the gift that keeps giving

horsemouth is hiding out with his folks in the countryside. breakfast has been eaten and there has been an exchange of gifts. now read on...

the internet (the gift that keeps on giving) has tracked down a concert by pentangle in norway from about the time of their first album (1968). the star or stars of the show are not renbourn, jansch, mcshee, the guitars and vocals frontline, (as you might expect) but danny thompson and terry cox (the bassist and the drummer). it is danny thompson’s version of charles mingus’ haitian fight song that really does it, that and terry cox’s party piece pentangling. for the band as a whole the ingredients are all there but the recipe isn’t quite right yet .

they end with bruton town and you can hear that the recipe is finally there - the song has enough drama to stop them from noodling. there’s little point in getting your jazzy blues from pentangle, it’s just too well mannered.


the internet has also cast up on the shoreline  almost an hour of a slightly fuddled john fahey set up in a corner of his santa monica home in 1981 and videoed pretty much ad hoc. he’s supposed to be packing for the move to oregon, he’s been sleeping badly, he hasn’t warmed up beforehand, he keeps forgetting the tunes and their titles, he praises charlie patton and blind blake (and points out that nobody can do like they did it anymore not even himself) and bola sete. it’s pretty great.

'bonnie? how are we doing on tape?'
'I'm ready to put in the next one' she says.
and the recording ends.