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Reid Bishop's avatar

A fair resume of his contribution to the changing soundscape of 1960's folk. And you point out his influence on rock musicians like Neil Young. However, Neil's answer to Needle of Death (The Needle and the Damage Done) was surely not strummed, as you say, but picked in the same spirit as Jansch, no? (I once tried to learn how to play it and was predictably unable to get through it as I'm a strummer!)

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George Starostin's avatar

I think there's a bit of both, no? he does a bit of strumming for rhythm and picks the lead. But it's probably more pronounced on the Unplugged version, which I played recently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3oqvnDKQk). Anyway, much less "technical" than Jansch but more resonant.

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