John Renbourn and Wizz Jones album Joint Control due in September

John Renbourn
John Renbourn

The final recordings made by John Renbourn before his death are to be released by Riverboat Records this summer.

Joint Control, by John Renbourn & Wizz Jones, is issued on September 9 and features songs recorded in the days before Pentangle founder Renbourn’s death in March of last year from a heart attack at his home in Hawick in the Scottish borders.

The pair had been touring in the months before Renbourn’s passing and recorded 13 songs – one of them an original piece called Balham Moon.

Jones says: “It was always a great pleasure to meet up with John and play the odd gig together over the 50 plus years that we’ve known each other, so when the opportunity arose about three years ago for us to tour together – I jumped at the chance.

“It proved to be a truly wonderful experience which ended all too soon. With a giant personality and sense of humour that endeared John to everyone, he was a joy to be with and in those final few years we became bosom friends as never before.”

Joint Control was almost entirely finished when Renbourn died, with some of its tracks coming from live gig recordings in the final years of his life, as well as the live studio songs captured in his last weeks.

Tracks on the album include a version of Bert Jansch’s Strolling Down The Highway and a cover of Big Bill Broonzy’s Hey Hey.

Jones is among a host of performers appearing at a special John Renbourn tribute show at Cecil Sharp House in London on September 22.

John Renbourn & Wizz Jones Joint Control tracklist

  1. Hey Hey
  2. Buckets of Rain
  3. Glory Of Love
  4. Getting There
  5. National Seven
  6. Mountain Rain
  7. Great Dream from Heaven
  8. Strolling Down the Highway
  9. In Stormy Weather
  10. Balham Moon
  11. Blues Run the Game
  12. Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning
  13. Joint Control

John Renbourn Remembered

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.