Back in fashion: Glasgow's folk troubadour, Bert Jansch. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe
Guest musicians usually fall into two categories: friends hanging out during the recording, like the Beatles providing backing vocals for the Rolling Stones' We Love You; or specific people brought in to enhance a song, like Viram Jasani on Led Zeppelin's Black Mountain Side. However, Bert Jansch's appearance, playing guitar on Babyshambles' The Lost Art of Murder, was a surprise. It was odd enough when Doherty and Jansch performed together in April at a show: Doherty sang on Jansch's Needle of Death, the poignant anti-drug effort from his debut album.
Though folk-Nazis will scoff at the appearance of Jansch on Doherty's record, it will only serve to grow Jansch's status in pop culture. Jansch's last album, The Black Swan, has already helped to rescue a well regarded talent from the bargain bins. Prior to that, Jansch had been a musician's musician, much loved by Beth Orton, Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler and an acknowledged influence on Jimmy Page and Neil Young. Jimmy Page paid homage to him in song, and Neil Young stated, "what Jimi Hendrix is to the electric guitar, Jansch is to the acoustic" - praise indeed, especially for a man who recorded his first album in a friend's kitchen on borrowed guitars.
Jansch became a figurehead of the British folk scene in the 1960s, living with Paul Simon, playing with Jackson C Frank and being friends with John Renbourn. The cover of his first album depicts a worn bohemian with his guitar by his side and a suspicious look in his eye. Though often pegged as the British Dylan, Jansch is less of a singer-songwriter and more of a guitar player with emphasis placed on the mood of his instrumentals. However, you can't deny the essential pleasure of listening to his voice. Deep and laconic, it sounds as if he is coming round after a long sleep.
His debut album is something never far from my stereo. One listen to the instrumental Angie and you can hear the entirety of Paul Simon's career. He released a multitude of albums, but the 1960s catalogue is his most influential. The debut album sounds fresh, promising and uncompromised. It was what it was, a folk singer putting his sounds down without any expectation of these chords leading to fame.
The Black Swan served the Jansch legacy well, where previous releases had valiantly tried and failed. Hip "freak-folk" producer Noah Georgeson (collaborator with Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom) fits The Black Swan casually into the Jansch canon, making it sound contemporary, yet in the tradition of his previous work. The guest appearances by Orton and Banhart naturally slide into the grooves without the holy reverence that marred previous efforts.
His live shows have recently been opened by Meg Baird, James Yorkston and Voice of the Seven Woods. The nu-folk mafia fairly worship Jansch. With the interest in folk music growing at an old time cultural high on both sides of the Atlantic with Devendra Banhart, Iron and Wine, Jose Gonzales, King Creosote and many more, it's only right that Bert Jansch has gotten his due.
