Bert Jansch

For a virtually unknown (in the United States) Scottish guitar player, Bert Jansch has had his fair share of anthologies. 1998's Blackwater Side and 2003's Legend: The Classic Recordings focused singularly on his late-'60s heyday, while 2002's two-disc Dazzling Stranger -- still the superior choice -- followed his career through the turn of the millennium. Castle's Running from Home: An Introduction To attempts to balance all three by sticking with a single disc and cramming it with 21 tracks that run the gamut from 1965-2002. Much like Hannibal' s Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake collection, Running from Home is ideal for the Jansch novice, but offers little to the seasoned listener. It lucidly follows the artist's career from dusty troubadour to Pentangle and back to dusty troubadour with a solid play list of well-known classics "Angie," "Blackwater Side," and recent pieces both studio-derived ("Black Cat Blues") and live ("How It All Came Down"). Running from Home is solid enough, though a Jansch collection without "Needle of Death" on it is like a Falco anthology without "Rock Me Amadeus." ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide