RIP Davy Graham, 1940 - 2008
It’s hard to overstate the influence of multiracial and multitalented guitarist Davy Graham on modern folk music. A seminal figure in the 1960s British folk revolution, Graham’s broad interest in pushing the boundaries of folk music to include jazz, blues, middle eastern, and other global musical forms opened up the genre to a world of new possibility, enriching the very foundation of folk while making it accessible to a much wider folk audience. And his distinctive use of D modal or “Celtic” tuning, which allowed artists to easily maintain an open-string harmony while noodling around in the treble strings, became a “second standard” for picked and acoustic guitarists throughout the genre spectrum, making possible the very conceit of the “folk instrumental”.
As separate elements, Graham’s genre-play and his popular transformation of technical possibility each revolutionized what folk could be; taken together, the two make a case for Graham’s fifty-year body of work as definitive in driving both the body and soul of what we now consider the essence of folk. Certainly, by their own admission, his impact on peers and subsequent folk luminaries such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Fairport Convention, and Martin Carthy was unparalleled; farther from the center of the British folk scene, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page, among others, cite him as a major source of inspiration.
Like many folk fans, while I recognize the Graham’s influence on song and structure when I hear it, I don’t know enough of his original work as I’d like to, though I plan to rectify this post-haste. But oh, how fitting to celebrate his life’s work in covers, given his history. In a wordless tribute to a man who brought such breadth and potential to a fledgling form, then, here’s a few versions of the work which made him most famous…followed by a pair of great and traditional jazz covers, and two vocalized songs of upbeat albeit bluesy comfort, from the man himself.
- Davy Graham: Take Five (orig. Dave Brubeck)
- Davy Graham: Buhaina Chant (orig. Art Blakely)
- Davy Graham: Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (orig. Bob Dylan)
- Davy Graham: Going Down Slow (orig. Jimmy Oden; pop. Howlin’ Wolf)
Rest in peace, Davy. Long may your songs and sound reside in our strings and our voices, our ears and our hearts.
Category: RIP | Tags: Davy Graham
December 16th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
There’s a great book by Will Hodgkinsin called “Guitar Man” which is all about him trying to learn to play the guitar. He seeks and finds Davy Graham to give him a lesson. Graham is - was - apparently quite an eccentric character.