Billy Connolly

Armed with a collection of old Transatlantic albums, the Melody Maker and a battered Dansette record player, Billy Connolly charts the story of legendary guitarist Bert Jansch along with a stellar cast of folk and blues musicians in the BAFTA nominated music film Acoustic Routes.

The film follows Edinburgh raised Jansch from his early Scottish musical roots, to London of the early 1960's where he quickly became a pivotal innovator of the new acoustic guitar movement along with the enigmatic Davy Graham.

Indeed Bert's early recorded version of Davy's instrumental tune 'Anji', remains a guitar standard today. His complex, fingerstyle guitar arrangements merged blues and folk into a new music form that quickly drew the attention of his contemporaries and widespread acclaim. It also stirred the attention of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Neil Young who all travelled to London to hear for themselves.

Bert Jansch	Davy Graham	Bert Jansch

'In the sixties and seventies, when pop music was insane with excitement, the folkies and hippies, the pickers and travellers played acoustic sounds in tiny clubs to dedicated fans for sweeties. Yet when they made records, they became part of a legend. This film is about that legend, the nostalgia for excellence, the remembering of songs past, the weathering of lives dedicated to a passion that transcends fashion, fame or fortune.' ANGUS WOLFE MURRAY - Film Critic - The Scotsman

Bert Jansch with Ann Briggs	Martin Carthy	Wizz Jones and Al Stewart	Duck Baker

ACOUSTIC ROUTES began filming at many of the great folk and blues venues in the UK including The Half Moon, The Troubadour Coffee House, and Bunjies in London, and The Howf in Edinburgh, before embarking on a remarkable journey to San Francisco, where Bert was re-united in a truly memorable encounter with his own hero, Brownie McGhee.

As a young man in the 1940's, Brownie McGhee had set out with Woody Guthrie and the blind harmonica player Sonny Terry and forged a path through prejudice with their music. Their tours crossed from East Coast to West and Brownie was on the road with Woody when he first wrote and performed the seminal 'This Land is Your Land'.

In the late 1950's, as a youth, Bert had sat on the floor and watched Brownie play at The Howf in Edinburgh and was inspired. Their reunion as musical equals is one of the highlights of the film.

	Brownie McGee

Filmed in Brownies' front room at his home in Oakland, the pair perform 'Don't Pity Me', 'Parcel Post Blues' and a stunning version of Brownie's signature tune, 'Walk On' - which brought the audience to it's feet when the film was premiered to a sell out audience at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

In addition to many great music performances including highlights with Albert Lee, John Renbourne, and Duck Baker, the film also contains many rare stills, early footage of Davy Graham and the only known surviving footage of American singer songwriter Jackson C Frank.

ACOUSTIC ROUTES was first screened on BBC 2 Network, and nominated as Best Arts Film by BAFTA Scotland in 1993 - ironically the film was pipped at the post by another documentary edited by Jan.

The film was invited to the Festival dei Popoli in Florence, the Leipzig Documentary Festival and the Sofia Music Film Festival.

In 1994, a limited edition run of the soundtrack album was released by Demon Records. Now deleted, bootleg copies of the album are still in demand!