London. I would also think the bass students at this year's Sorefingers bluegrass workshop will feel a little cheated if he's dead.........he's teaching them this year!!

Jason, Since West Side Story is still unreleased (It's due out in March or April) it's way to early to talk about my current project, but I will say that I recorded one movement of a piece with mostly acoustic instruments, including a lot of mandolin and 5 string b*nj*, and played the steel through a match-bro to simulate a dobro sound.

Mike, you always got me guessing, looking forwardto that CD coming out as well, while the new project.. sounds really interesting!

One thing of interest. There is another Danny Thompson, I don't know much about this guy, but he was a Brit who passed away a few years ago, he was also a bass player. Might be the guy, as I'm sure I've had a similar coversation a couple of years ago in a folkie record shop. Got that whole Deja Vu thing going on.

Thanks Jason, I guess that is where the confusion comes from.
Another colleague, a part time lecturer has seen Danny Thompson of Pentangle in the studio recently with Richard Thompson.
Now there is a man who writes some good songs! If only he would just use steel occasionally........

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Cheers!

Yeah Mike....I was really into them in the sixties and early seventies!!! That really first got me into the celtic thing and eventually started me on classical guitar and fingerstyle blues & jazz. Which indirectly is a big part of my steel playing today.

Mike, McCabes...who HASN'T played there? (Me!).
I've seen a lot of great shows there. The first time I was ever there was in the late 70's. My brother-in-law and I were browsing the place for some guitar stuff.
Someone involved in working the show there was late coming in. In the disorder caused by this, we were asked to help in setting things up, stuffing the place with folding chairs. We got a free ride for the concert.
The show was Taj Mahal with a bunch of awesome local players backing. Later came an extra treat, with a sit-in set by Ry Cooder. Some way-hot playing, that night.
Another very cool, off the wall place in L.A. was the Trancas restaurant in the Malibu area. Lots of great performances by top acts, in a very cozy, intimate setting. Have any of you guys played there or catch some goods shows?
Dave, what is a pantomine pit band? I'm lost on that one!

Well you get a lot of scantily clad girls to dance around on stage, while another girl dressed as a boy in tights romances another girl dressed as a girl. Meanwhile the Girl girl's life is being sabotaged by one or more men dressed as women. That is a Pantomime.
Meanwhile a bunch of musicians sits under the edge of the stage in what we call the pit. They spend most of the show looking up the skirts of the performers according to their preferences. That is a pit band.
This is a very respectable and time-honoured part of British theatre.
If you ask me nicely I'll explain cricket


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Cheers!

Whoa! Just found this subject. I was a big Pentangle fan, wore the grooves off all their albums, Basket Of Light, Sweet Child and my favorite, Jack O'Ryan and others.., Collected their solo stuff too. When all around me were listening to Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, I was digging Bert & John. They were just as good if not better. They could get all the emotion and excitement out of their acoustics as the rockers could with their electrics...thanks for bringing this up, gotta dig their stuff up on CDs....

Oh Boy !!!...Mike P..I only just found this and you just raised some memories.
Not so much Pentangle,but Burt Jansch...I met him in a Folk club in England when I was over there in the Navy.
I met him on a Friday night and we attended a party which lasted Sat and Sunday.....he was smokin'...I was drinkin......he taught me "Strollin Down The Highway.....One Old Woman...a few more....and best of all he played Anji...thats how it is spelt...on my guitar as someone stole his......I can still play the main theme to it but it is a damn site harder than Pedal Patter.....bass walking down and tune still going.
Two years ago i got C.D. of his best..Magic!