Crimson Moon

by Steve Leggett Bert Jansch was 60 years old and celebrating the 35th anniversary of his first album when Crimson Moon was released in 2000, and although many critics termed it a comeback set, it was essentially Jansch doing what he has been doing all along, with a few embellishments. Like every other Jansch album, Crimson Moon centers around his amazing acoustic guitar playing and his limited, but disarmingly natural and sincere sounding vocals, and if having Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler along on electric guitar made it seem like this was a major change of direction for Jansch, it really wasn't, since Marr's and Butler's contributions are mostly atmospheric and non-intrusive. Jansch is doing here what he always does. He sings about being on the road, tackles a traditional ballad or two, works in some blues, and plays the acoustic guitar with the sensibility and touch of a jazz horn player. Highlights include the opening track, "Caledonia," the title tune, "Crimson Moon," an ambient take on the Appalachian murder ballad "Omie Wise," and covers of Robin Williamson's "October Song" and Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues." Jansch's son Adam plays bass on a couple tracks here, while his daughter Loren sings the lead vocal on "My Donald." Crimson Moon is not so much a return to form for Jansch as a continuation of it, and his many admirers will find this album to be wonderfully familiar.