I was in London for two thirds of the day and coming back home and going on FB I saw Bert Jansch has died today. He was certainly a hero of mine since I was about 16 and for the next three years I lost count of the times I saw him at Les Cousin and the Horseshoe and latterly with Pentangle at the RFH. I always liked his singing as well as his amazing guitar playing. On FB someone had posted Black Waterside - I added vids of Angie, Blues Run the Game and Sally Free and Easy - also a very nice extended piece from around 2002 with J McShee and J Marr. Then I downloaded his Black Swan album from 2006 which has some Beth Orton on it and includes Watch the Stars which I think J Renbourn did with Dorris. I have the one before from 2002 which is quite bleak. Perhaps I will work up my arrangement of Bert's Blues in case I get an encore at Gt Miss this Sunday. Dick Jones had left a comment on FB but nothing yet from Mark P in LA. It is an enormous loss - I had seen J Renbourn and D Graham more recently than I had seen Bert play.

This is a fantastic interview with Bert - do give it a try http://www.npr.org/2011/06/14/133187540/bert-jansch-on-world-cafe?sc=tw&cc=twmp