Named by Neil Young as his favourite acoustic player, the late Scottish guitarist, singer and songwriter Bert Jansch exerted a huge and enduring influence across British music and beyond, as highlighted in the line-up for this star-studded tribute concert, back in his Glasgow birthplace.
Jansch himself credited Archie Fisher, one of Scotland’s best-loved folk veterans, with giving him blues guitar lessons at Edinburgh’s Howff folk club in the early 1960s, before Jansch found fame with Pentangle, whose lead singer Jacqui McShee also features here. Ex-Led Zep rock god Robert Plant, well-known for his blues and folk proclivities, calls his debt to Jansch “enormous and longstanding”, while former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, a latter-day champion of Jansch’s work, is now passing the torch to myriad younger imitators.
With more special guests to be announced, the show is in aid of the Bert Jansch Foundation, which works to support emerging acoustic musicians.
