Davy Graham

[NormanKliman]

Hi everyone,

I've responded to a few threads here in recent weeks but this is the first one I've started. Looks like you've got a nice place here!

Davy Graham is one of my favorite guitarists. Do any of you play his material?

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

Hi everyone,

I've responded to a few threads here in recent weeks but this is the first one I've started. Looks like you've got a nice place here!

Davy Graham is one of my favorite guitarists. Do any of you play his material?

I play Angi whenever anyone asks - and have done since 1966 - although now I tend to play an adapted version of Bert Jansch's own adaptation. (I take it into one or two other keys.)

But I have tabs if you want them for Davy's original, as well as for his groundbreaking DADGAD version of She Moved Through the Fair, and also for Maajun, Better Git It In Your Soul, and a partial one for Cry Me A River (still working on that).

I wouldn't say I "play" those, certainly not regularly - I just transcribed them, but of course I can play them to some extent.

[NormanKliman]

Thanks JonPR, that’s kind of you to offer. I play a few tracks from The Complete Guitarist and have had to give up on other things of his, like Here Comes the Carnival, from that double CD of previously unreleased material. I spent a long time on that one and in the end I’m not even sure of the tuning (anyone know it?) After many years, I’m getting closer to playing Lashtal’s Room with the right grips, which makes it easier, but it’s still very hard to play mistake-free and with some swing. I also play Blues for Gino, which I extend with the first minute or so of an A blues on that double CD, and a basic version of City and Suburban Blues that I worked out from a video of him playing on TV. He was one hell of a guitarist. I’d love to read any comments about him or his playing.

[Gitfiddlemann]

I play Anji as well. (Is it Angi or Anji?).
But it's the Paul Simon version, from the Sounds of Silence LP, which I believe was heavily influenced by Bert Jansch's version.
It was one of those tunes that I learned by ear directly from the record, and left many scratches behind to prove it.
For years, I thought that it was Simon's cover of the Graham original, but I subsequently learned, or was told by someone along the way, that he got his from Jansch. Maybe it was a Simon interview I read.
In any case, it's one of the first few "real" tunes I ever learned.

[jseth]

Like many who played in the 60's, it seemed a prerequisite that, if you were an acoustic guitarist, you learned how to play "Anji"...

I still remember beating my brains out (and fingers!) learning that song... felt like SUCH an accomplishment when I finally "had it down" pretty well!

I was raised in Southern California, and the first version of this tune I heard was Paul Simon's... I knew it was a Davy Graham tune, and I heard Bert's version of it in the later 60's, but I did not hear Graham doing the song until I bought a CD of his first record, "Folk, Blues and Beyond" in 2010 or so...

Davy Graham was a formidable force on an acoustic guitar! I am not at all fond of the method that was used to record that first album, where there's a mic placed a bit remotely from the guitar, so you don't get that immediate rush of sound from the instrument, but it is very clear just how much mastery and prowess the man had on his guitar!

Should be the stock answer to anyone who says "You can't finger pick a dreadnought"...

Brilliant guitarist!!!

[niko]

Davey Graham was a one of a kind
Like others I play Anji, that I learned from Bert Jansch's LP. I play also Buffalo, from John Renbourn's LP and Forty Ton Parachute, my version is a mix of Davey Graham's and Duck Baker's playing. Steve Hicks plays also a killer version of this tune :
https://youtu.be/9-GNsl9GqiQ

Nicolas

[spock]

Here's a cool old clip of Paul Simon playing Angi with his brother Ed. It begins just after the 8:00 mark.

[M Hayden]

I play Anji/Angi/Angie of course, and “Forty Ton Parachute,” which is not only a nice tune but a good warmup - I use it back to back with Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years,” as both tunes have some interesting finger-plant/finger-move requirements.

[FrankHudson]

Someday someone should write a book on the adoption of alternate/open tunings in the mid 20th century acoustic guitar world. Best as I know it seems to have various more or less independent discovered/adopted sometimes by those were aware of the early blues songsters use of Spanish and Vestapol, some of which were trying to adopt the guitar to non-western European musical traditions, but Graham in the British Isles and John Fahey and a small group around his youthful home town in Maryland in the US seem to be important "Johnny Appleseeds."

I didn't know of him until after I had heard Fahey and his school and the UK guitarists who were influenced by him like Jansch, Renbourn, and Nick Drake, but those UK associated artists all pointed to Graham, so I found his work.

A lot of those folks have it Graham invented DADGAD, at least as far as they knew.

My favorite Graham performance is this version of "She Moved Through the Fair"




I don't play any of his material, but Fahey and Graham helped me see a lot of possibilities in acoustic guitar that I'm still exploring decades later.

[NormanKliman]

Originally Posted by jseth

...Should be the stock answer to anyone who says "You can't finger pick a dreadnought"...

He played nylon-string really well, too (a Ramírez classical I think). When he's mentioned in interviews, everyone seems to agree that he was extraordinary in many ways.

I've got the album Folk, Blues and Beyond and a few others. I don’t like them as much as The Complete Guitarist, and from that album I’m interested in only a few of the tracks. He recorded a lot of different stuff, sometimes with other instruments, and non-standard tuning appeals to me less, anyway, so the scope of my interest is narrow. Even so, I think he was one of the all-time greats.

I mentioned upthread a double CD reissue. It’s actually a triple CD, and the title is “Anthology-Lost Tapes 1961–2007.” Some of it is really good. The blues in A that I mentioned is titled “Geno’s Tune” here. Sounds like it was recorded at a party at someone’s house. Cutting through the noise, he plays for five minutes with astounding skill, rock-solid rhythm and deep concentration. I’ve worked out the first minute or so. Also, in “Forty Tonne Parachute,” there are some very cool variations that bring some funky joy to this otherwise gruelling piece.

Here’s a link to the video of “City and Suburban Blues,” in case any of you haven’t seen it. Not his best playing, but it makes for an interesting study of his style. I’ve worked out a basic version without the singing or the solo, and it’s a great way to warm up. Kicks my butt when my hands are cold, and it’s a lot more fun than unmusical fretboard patterns.

Originally Posted by niko

...Steve Hicks plays also a killer version of this tune...

Thanks for posting that. Very cool video. That Steve Hicks breezes through it like he’s laughing. I don’t look nearly as gracious when I try to play it!

Originally Posted by spock

Here's a cool old clip of Paul Simon playing Angi with his brother Ed. It begins just after the 8:00 mark...

And thanks to you for that video. Looks like they’re playing it in B minor. Paul’s brother plays in E minor with capo at seventh fret and Paul plays in A minor with capo at second fret.

Originally Posted by M Hayden

...Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years,”...

Hey, I play that, too! I play it over G and F chords.

Thanks to everyone. Looks like I’ve come to the right place! I look forward to sharing and comparing notes with you guys.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by AndreF

I play Anji as well. (Is it Angi or Anji?).

Davy Graham spelled it Angi, Bert Jansch Angie, and Paul Simon Anji.

Original sleeve (1962):


"Davy" is also sometimes spelled "Davey", and I don't know which he preferred himself.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by jseth

Should be the stock answer to anyone who says "You can't finger pick a dreadnought"...

Whatever idiot ever said that??

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

Someday someone should write a book on the adoption of alternate/open tunings in the mid 20th century acoustic guitar world. Best as I know it seems to have various more or less independent discovered/adopted sometimes by those were aware of the early blues songsters use of Spanish and Vestapol, some of which were trying to adopt the guitar to non-western European musical traditions, but Graham in the British Isles and John Fahey and a small group around his youthful home town in Maryland in the US seem to be important "Johnny Appleseeds."

Interesting question. The practice certainly seems to have ballooned in the 1960s.
As well as Graham and Fahey, there was Martin Carthy, Nick Drake and John Martyn in the UK - all inspired by Graham in different ways, if only to realise you didn't have to stick with EADGBE! I.e., they all went way beyond DADGAD (and beyond the old open blues tunings).

Here's some of Nick Drake's tunings: http://www.chrish.ndo.co.uk/tunings.htm

In America there's Joni Mitchell, who invented an extraordinary range of alternative tunings - while she was teaching herself guitar as a teenager, because polio had weakened her left hand.
https://jonimitchell.com/music/tuningpatterns.cfm

Here's Carthy discussing alternative tunings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjmXVCaP7B0

Historical note (you may know this, but others may not!):
"Spanish" and "Vestapol" tunings derive from two parlour guitar pieces published by Henry Worrall in the 1860s.
"Sebastopol" was in open D (and became pronounced "vestapol" over time)
"Spanish Fandango" was in open G.
Some details here: http://www.brianbaggettband.com/henryworrall.html

"Sebastopol" was written to commemorate a seige during the Crimean War - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_...%E2%80%931855))
Here's the first page:

A lot of it is designed to mimic sounds of battle (bugles etc).

[Silly Moustache]

I "think" I saw him at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1973, but I confess he wasn't as high on my list as John Prine and other acts.

I was always aware of him, but not a great follower.
He was probably partly responsible for the folk boom of the early '60s when I was either still a long haired rock drummer, or just learning the basics of guitar.

[NormanKliman]

Whoa, JonPR, that is a seriously cool post. You guys know what you're talking about around here!

I've read that Skip James used a weird tuning, too, so it seems the idea was around before the folk players of the 60s.