Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival by Harper, Colin

Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, 2001-12. Paperback. Good.

Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, 2001-12-01. Paperback. Used:Good.

paperback. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.

Profiles the life and work of Bert Jansch, guitarists' guitarist and songwriters' songwriter. He has been admired by stars as diverse as Bob Dylan, Johnny Marr and Jarvis Cocker, and this book looks at his life from his early days in Scotland to his 1995 album "When the Circus Comes to Town".
As a long-time admirer, I came away with a deeper appreciation of just how remarkable his style was and how influential he would prove to be. Colin Harper has taken the opportunity of using much of the first half of the book to present an interesting history of the underground folk and blues scene in Scotland and London in the '60s, which seems by way of compensation for the fact that the figure of Bert remains elusive, even after this comprehensive bio (no criticism of the author: he is always thorough; it's the nature of the subject, I reckon). Though I agree with Chris Glenn that discussion of his albums is rather thrown away in comparison to the analysis of socio-historical background
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