Strolling Down the Highway

Bert Jansch, one of the U.K.’s most vaunted guitar players, hardly ever felt the need to plug in. Though most six-string masters who rose in the classic-rock era blasted their licks and riffs through vast banks of amplifiers while they pranced around the stage, Jansch sat stone still on a stool while he spun frills and arpeggios of acoustic gold. His fingerings were fine and his chords clean, all of them honed to bring the listener closer to the core of the melody and the meaning of the song.