One of the most consequential guitarists in British folk music,
Davy Graham inspired legions of aspiring fingerpickers with his 1962 song "Anji." A haunting minor-key piece that helped ignite an instrumental guitar boom, learning to play "Anji" became de rigueur among young pickers including
Bert Jansch, who recorded it for his first album, and
Paul Simon, who brought it home to the U.S. for inclusion on
Simon & Garfunkel's 1965 album
Sounds of Silence. A rakish figure who married his love of jazz and blues to the more tonally varied sounds of Indian ragas and Middle Eastern scales,
Graham was a stylistic adventurer before it became fashionable to be so. Like many trailblazers, his followers became better known than he did, though he did enjoy a certain amount of critical notoriety throughout the decade, especially for 1964's influential
Folk Roots, New Routes -- which he made with another U.K. folk pioneer,
Shirley Collins -- and 1965's
Folk, Blues and Beyond. In addition to his genre mixing,
Graham is credited with developing DADGAD, the guitar tuning that has since become a staple of folk and world music. He also struggled with heroin addiction, a habit his friends say he pursued in emulation of his American jazz idols, and by the early '70s, he had largely faded from public view.
Graham died in 2008, by which time his creative impact had been justly noted; fans ranging from folk scene peers like
Richard Thompson and
Martin Carthy to rockers like
Jimmy Page,
Ray Davies, and
Graham Coxon have called him an influence.
He Moved Through the Fair: The Complete 1960s is an exhaustive eight-disc box set from
Cherry Tree Records that contains the entirety of his '60s output plus assorted unreleased demos and live cuts. In
Graham's inspired playing are the blueprints for the subsequent folk-rock scene that he helped create. In addition to its wealth of incredible music, the extensive liner notes are worth reading and include a bevy of rare photos and an interview with
Graham from 2000. ~ Timothy Monger
