Jack Theaker
Jack Theaker, from Fleet in Hampshire, has just turned 18 and has been playing guitar for just three years. First influenced by rock and roll and the Beatles, he soon tired of playing in schoolboy rock bands and found something more relaxed and accessible in folk music. he said “Having said I wanted to learn how to ‘fingerpick’, I was recommended to try artists like John Martyn and John Fahey, but especially Bert Jansch. On my first listen of Angie, I found an artist that I knew I would get along with.” After studying A level music at college in a course heavily focused on classical and jazz, Jack is now exploring the folk scene at Durham University.
Lovely Joan
A trad piece, arranged by Jack Theaker for Bert Jansch
“I chose the piece ‘Lovely Joan’ as it was an old folk melody that I adapted to a folk guitar setting—much in the style of Renbourn/Jansch’s ‘folk baroque’ songs. The composition features a stark lack of static harmony, an aggressive timbre, and stylistic polarisation of the bass and melody—all idioms of Bert’s style. Not only playing Bert’s music but listening to it time and again gives me an experience I have never had with any other artist.”
For this project, Jack also recorded Lucky Thirteen with Peter Ivey, who discovered him busking
