Music : Sweet Child

Rating: - Masterpiece
This could be Pentangle's best album - 'Basket of Light' is the only other contender, but this one has much more material on it.

The first disc was recorded live in 1968 and the second is from the studio. The live show is great, with a mix of folk standards, originals and instrumentals showing great dexterity and skill from all involved. Bert Jansch and John Renbourn's version of Mingus' 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' is a standout instrumental tune - very relaxing and melodic. The studio set is a strong album in its own right, with highlights (for me) being the guitar duel of 'In Time', the morality tale 'Sovay' and the grooving 'I've Got A Feeling', which borrows the chord sequence from Miles Davis' 'All Blues'.

This expanded edition is a treat, fleshing out the concert to give what I believe is the complete show (minus tune-ups) plus a few alternate versions of the studio songs.

All in all, a monster package that should delight fans of the group as well as fans of acoustic music in general.

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Rating: - still amazing after all these years
I confess my bias: Pentangle struck right into my DNA and blew it open like no other music when their first album reached my 14-year old ears in 1967. I could never quite decide whether "1st" or "Sweet child" was the greatest, but had to concede that they gradually lost freshness, vitality and uniqueness on later albums before their phase petered out. This reissue solves my dilemma: The greatest songs and instrumentals from "1st", witness "Let no man steal your thyme", "Bells" and "Waltz", are all included in generous bonus sections, as live versions with even more looseness and drive than on the studio versions. Much has been written about the Renbourn-Jansch interplay. I will not add to it, suffice it to say that 35 years on it sounds fresher than ever, each note leaving the eager anticipation - what comes next? Jacqui McShee was at this point more an instrument than a voice, to incomparable effect, before she later mysteriously changed into an average folksinger, losing the strange objectivity her voice carries on these early tracks.This concert makes it clear that their rhythm section played a both larger and more important part in the group than they are often given credit for. Danny Thompson is a giant in his own right, but these tracks also bring Terry Cox`s melodic and creative drive to the fore, bringing forth the question of whether his relegation to ordinary backing folk-rock drummer may have been one factor in the strain of listlessness that crept into their playing on later albums. No one can accuse the material presented here of listlessness: A quiet intensity simmers and shimmers around and above the whole presentation, leaving each new musical turn meaningful. Folk, blues, jazz, early classical - a radical amalgam of styles and influences that never feels contrived, overacademic or unnatural. This music shines like an unpolished precious stone, and I can only kick myself at not having been present at the 1968 concert that most of the pieces are taken from. I understand that amazon.com does not offer 6 stars, but why not a rosette for records of special merit, like "Penguin guide to classical music". In the present inflation of 5-star reviews on the website, I am aching to give my first rosette after many reviews - to this record.