Davy Graham RIP

[MiNe 109]

That I'd never heard of this artist goes to show how much is out there
to be discovered. His influence is clearly heard in my favorite Richard
Thompson.

I've got the Paul Simon "Anji." There's lots of stuff on YouTube.

Stephen

[Jenn[_3_]]

In article >,
MiNe 109 > wrote:

> That I'd never heard of this artist goes to show how much is out there
> to be discovered. His influence is clearly heard in my favorite Richard
> Thompson.
>
> I've got the Paul Simon "Anji." There's lots of stuff on YouTube.
>
> Stephen

A great, great player. Anji is pretty much a rite of passage for all
acoustic fingerstyle players. He is credited with inventing DADGAD
tuning. My buddy SOTA fingerstylist Laurence Juber wrote me in a note:
"When I was 13, Davey Graham's "Anji", was the 'right of passage' tune
that you had to master if you were serious about fingerstyle guitar.
Unlike the regular patterns of folk picking or the alternate bass of
ragtime, it has a descending bass-line: A,G,F,E.
Over this there is a hammer-and-pull articulated melody which requires a
technique something akin to patting your head and
rubbing your stomach simultaneously. That is, playing two distinct parts
at the same time. In standard tuning, it
was many a budding picker's party-piece.

Later, when I was in college, circa 1972, I would hang out at a flat in
Shadwell in London's East End, that was inhabited by
a woman named Judith Piepe. She was the doyenne of the London folk scene
and was involved in the careers
of many of the up-and-coming artists in the early 60's, including Paul
Simon, who wrote some of his early
hits in this tiny cramped apartment. She co-habited with a luthier named
Stephen Delft, who serviced instruments for many
touring pro guitarists and together they would hand pick instruments for
their clients. I still have a classical guitar by
Markneukirchen luthier Karl Gutter and the John Le Voi steel string (as
used on my Solo Flight CD) that I bought back then.

It was this incubator that contributed to Paul Simon absorbing elements
of UK folk, with him covering not only "Anji",
but also adapting Martin Carthy's approach to "Scarborough Fair".

On one occasion I was sitting and playing on the couch when Davey Graham
walked in and sat next to me. Presumptuously,
I handed him my guitar and asked to see how he played "Anji". I was
taking classical guitar lessons and had always used my
left hand 1st finger for the F in the bass-line. I was surprised to see
him use his l.h.thumb, which was something of an epiphany
to me.

I certainly appreciate Davey's invention of our other standard tuning -
DADGAD, although my personal route to the tuning had more to do
with the next generation of Brits like John Renbourn and Al Stewart.
Without DADGAD, the Led Zeppelin songbook would
have turned out differently and Celtic guitarists would still be playing
in standard tuning and drop D.
Not to mention that my own acoustic playing would have taken a radically
different turn.

In honor of this legendary picker, I'm going to take a moment to play
"Anji"..... in DADGAD......
LJ"

[MiNe 109]

In article >,
Jenn > wrote:

> A great, great player. Anji is pretty much a rite of passage for all
> acoustic fingerstyle players. He is credited with inventing DADGAD
> tuning. My buddy SOTA fingerstylist Laurence Juber wrote me in a note:

<snip great remembrance>

Thanks for sharing. I'm amused Paul Simon's "Anji" rite-of-passage is
represented on YouTube in a duet version with his brother that would,
ahem, simplify the inherent difficulty.

Stephen