Folk, Blues & Beyond - Davey Graham

David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page, who based his solo "White Summer" on Graham's "She moved thru' the Bizarre/Blue Raga" and "Mustapha". Graham is probably best known for his acoustic instrumental, "Anji" and for pioneering the DADGAD tuning, later widely adopted by acoustic guitarists. It was not in Graham's nature to pursue fame and fortune and he retired to relative obscurity for many years, when he engaged in charity work and teaching as well as protracted periods of drug use, before beginning to tour again in the years before his death. His childlike, almost obsessive, enthusiasm for music never left him, however, and he would gladly give a free private concert to any chance acquaintance. Graham was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England, to a Guyanese mother and a Scottish father. Although he never had any music theory lessons he learnt to play the piano and harmonica as a child and then took up the classical guitar at the age of 12. As a teenager he was strongly influenced by the folk guitar player Steve Benbow, who had traveled widely with the army and played a guitar style influenced by Moroccan music. During the 1960s Graham released a string of albums of music from all around the world in all kinds of genres. 1964's Folk, Blues and Beyond and the following year's collaboration with the folk singer Shirley Collins, Folk Roots, New Routes, are frequently cited among his most influential album releases. Graham also came to the attention of guitarists through his appearance in a 1959 broadcast of the BBC TV arts series Monitor, produced by Ken Russell and entitled Hound Dogs and Bach Addicts: The Guitar Craze, in which he played an acoustic instrumental version of Cry Me a River. Graham's spontaneity made him unreliable and unpredictable, which did little to advance his fame or endear him to concert organisers and the more commercial elements of the music world. In the late 1960s he was booked for a tour of Australia but, when his plane stopped for an hour in Bombay, he changed his plans and spent the next six months wandering through India. His continuous touring of the world, picking up and then recording different styles of music for the guitar, has resulted in many musicians crediting him with founding world music. However, though Graham recorded in a variety of genres and loved to play the oud, he was no purist, absorbing all his influences into his own ever-expanding conception of the possibilities of guitar music. Quizzed, for instance, on his introduction of a chord progression into an Arabic maqam, his amiable retort was to the effect that, if he felt like it and it sounded alright, why shouldn't he? Graham married the American singer Holly Gwinn in the late 1960s and recorded the album Godington Boundary with her in 1970, shortly before their marriage broke up. By the end of the 1960s and the release of the album Hat (described by The Times as "fascinating but undeniably eccentric") he was experimenting with cocaine, LSD and opium. He ceased to work and entered a period of obscurity and comparative poverty: in this respect he is often compared with other musicians such as Syd Barrett and Peter Green. He later described himself as having been "a casualty of too much self-indulgence". During this period he taught acoustic guitar and also undertook charity work, particularly for various mental health charities. For several years he was on the executive council of Mind and he was involved for some time with the mystic Osho. He was the subject of a 2005 BBC Radio documentary Whatever Happened to Davy Graham ? and in 2006 featured in the BBC Four documentary Folk Britannia. Many people found Davy over the years and tried to encourage him to return to the stage to play live. Many claimed to have rediscovered him but this was not so difficult if one was familiar with Camden Town, as Davy was well known there. The last of this long line of seekers was Mark Pavey who arranged some outings with guitarists and old friends including Bert Jansch, Duck Baker and Martin Carthy. These concerts were typically eclectic, with Graham playing a mix of acoustic blues, Romanian dance tunes, Irish pipe tunes, songs from South Africa and pieces by Bach. His final album, Broken Biscuits consisted of originals and new arrangements of traditional songs from around the world. Graham was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008 and died on 15 December 2008. He is survived by his two daughters, Mercy and Kim If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!