Davy Graham - Albums Collection 1963-1970 (6CD)

Davy Graham was one of the most eclectic guitarists of the 1960s, and his mixture of folk, blues, jazz, Middle Eastern sounds, and Indian ragas was an important catalyst of the British folk scene. Like Sandy Bull and John Fahey – two folk-based guitarists with a similar taste for genre-bending experimentation – Graham could not be said to be a rock musician. But like Bull and Fahey, he shared the eagerness of the '60s psychedelic rockers to stretch out and incorporate unpredictable influences into his music. While he wasn't much of a singer, Graham's taste in material was broad and shrewd, encompassing blues, ragas, Joni Mitchell, Charles Mingus, and the famous instrumental "Anji," which Graham recorded in 1962, way before the more famous versions by Bert Jansch and Simon & Garfunkel. Besides cutting several albums of his own work in the 1960s with sympathetic, low-key rhythm sections, he also recorded with traditional folksinger Shirley Collins and British blues father Alexis Korner. Graham recorded only sporadically after the 1960s, although he performed with the renowned acoustic guitar wizards Stefan Grossman and Duck Baker.

Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

While few on the North American side of the Atlantic are aware of the sheer poetic and instrumental genius of guitarist Davy Graham – such listeners usually get all misty over one of the persons he influenced, such as Richard Thompson, Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and Ellen McIlwaine, all of whom he is superior to in both technique and compositional style – his place in the world of guitar icons is well-established. Graham literally started the modern folk revival for guitarists in England. The Guitar Player is his first full-length album, recorded in 1962 and issued on the venerable Pye Records Golden Guinea label two years after Graham's recording debut, the 3/4 A.D. EP on Topic. This Castle/Sanctuary reissue of The Guitar Player is lovingly and painstakingly remastered from the original tapes. It contains the 12 dazzling tracks in sequence from its predecessor that showcase Graham's truly astonishing range – even by today's standards. Jazz classics such as Sonny Rollins' "Don't Stop the Carnival" accompanied by timpanis, Brubeck's "Take Five," Cannonball Adderley's "Sermonette," Horace Silver's "Buffalo," the torch song "Cry Me a River" (which was a hit by Julie London just before Graham reinvented it), and Ray Charles' R&B classic "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" were re-imagined by Graham as folk instrumentals. They retain their swing and their radical harmonic inventions – even more so because of Graham's wild contrapuntal blues method of playing. His version of a classic blues song like "How Long, How Long Blues" recalls Gary Davis and Big Bill Broonzy (just forget Hot Tuna's version please; it is sickly pale in comparison), and his originals, such as "Blues for Betty," contain an exoticism not heard before or since while remaining true to the idiom. The Guitar Player is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, instrumental acoustic guitar record of the 1960s and 1970s British folk scene. In addition to the album, Sanctuary has seen fit to include no less than eight bonus tracks taken from the Rollercoaster CDs After Hours and All That Moody, and two short cuts – including a redone "Anji" (covered by Simon & Garfunkel as the lone instrumental on Sounds of Silence) from 1976. The liner notes by British critic Colin Harper are exemplary and exhaustive. Now, if only Topic would see clear to re-release Folk, Blues & Beyond… and Folk Roots, New Routes (with Shirley Collins) on remastered CDs, then Graham's legacy would be available to be reevaluated by ignorant and pigheaded Americanski critics (Byron Coley and Richie Unterberger excepted). Nonetheless, the release of the classic The Guitar Player in America, some 40 years after its initial issue, is still an occasion for great celebration and is a candidate for reissue of the year.

Review by Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com

Folk, Blues & Beyond… was Davy Graham's most groundbreaking and consistent album. More than his solo debut The Guitar Player (which was pretty jazzy) or his previous collaboration with folksinger Shirley Collins, Folk Roots, New Routes, this established his mixture of folk, jazz, blues, and Middle Eastern music, while the use of a bassist and drummer are also hinting at (though not quite reaching) folk-rock. "Leavin' Blues," "Skillet (Good 'N' Greasy)," and "Moanin'" are all among his very best folk-blues-rock performances, while on "Maajun" he goes full-bore into Middle Eastern music on one of his most haunting and memorable pieces. Covers of traditional folk standards like "Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair" and "Seven Gypsies" combine with interpretations of compositions by Bob Dylan ("Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"), Willie Dixon ("My Babe"), Charles Mingus ("Better Git in Your Soul"), and Reverend Gary Davis ("Cocaine") for an eclecticism of repertoire that wasn't matched by many musicians of any sort in the mid-'60s.

If there is one aspect of the recording to criticize, it is, as was usually the case with Graham, the thin, colorless vocals. The guitar playing is the main attraction, though; it's so stellar that it makes the less impressive singing easy to overlook. Ten of the 16 songs were included on the compilation Folk, Blues & All Points in Between, but Graham fans should get this anyway, as the level of material and musicianship is pretty high throughout most of the disc. In 2005, A Wing And A Prayer Ltd. reissued Folk, Blues & Beyond on its Fledg'ling label and took it beyond the album's original boundaries: the 16-track LP became a 21-track CD with the addition of a live rendition of "She Moved Through the Fair" (Graham's re-composition of a 17th century folksong, which was ripped off by the Yardbirds as "White Summer" and "adapted" [in tandem with a Bert Jansch piece called "Blackwaterside"] by Led Zeppelin into "Black Mountain Side") and "Mustapha," from a Decca release called From a London Hootenanny; and a trio of songs from a Topic Records' EP entitled 3/4 A.D. The latter includes Graham's own version of "Anji," an instrumental that subsequently entered millions of homes by way of a cover by Paul Simon on the Sounds of Silence album, as well as a pair of much bluesier (and totally spellbinding) pieces. The sound is excellent, and beyond what this brings out in the nuances of the playing, even Graham's vocals (ostensibly the album's slightly weak link) on some of the blues numbers like St. Louis Jimmy Oden's "Goin' Down Slow," come off pretty well here, or at any rate as well as any white guy competing with the likes of Champion Jack Dupree and Howlin' Wolf is ever going to come off. And the annotation tells the outlines of Graham's story about as well as any release yet devoted to the work of this enigmatic and immensely important musician.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

Graham went into a somewhat harder-rocking bluesy groove on this record, though a strong jazz feel was always present in the rhythm especially. More than any other Graham LP, this offers proof that the guitarist would have established himself as a major star on the folk circuit in the '60s – if only his singing was better. As a guitarist, he's simply wonderful, combining folk, jazz, and blues styles into an invigorating, idiosyncratic style that can both swing and attain a delicate sadness. As an interpreter, he's relentlessly imaginative, breathing new vigor into overdone R&B standards, or devising fresh folk arrangements for Beatles and Paul Simon tunes. But as a vocalist, he's adequate at best; if he had even possessed the modest expressiveness of a Bert Jansch, the material would be that much more striking. Almost none of these tracks are available on Graham compilations, and this rare LP is definitely worth seeking by those who are familiar with some of his other '60s work. Especially excellent are the jazzy "Hummingbird" and the instrumental cover of Lalo Schifrin's "The Fakir," which blends the rhythmic drive of Charles Mingus with hypnotic raga-esque riffs.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

With the exception of 1964's Folk, Blues & Beyond, this is Graham's finest non-compilation album. It's also his most fully arranged and rock-influenced effort, with backing by a meaty ensemble featuring Danny Thompson (of Pentangle) on bass and British blues stalwarts Jon Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith (Graham Bond, Colosseum) on drums and sax respectively. Even Graham's singing sounds better than usual. Graham offers some decent blues, but more interesting are his frequent excursions into raga folk-rock of sorts, especially on "Blue Raga" (learned from Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan). The raga-jazz interpretation of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," which moves from meditative opening drones into a freewheeling explosion of modal folk-rock is one of the highlights of Graham's career on record and one of the best expressions of his ability to make a standard his own.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

There's no such thing as a bad Graham album from the 1960s. While Hat isn't necessarily the first one you should dig into, it offers the standard pleasures that you expect from his records: excellent, feverishly imaginative acoustic guitar playing; vibrant jazz-blues arrangements; and covers of blues numbers, Paul Simon, and Lennon-McCartney. He's just as capable of good-time blues ("I'm Ready") and a folk cover of "Getting Better" from Sgt. Pepper as dark, slightly dissonant instrumentals with a modal/Eastern flavor. As is the case with most of his '60s albums, it's very hard to find, especially in the U.S., where Graham did not have a record deal.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

This isn't Graham's most focused or impressive album, but is basically in the same league as most of his early catalog. It's more jazz-oriented than most of his work; he sings rather less than usual and occasionally goes into lengthy improvisations (as on his cover of "The Work Song"). Graham's wife, Holly, gets co-billed, as she did on his previous album, Kaleidoscope, but actually she contributes only to a few numbers; she's more of a guest artist than a true collaborator. Indian/raga influences come into play once in a while, and on the whole it's somewhat quirkier than his previous string of albums. It would also be the last the public would hear from Graham on record for quite some time, as he found himself without a contract for most of the 1970s.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com