After the demise of
Pentangle,
Jansch signed with
Tony Stratton-Smith’s Famous Charisma Label in 1973 and recorded
L.A. Turnaround in Sussex and Sepulveda, CA. It was primarily produced by
Mike Nesmith (two of the album’s original 12 tracks were recorded in Paris by
Thompson a year earlier) and released in 1974, the first of three albums
Jansch cut for Charisma. The album was hailed at the time as an exemplary work, and its reputation certainly holds in the 21st century.
Nesmith quite naturally captured
Jansch’s expert, idiosyncratic guitar style, and added himself on rhythm guitars and pedal steel guitarist
O.J. “Red” Rhodes, who provided a wonderful sense of ballast and earthiness. Other than the two
Thompson-produced cuts -- an instrumental called “Chambertin” and a reading of former bandmate
John Renbourn’s “Lady Nothing” -- the set walks through a lush garden that stands between the traditional English folk that
Jansch had mastered and a sort of easy-breathing country-rock. Check the breezy flow of “Open Up the Watergate,” with
Jesse Ed Davis on acoustic slide guitar, drummer
Danny Lane, and bassist
Klaus Voormann. Even the moodier “Needle of Death,” a duet between
Rhodes and
Jansch, carries a certain lightness of feeling despite its lyric's darkness. “The Blacksmith” acknowledges quite openly
Jansch’s debt of influence to
Doc Watson, while the lithe rocker “Stone Monkey” features
Nesmith in place of
Davis; the backroom jamming style accentuates the influence of American players on
Jansch as well as his own English traditions. All the while
Nesmith, whether with the mobile unit at
Stratton-Smith’s home or in his own studio in L.A., keeps the proceedings laid-back, flowing, and liquid. This is not to say there aren’t more traditional numbers here; the set opener, “Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning,” with
Voormann and
Rhodes, and “Of Love and Lullabye” could have been recorded by
Pentangle. Simply put, this is one of
Jansch’s masterpieces, and a singular type of album in his long and storied career. ~ Thom Jurek