R.I.P. John Renbourn

J_evege

There are lots of great choices. To some extent, Renbourn's tendency to wander through widely differing styles will dictate which records work best for any given listener. His earliest material is pretty much straight folk, then there was a period of Pentangle's "folk baroque", followed by several years of more classically styled compositions. He even did a movie soundtrack with John Paul Jones of Led Zep.

Personally, I have a soft spot for "Bert and John", the Renbourn/Jansch collaboration that preceded the formation of Pentangle. The songs are strong and the playing is magnificent on the part of both guys. Anyone who loves acoustic guitar should hear this one. However, your own tastes may ultimately take you in another direction.

BTW, some years later, the album "Bert and John" was re-released under another title, so you might do a quick search to see which is available at the best price.

I have all of his solo albums I have been able to find on vinyl, and they are all great, though some of the songs overlap with the Pentangle. " The Black Balloon" is probably my favorite, though "Sir John Alot", and "Lady and the Unicorn" are also great. But as I said, all of them are worth having

Yes, agreed I was sad to see he passed away. As a relatively young person I did not realize until reading the obituary in the NYT how much he contributed to guitar players over the years. Playing my Pentangle album in honor of a great musician! If anyone has other recommendations by Mr. Renbourn, please post.

A wonderful man and a true scholar and musician is gone the way of all flesh. Bless you, Mr. Renbourn.

One of my favorite guitarists as well, extremely versatile. I far preferred his playing to Jansch's in the Pentangle days.

So very sad and such a loss, my sympathy to his family and close friends. He shall be missed. In the morning I shall listen to Sir John A lot in his memory.

That sucks in a huge way. What a tremendous guitar player he was. Bert Jansch got more pub, but Renbourn was IMO every bit as compelling a guitarist. I remember playing a Rebourn CD for my guitar teacher and asking him how to replicate some of Renbourn's stuff. The guy just looked at me and said "forget it".

I'm sad.