BERT JANSCH - "L. A. Turnaround" and "Moonshine" (1974 and 1972)

The song you hear as you open my main blog "Countess Vanessa's Castle, is "Fresh as a sweet Sunday morning", by Bert Jansch, from this fabulous album:

It's the album where BJ somehow "betrayed" all us fans of him, he merged his splendid and personal  exquisite folk vein with some elements of country... the result was anyway superlative.

What a shame that so many CD reissues don't reproduce more than the 30% of the original covers and inserts and inner artworks...

Above: the insert sheet with lyrics, and the label

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Also strongly recommended:

"MOONSHINE" (Reprise, 1972)

"Moonshine" is a real milestone, not only in the discography of BJ, but also for the general development of British Folk Music.  For some people this is even the highest point of his artistical production.  Speaking for myself, I never could get decided, I always loved "LA turnaround" too much, but also, how can you leave out things like "Birthday blues" and "Rosemary lane", and "It don't bother me"...??   As you know, some LPs of BJ were issued in the USA on various labels with different covers and/or titles  (IE: "Strolling down the highway", "Jack Orion" on Vanguard, etc etc), but for this album it's something you wouldn't expect: the USA edition sleeve was gatefold while the UK wasn't, as you can see in the following pictures, and included a short Curriculum Vitae of BJ (not present inside the UK edition) probably meant as a further divulgative push to conquer the American public... The LP was produced by Danny Thompson

above: the UK edition with label, not gatefold cover.

Above: the back cover of the UK edition

above: the UK edition includes a gatefold insert with the lyrics.

above: the spread outer gatefold sleeve of the USA edition, where front and back coincide with the UK issue.

above: the USA edition's innere sleeve, where the lyrics are reproduced.

above: the two album covers and the biography sheet, in an unusual A4 format, included only in the USA edition.

As usual, I won't post these album, as I'm sure you can find them all on some other blogs.

BELOW: The six Bert Jansch albums favourite of mine [fronts and backs]

Your COUNTESS