In an inebriated interview with Rick McGrath in 1970, Bert Jansch, a 26-year-old guitarist busy with British folk compatriots Pentangle, reclaimed folk dogma: "We never talk about music, never. You talk about everything else, but never music. The only time we ever talk about music is to say, 'Let's have a rehearsal' and that's it. We get together and play."
Recorded some 40 years after his first two brilliant albums on England's Transatlantic Records, The Black Swan isn't exactly a comeback. Jansch has been working all along, releasing nearly a dozen albums since 1990. For this generation, however, it is Jansch's popular come-out: From Devendra Banhart to Ben Chasny, many principles of the indie roots resurgence have credited his complex playing and artless vocals as touchstones. That it's his Drag City debut and his first new material to see proper U.S. release since 2002's Edge of a Dream only increases its marquee billing and possible importance.
Thankfully, the album doesn't sound preconceived or laborious. It doesn't sound like it's been talked about. It's immaculate but natural, due in large part to producer Noah Georgeson, known best for Joanna Newsom's The Milk-Eyed Mender and Banhart's Cripple Crow. The litany of friends-- Banhart, Beth Orton, Vetiver/Espers drummer Otto Hauser-- understand that threads through Jansch's career like plainsong treatments and topical variety are purposeful and worth presenting. They augment but don't tamper, and Georgeson captures it all with charm.
Surrounded by young artists, it's remarkable how well Jansch avoids buying into his myth. The kids add spirit without the avant tendencies of their regular gigs, and Jansch seems rightfully at ease and assured with this new band. "When the children come to visit you/ You break into a smile/ They fill your heart with sunshine/ Just for a little while," he sings on the gorgeous "High Days", a sentimental ode to memories and friends like fellow Brit star Cliff Aungier. The title track's brief solo and Jansch's crisp cut through "Old Triangle" showcase a content but confident virtuosity he's rarely committed to tape. He even carefully draws from outside his own tradition: "Texas Cowboy Blues" is a presidential polemic funneled through a spirited panhandle country number, the form's rebellious imprecision subverted by Jansch's perfect fingerpicking.
It almost seems as though Jansch spent most of his four-decade career preparing for The Black Swan and its cast: His early solo work for voice and guitar staked out a clean, inventive style, focused on high fretting action in the left hand, an integrated system of hammers and drags that gave his instrument a thorough voice. With Pentangle, and later with Loren Auerbach in the 80s, he put that style into collaborative focus. His guitar playing-- somehow constantly understated and completely unorthodox-- has been the generous, enchanting source of it all.
It's the wellspring here, too: Helena Espvall's cello lines on opener "The Black Swan" dress Jansch's guitar and voice in winter gloves, warming the chill of his melody-- "Every day is quiet and calm/ Like a lull before the storm"-- with perfectly paired playing. Otto Hauser's cymbal and hand-drum percussion and Paul Wassif's slide guitar on "Woman Like You" are likewise just shapely beds for Jansch's playing. Orton, who handles vocals on three tracks, is flawless and selfless, her austerity informed by each song's direction. She sounds like a weary survivor on "When the Sun Comes Up" and like a dejected soul on "Katie Cruel", a traditional folk song about withered glory.
On an album all about meeting maturity with vibrancy, Banhart alone mars the effect when he mismatches Orton's straightforward nerviness with an ultra-affected, reverb-buried vocal track on the gorgeously unsettling "Katie". Even though Banhart is attempting to recall the voice of his idol Karen Dalton, who brought this song to proper attention, he sounds like the dilettante, roving unnecessarily for the freak side, still in search of guidance. Perhaps the rest of this beautiful, elegant Swan will help him find his way.
