Troubador Tuesday -- Pentangle

You run across all sorts of goodies surfing YouTube. I have an anecdote that goes with this post, but first the music. By way of introduction, Pentangle is the greatest group in the history of English folk music. I'll start off with their most memorable song, "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme." The uploader has disabled embedding, so do click the image below to see the video in a new window.

You can see more Pentangle videos by clicking here.

I think it was 1968, and I had a music show on WHRB-FM radio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on which I could play anything I wanted. Pentangle had come to Boston for a gig, so I got in touch with them and headed to the motel they were in with a trusty field recorder. I was 19 and looking forward to seeing Jacqui McShee with that long blonde hair and winsome vibe. When I got there for the interview, she was in huge curlers! Oh well, bless 'em all for agreeing to see me that day.

I was already familiar with Bert Jansch, because I had a folksinging friend, Burt Stegall, who loved to play the songs off his 1965 album, like "Needle Of Death" and Davey Graham's "Angie." Here's a video of Bert doing the traditional "Blackwaterside," which you may recognize from a later recording by Led Zeppelin:



I later came to appreciate John Renbourn, whose version of the old Scottish air, "The Mist-Covered Mountains Of Home," is just awesome. I couldn't find a video of John doing it, but just so you can hear the tune, here's a video of another accomplished guitarist playing it. I'm warning you, your eyes may get teary listening, and you will never forget the tune.

Here's a nice very recent video of John Renbourn, with another haunting vocal by Jacqui McShee, just the two of them doing "The Trees They Do Grow High":



You can see more fine guitar playing by John by clicking here.