women

Faring well with time

7

Ex-Pentanglers give a good show

By CHRIS LLOYD

Many of those in the
audience had waited 10
years to attend a
concert by members of
Pentangle, the
legendary British folk
group of the late six-
ties.

And when the moment
finally came recently the
closet folkies who emerged
to three-quarters fill the
Queen Elizabeth Playhouse
for an evening with the John
Renbourn Group were far
from disappointed.

Time has been kind to
Pentangle founders Ren-
bourn and Jacqui McShee.
The inevitable comparisons
between now and _ then
showed the visual mark of
the years, with Renbourn
noticeably portly and the
flowing blond McShee of
yesteryear now a more
natural looking and sedate
brunette. But such things
seemed inconsequential in
relation to their artistry.

The boredom I had shared
with others in British
audiences who walked out
early from Pentangle
concerts of a dozen years
ago was replaced by
exhilaration from a dazzling
performance that received a
standing ovation from an
audience that demanded two
encores.

Taste your
around the world
of Guenter’'s

The transformation had to
be attributed not only to the
sheer mastery of the
musicians in the group -
Renbourn playing acoustic
guitar, McShee singing and
flutist Tony Roberts who
would switch to Nor-
thumberland bellows pipes -
but also to the welcome
consistency of their
material.

True, there were still a
couple of traces of Pen-
tangle’s beatnik roots, jazz
blues that have stayed more
as the mark of Pentangie
founder Bert Jansch, but
generally they have kept and
expanded what the original
group always did best -
traditional folk music from
the British Isles.

The audience was gently
eased into the concert. For
connisseurs of Pentangle
albums and the J.R. Group's
‘Maid In Bedlam’ the first
half of the concert contained
nothing they hadn’t heard
before.

The selection showed that

the group members are.

purists of songs from Olde

Englande, dating from
Waterloo back through
Medieval tymes. Many of

them concerned lasses in
woe, lamenting their for-
tunes, from the loss of their
maidenhood to the loss of
their true loves taken by

wars or the sea, as well as
songs of unrequited love,
courting and merrie making.

Vocals were largely left to
Jacqui McShee, who has
maintained her purity of
voice, interspersed by
Renbourn who was sup-
plemented with harmonies
by Roberts.

Renbourn showed himself
as a genius of the guitar, with
an effortless fingerstyle so

complete bass ac-
companiment would have
been unnecessary. The
rippling flute style of

Roberts complimented the
ex-Pentanglers to the extent
that the absence of guitarist
Jansch seemed unimportant.
As leader of the group,
Renbourn ensured generous
time for solos was allowed
for each member. ;
After the audience had
been lulled by familiarity,
the second half of the
evening contained slightly
more adventurous moments
with the inclusion of songs
by Archie Fisher and Peggy
Seeger, contemporary in
comparison, with a hurried
Cruel Sister for an encore.

Only criticism that could

be leveled against the
concert was the stark setting
of the Playhouse stage,
which did nothing to
augment the visual aspect of
the three figures seated
before speaker monitors.
Maybe on another occasion

the Vancouver Folk Festival
promoters could spring for a
carpet.

Meanwhile, they might be
like to bear in mind that
there are many people who
would welcome the inclusion
of the John Renbourn Group
on the bill for next summer's
folk festival.

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