Davy Graham - Folk, Blues & Beyond (1964) (@256)

For those who follow this blog, it must be notorious for (a) picking each post's subject from recent musical and social events and (b) for its long reaction time for some of these posts. But, you know how it goes. I only have time for 1-2 uploads per week, so sometimes I tend to skip something in favour of something else. So, I am in a position where I have planned at least fifteen posts based on recent events but I can't find the time to upload them.
One of the many events that took me too long to react is the death of one of my favourite guitarists, Davy Graham. Graham is cited as a major influence for artists such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page. His influence is also apparent in the sound of Fairport Convention and Pentangle. Graham can be also considered as the first western artist that introduced Middle Eastern forms to his music.
Ray Horricks writes in the album's liner notes: "Certainly he is one of the more extraordinary artists that the world of folk has produced: the most original young guitarist in Europe, a gifted, natural arranger and a singer who sings as he feels. Moreover, he is too large a personality for the folk scene to entirely contain, although he is one of its favourite sons. By this I mean that Davy is constantly drawing other musical forms into his own orbit: blues, modern jazz, Indian or Arabic forms, and so on. All have joined the basic folk repertoire he began with, colouring his overall output in a quite remarkable way." And Colin Harper writes in the Mojo's booklet about the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums: "Before Elvis, said Lennon, there was nothing. Well, before Davy Graham - six-stringed alchemist of Indian, Arabic, Elizabethan, Celtic, modern jazz, country blues, Broadway and pretty much everything else - the world of acoustic virtuosity (Julian Bream notwithstanding) was similarly void. Having already notified the post-Lonnie cognoscenti of where it was at with Angi - as if 1962 was the first year of contrapuntal bass lines since Bach - this era- and career- defining album, with muscular bass and drums off-setting the maestro's almost incongruously mannered vocal, arrived at precisely the moment to set the bar for Britain's young, vibrant, Soho-centred 'folk-baroque' movement of Jansch, Renbourn, Harper, Drake et al. And these were high times".
PS. The uploaded version of Folk, Blues & Beyond comes with the famous instrumental Anji as a bonus track.

read also:
Times obituary
Graham's official website
Graham's interview
Check also the fellow blogger Standin' at the Crossroads, who, based on the same sad occasion, has posted some clips from the Servant and from Folk Britannia (here), and uploaded two of Graham's personal albums (Fire in the Soul and After Hours at Hull University) as well as his famous collaboration with Shirley Collins

album review link: here

download link: here (mirrorcreator) and here (rapidshare)