Heartbreak [Remastered]

by Bert Jansch

Overview

Bert Jansch was a wonderfully maverick musician, as much a gypsy as he was anything, but he was also remarkably consistent to his own vision as a guitarist and songwriter throughout his career, which began when he borrowed a guitar and played a riveting set into a reel-to-reel recorder in his kitchen in the early '60s, which resulted in his first album, simply called Bert Jansch, released on the tiny Transatlantic label in 1965. Mixing jazz, American blues, and British folk into an intense and brilliant acoustic guitar style, he wrote sparse and ruggedly romantic songs while artfully reimagining traditional fare to fit his template, and with his smoky, hard-traveled vocals, he was as consistent a studio artist as we've had in the past 40 years, and every one of his 23 studio albums, even if some of them seem like curious missteps, was unmistakably Bert Jansch. He wasn't built for the commercial mainstream, though, and by the late '70s he was drinking heavily, and while he was too much a talent to not bring something special to everything he played, he seemed to be creatively spent and just barely afloat. In the spring of 1981, two young fans, brothers Rick Chelew and John Chelew, borrowed money from their mother to bring Jansch to California and record an album at Silverlake Studio, hiring in musicians (including Albert Lee and Jennifer Warnes) to support, and lining up gigs for Jansch in the area between sessions to get him some extra money. The album that resulted, Heartbreak, was released in 1982 (on Logo Records in the U.K. and on Joe Boyd's Hannibal Records in the U.S.) and was somewhat of a mixed bag, with Jansch doing yet another version of his signature "Blackwater Side" (this time with Albert Lee on mandolin), delivering fine takes of the traditional "Wild Mountain Thyme" and Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter," and stumbling through a misguided attempt at "Heartbreak Hotel." It wasn't a bad album, but it was clearly Jansch treading water and trying not to creatively drown, and it quickly went out of print. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	11/06/2012
Label:	Omnivore
UPC:	0816651013098

Tracks

1. Blackwater Side
2. Sit Down Beside Me
3. Up to the Stars
4. Is It Real?
5. Wild Mountain Thyme
6. Heartbreak Hotel
7. No Rhyme Nor Reason
8. If I Were a Carpenter
9. Give Me the Time
10. And Not a Word Was Said

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Bert Jansch   Primary Artist,Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic)
Jennifer Warnes   Guest Artist,Vocals
Albert Lee   Guest Artist,Mandolin,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Matt Betton   Drums
Jack Kelly   Drums

Technical Credits

Jackson C. Frank   Composer
Ewan MacColl   Composer
Elvis Presley   Composer
Greg Allen   Design,Art Direction
Gavin Lurssen   Mastering
Francis McPeake   Composer
Tim Hardin   Composer
Tommy Durden   Composer
Rick Chelew   Editing,Engineer,Liner Notes,Photography
Bert Jansch   Arranger,Composer
John Chelew   Producer,Liner Notes,Photography
Mae Boren Axton   Composer
Walter Davis   Composer
Ralph McTell   Liner Notes
Reuben Cohen   Mastering
Claudia Kunin   Photography
Paul Chave   Sleeve Design
Lee Lodyga   Project Assistant
Steve Millang   Engineer
Eileen Lucero   Editorial
Hale Milfgrim   Project Assistant
Bryan George   Licensing
Audrey Bilger   Project Assistant
Richard Chelew   Producer
Nancy Covey   Producer
Dutch Cramblitt   Project Assistant
Nikki Nieves   Project Assistant
Brad Rosenberger   Project Assistant
Benjamin Meltzer   Project Assistant
Dan Haverty   Assistant
Cheryl Pawelski   Project Assistant
Patrick Milligan   Project Assistant
Traditional   Composer