John Renbourn - Nobody's Fault But Mine: The John Renbourn Anthology 1966-2005 (2007)

This 37-track, two-disc set is the most comprehensive compilation of John Renbourn's recording career to date. In one sense, Renbourn can be defined as a traditional British folk guitarist, but within that category, he has managed a wide variety of different recording projects over 40 years. There are the solo guitar albums, of course, but then there are also duo albums with Bert Jansch and Stefan Grossman; Renbourn's major group affiliation with Pentangle; his own band projects, the John Renbourn Group and John Renbourn's Ship of Fools, and even prominent work as a sideman for other artists. The anthology attempts to deal with all these variations by dividing his work up stylistically so that, generally speaking, the first disc features Renbourn as a folk and folk-rock artist, and the second one covers his efforts in Old English classical folk styles. Naturally, some of his early solo work, tracks with Jansch and Grossman, and Pentangle selections fit into the first CD, while later solo efforts and the Renbourn Group and Ship of Fools projects go on the second CD. Beyond that, compiling Renbourn effectively becomes a matter of choosing appropriate tracks, and the compilers have included many obvious selections along with a few obscurities. It would be possible to create an entirely alternative compilation that also showcased Renbourn well, and with three CDs to work with, an even better anthology would result. But this collection represents a reasonable selection and arrangement of Renbourn's recordings, boiled down to two discs.

Track List:

CD 1:
01. Plainsong [03:47]
02. The Wildest Pig in Captivity [02:08]
03. Lost Lover Blues [01:58]
04. Bert Jansch & John Renbourn / The Waggoner's Lad [03:28]
05. Dorris Henderson & John Renbourn / Come Up Horsey [01:44]
06. Nobody's Fault But Mine [01:57]
07. Bert Jansch & John Renbourn / AFter The Dance [02:26]
08. My Sweet Potato [03:22]
09. Kokomo Blues [03:54]
10. Water Gypsy [04:06]
11. Just Like Me [03:44]
12. Shake Shake Mamma [03:24]
13. Faro's Rag [02:40]
14. Catwalk [04:09]
15. Medley.Dark Island, Abide With Me, Great Dreams [07:14]
16. Reflections 1 [03:27]
17. Duck Baker & John Renbourn / Waltz on Sunday [03:22]
18. Pentangle / Sally Go Round The Roses [03:37]
19. Cannonball Stomp [03:07]
20. Pentangle / So Clear [04:51]

CD 2:
01. O'Carlonan's Medley [05:07]
02. The Moon Shines Bright [03:54]
03. The English Dance [02:56]
04. The John Renbourn Group / Death And The Lady [03:21]
05. The John Renbourn Group / The Trees They Grow High [03:00]
06. The John Renbourn Group / Talk About Suffering [03:29]
07. Circle Dance [04:24]
08. The John Renbourn Group / The Truth From Above [02:17]
09. The John Renbourn Group / My Johnny Was A Shoemaker [02:47]
10. South Wind - Blarney Pilgrim [03:56]
11. Lindsay [05:56]
12. The John Renbourn Group / Sidi Brahim [09:57]
13. Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai [01:37]
14. Traveller's Prayer [02:41]
15. Variations on My Lady Carey’s Dompe [06:15]
16. At the Break of Day [04:21]
17. Dorris Henderson & John Renbourn / Going To Memphis [03:05]