Fare Thee Well, John Renbourn

Acoustic innovator has died...

John Renbourn was part of a generation of young guitar players who found their minds unlocked by Davy Graham.

Already adept at the instrument, the aspiring musician fell into the Soho crowd of poets, would-be beatniks and folk musicians, exploring new tunings, new voicings and new possibilities on the acoustic guitar.

Gaining plaudits as a solo musician due to his supreme technical mastery, John Renbourn struck up a lasting friendship with Bert Jansch. The two would duel onstage and on record, helping to form the crowd of feted folk-jazz supergroup Pentangle.

Continually working, the guitarist was perhaps best known for a sound tinged with Medieval tropes. A standard styling in modern acoustic playing, of course, but it had to emerge from one, singular place – and that place was John Renbourn.

Latterly earning a reputation for being a warm and genial teacher, John Renbourn failed to turn up for a show at Glasgow's The Ferry venue on Wednesday (March 25th). Management visited the guitarist's home, where he seemingly passed away after a heart attack.

Renbourn’s manager, Dave Smith, spoke to the Guardian and described him as a “delight”. “He was just larger than life. Game for anything," he said. "He was just finishing off a tour with Wizz Jones – and was looking forward to the next. He was a great teacher – he was always putting himself down as a teacher and running weekend workshops all over Europe, where he would have students come and learn from him.

” The manager added that the guitarist would perhaps be best remembered for his role in Pentangle. “Obviously that was what brought him into prominence,” said Smith. “But his solo career has been a continuous thing. It never got large because it’s very specialist music, but he’s had an international fan base because of his influential playing style.”

Our thoughts are with his friends and family.

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