Light On Dark Water

Davy Graham

You knew he would be next, didn't you? Well, no, I guess you didn't, but if you're familiar with British folky guitar players, you've probably heard of him. He's not that well known outside of that world, but he's very highly regarded within it, and is said to have been a big influence on Jansch, Renbourn, and others. Here's his signature tune, "Anji", which has been recorded by a number of other people as "Angie." You may be familiar with it from Paul Simon's version on the Sounds of Silence album.

I confess that I haven't sought out his music, because he sings on much of it, and he has a very uninteresting voice. (To be honest, I think his blues vocals are worse than that–they're among the most unconvincing I've ever heard.) But in looking for samples of his work on YouTube, I'm discovering that there is quite a lot that is purely instrumental. Here is a fascinating take on the classic short story of uncanny love, "She Moves Through the Fair." (If you don't know it, you might want to listen to this performance by Anne Briggs so you know the tune.) The sound is not especially good, and I don't see any indication of what the TV show is. From the '60s, I guess.

As that clip shows, he shouldn't really be classified as a folk guitarist, because he ventured far afield into jazz and what's now called "world music" ("foreign" began to sound bad at some point). In fact his first album was mostly jazz. Here's another example. You can say it was trendy for its time, 1968, but I don't think I've ever heard as convincing an effort at a raga-style instrumental from any other guitarist.

His Wikipedia entry indicates that there is some inconsistency in whether his name should be "Davy" or "Davey."