As soon as you define something you’ve really said that it has no right to be anything other than what you define it as. “A medley of a hit is always a bit of a bore, but it’s a little bit upsetting to be thought of in no other connection. It quickly became virtually the standard tuning for the accompaniment of traditional material, and has spawned a host of variants – altered tuning of the types which have lead to a distinct branch of contemporary fingerstyle playing, culminating in the work of such players as Pierre Bensusan, Alex de Grassi and Michael Hedges – players who have taken the steel string guitar into wonderful new areas while being lumped together under the New Age banner, a welcome development clearly traceable back in concept to Davy’s early guitar work.³”Ĭoncerning his smash hit Anji, Dave had this to say: “If Davy had done little else except become the inventor of DADGAD, his immorality would still be assured. Apparently, the new tuning birthed from his desire to play traditional Morrocan oud music on his instrument as close to the original as possible.² To realize the importance of this tuning, here are the words of a Davey Graham influenced guitarist John Renbourn: Probably best known for his acoustic instrumental Anji, Graham also made popular DADGAD tuning, a widely adopted by acoustic guitarists. I like the idea of encouraging people to not just read and listen to stories, but in his words, “go to some of the places I’ve been and find out for themselves.¹” From all I’ve read, I believe Dave lived by this kind of thinking his entire life. Then, move on to explore and master something else. Explore, master something to the point that it has meaning for you. Those thoughts aren’t always understood when you’re in another country.¹”ĭavey pursued what we as humans should do. Every time you breathe out, some of your thoughts pass into the void where they’re picked up on by those around you. Speaking English, which is a forest of metaphor, is to some extent a mixed blessing. One should always learn another language, to release yourself from thought patterns in your own language. I found that studying languages and music was the same thing. Never interested in the big time, just to be good at what I was doing.
In the same interview referenced above Dave makes these statements. Exploring And Learning Came Before Successĭave developed a large following but that was never his intent. This is evident from his teenage years where he was strongly influenced by the folk guitar player Steve Benbow, who had travelled widely with the army and played a guitar style influenced by Moroccan music. It led him away from classical guitar to just about any style and culture of music that he could find. But what I find fascinating about Dave is that he was always exploring and experimenting. Dave later studied classical guitar with Oliver Hunt. I found I could remember almost anything that I had heard.¹” Though Doc never played piano, this idea of beginning a musical journey with just the melody and a simple instrument is always intriguing to me. “I started playing harmonica as a child, and then a little piano although I never studied formally. But before any of this occurred, he began his journey with the harmonica in a way that reminds me of another godfather of guitar, Doc Watson. He inspired many famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar such as Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page, who based his solo “White Summer” on Graham’s “She Moved Through the Fair”. Before Fingerstyle Guitar Fameĭave (he actually preferred this to Davey), a Brit, was one of the most influential guitar figures in the 1960s British folk revival.
If this is your first time learning about this wonderful musician and his work with fingerstlye guitar, then consider yourself no longer ignorant. My good friend Raymond Morin introduced to him to me and my guitar life, like many others, has not been quite the same since. It is hard to imagine that it was 1940 because his music was and still has a timeless quality to it. David Michael Gordon “Davey” Graham came into our world in 1940.
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