Bert Jansch

4 STARS ALL MUSIC GUIDE

Toy Balloon receives it’s long overdue debut vinyl pressing, featuring new artwork. Caught somewhere between traditional folk and Jansch’s penchant for the blues, ‘Toy Balloon’, from 1998, was the elder statesman of British folk’s 20th studio album.

Featuring a host of fantastic solo performances along with a brace of bigger sounding moments with a band including former Dire Straits’ Pick Withers on drums and the legendary Pee Wee Ellis on sax, the mainly self-penned opus also boasts a hypnotic cover of the standard ‘She Moves Through The Fair’ and an evocative reading of Jackson C Frank’s ‘Carnival’.

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. Carnival
• A2. She Moved Through The Fair
• A3. All I Got
• A4. Bett's Dance
• A5. Toy Balloon (For Little Anna-Rebecca)
• A6. Waiting & Wondering

• SIDE B
• B1. Hey Doc
• B2. Sweet Talking Lady
• B3. Paper Houses
• B4. Born And Bred In Old Ireland
• B5. How It All Came Down
• B6. Just A Simple Soul