06/03/2026
A public service share of info about an beautiful sounding album homage to Bert Jansch by an Australian duo, about whom I know nothing. It can be heard – and bought – via Bandcamp, and heard via YouTube.
Here is the blurb…
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Guitarist & producer Shane O’Mara, and singer Jac Tonks, announce their tribute to the songs of Bert Jansch – ‘Sorrow Hides The Longing To Be Free’, out March 6 via Cheersquad Records & Tapes.
The brilliant Bert Jansch pioneered a “folk baroque” style that blended traditional British folk with elements of blues and jazz. His innovative fingerstyle guitar technique was one that redefined the instrument’s role in the 1960s British folk revival.
Long before his passing in 2011, Jansch was famed as an inspiration to acolytes as gifted in their own rights as Paul Simon, Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Donovan, Mike Oldfield, Nick Drake, and Johnny Marr.
Add to that list guitarist virtuoso Shane O’Mara, who, with singer Jac Tonks, channels the great Scottish folk stylist’s lyrical melodies and ethereal chord voicings like an uncanny mist forever suspended beyond the madness of modern times.
With a deft balance of masterful technique and disarming empathy, the duo honours the maestro’s definitive traditional arrangements and songs of passionate longing, like they’ve lived in those same haunted woods all their lives.
“This is a ‘project’ that I’ve been thinking about for many years, that recently became a mission,” explains O’Mara. “I’ve been enamoured with Bert Jansch’s playing, and his band Pentangle. I was recording my cousin Nick & Jac Tonk’s band Amarillo, and after hearing Jac’s voice emanating from the speakers, this sudden realisation came over me: she’d be perfect for the songs. It was a sudden, final inspiration to get this done.”
With visitations from harmony duo Charm of Finches and other occasional erudite guests, Stephen Hadley (double bass), Daniel Faruggia (drums), and Ray Pereira (percussion), Sorrow Hides the Longing to Be Free is an homage not just to an incomparable artist but to a secret well of exquisite melancholy destined to be free.
“This truly was labour of love, an album honouring a musical genius,” O’Mara enthuses. “I wanted to present this music in a somewhat different light… to spread the word… a love letter to my hero… and to present something different that I feel should be heard.”
The album’s track-listing differs across formats, with the black vinyl pressing featuring eight curated tracks from the 14 that will be available on CD and digitally. You can pre-order your copy from 20 February 2026.
“A beautiful, beautiful record. Like cool clear water from the deepest well.”
Paul Kelly
“Bert’s music can feel ancient yet avuncular: harmonic complexities delivered with tenderness. Tonks and O’Mara’s heavenly matching raises these adored tunes to the sacred yet sensual, as if ghosts have been woken with fresh lusts”
Tim Rogers
“Shane O’Mara’s virtuosic guitar playing channels Bert Jansch with real love and restraint, it’s elegant, raw, and haunting. This album feels like lying in tall grass at noonday, then shifts to a long, dusty road unspooling at dusk. Dark, languid and hypnotic, it’s a beautifully grounded piece of work”
Adalita
“This homage to the songs of Bert Jansch is a singularly beautiful addition to the folk music repertoire. Technically brilliant, the guitar playing sparkles with verve and originality and the singing is pure and true. A timeless classic”
Amanda Brown (the Go-Betweens, Composer)
“The starkly beautiful combination of Shane O’Mara’s ethereal guitar playing and Jac Tonks’ luminous vocals are a celebratory representation of the idiosyncrasies of Jansch’s approach to music and songwriting. This is a stunning album”
Liz Stringer
released March 6, 2026
Bandcamp link: https://cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com/album/sorrow-hides-the-longing-to-be-free-the-songs-of-bert-jansch
Bought this on Bandcamp Friday and have ust been listening to it. Lovely stuff for a blustery Sunday morning.
Shane O’Mara is a Melbourne guitar veteran. Most prominently with the ( locally) legendary Chris Wilson. He also has another psych type band called Silversounds.
I don’t know about Jac Tonks
Well spotted Colin. I was going to post about it
This is a gorgeous record; highly recommended.
Minor quibble title-wise; they are not all Bert’s songs per se, but that’s hair splitting.
Shipping from Oz costs almost as much as the disc if you want physical – I’m about to ship a CD Swap to Oz, so it’ll be interesting to see if we charge as much to ship to them as they charge to ship to us!
Presumably the shipping cost from a business includes the labour and administration cost, as well as the actual postage rate.
Postage from the UK to Aus for a “Large Letter” (max. 35.3cm in length, 25cm in width, and 2.5cm in thickness, max. weight 750g) is £3.40 (add 30p if you want the postman to collect the package from your home, bringing a pre-printed address label with them). Best-estimate (optimistic?) delivery time is 5-6 days.
You will need to print, fill-out and attach a downloadable customs declaration form.
Declare as a gift of only nominal value 20p.
That rate for Large Letters applies pretty much anywhere in the world if the country you’re sending to are part of the International Postal Union. I was pleasantly surprised how cheap and easy it is now, compared with the last time we CD-swapped.
My CD copy of this little gem arrived in a padded envelope from Australia Post/MyPostBusiness marked ‘Extra Small’ even though it measured 21cm by 29cm. It was sent by the Cheersquad folk as a ‘Prime (Express) International’ parcel. They even included another CD in the envelope as a gift!
The postage paid was A$27.50, which is about the same as what my UK village Post Office recently charged me to send a CD from the UK to Oz in a jiffy bag stiffened with additional cardboard. I sent it tracked and signed for, customs declared as a gift.
Nice!
Talking of Bert Jansch, @colin-h, I caught Nick Harper’s 58 Fordwych Rd show, where he and his guitar reminisce his childhood days, at his dad, Roy’s, knee, as famous friends dropped by. Basically a rose-tinted nostalgia fest for 1960’s coffee house culture. It featured a song or instrumental apiece, originally by Davy Graham, Bert, John Renbourn, Paul Simon, Roy Harper, Jackson C. Frank, John Martyn and Sandy Denny, picking the obvious selection for each. But he sidestepped being madly by applying his own blistering guitar style and idiosyncratic vocal style on each. It was nice if inessential.
Sounds like fun. I heard a couple of the songs from that show online – as you say, blisteringly impressive and distinctive and undobtedly great if you were in the room.