Biography
Among guitarists active during the 1960s, Davy Graham distinguished himself through an unusually broad stylistic range that fused folk, blues, jazz, Middle Eastern elements, and Indian ragas, thereby helping spark the British folk movement. He shared with Sandy Bull and John Fahey—a pair of similarly experimental players rooted in folk—an impulse to extend pieces and weave in unexpected outside influences. The 1962 instrumental “Anji” rapidly turned into a core piece for subsequent folk guitarists, appearing in widely known renditions by Bert Jansch and Simon & Garfunkel. Graham also originated the DADGAD open tuning, now among the most widespread alternate tunings in folk and world music. Throughout the decade he issued numerous recordings, among them the influential Folk, Blues and Beyond and the Shirley Collins collaboration Folk Roots, New Routes. Although he occasionally contributed vocals, his reputation rested chiefly on inventive fingerstyle playing. Output slowed in later decades, yet his impact endured. Before his passing in 2008, a BBC radio documentary paid tribute to him, and he returned to the studio for one final release, 2007’s Broken Biscuits.
Born in Hinckley, Leicestershire, Graham spent his childhood in London’s Notting Hill Gate district, where he became self-taught on piano and harmonica. During his teenage years he took up guitar, drawing inspiration from blues figures such as Big Bill Broonzy and Lead Belly as well as British guitarist Steve Benbow. Like Benbow, he developed an interest in music from other cultures, particularly Indian and Middle Eastern traditions. Travels across North Africa prompted him to devise the open tuning known as DADGAD. National attention first arrived via an acoustic instrumental performance of the American torch song “Cry Me a River” on the BBC television program Monitor. Three years afterward came his debut EP, 3/4 AD, which featured his best-known composition, “Anji.” This evocative minor-key instrumental exerted considerable sway over other folk-scene guitarists and was later recorded by fellow Britons Bert Jansch and John Renbourn as well as by Paul Simon, who resided in London while Graham’s profile rose. The Guitar Player, his first full-length album, surfaced on Pye’s budget imprint Golden Guinea in 1963, yet the two subsequent LPs proved far more consequential. In 1964 he joined Shirley Collins for Folk Roots, New Routes, a set of traditional folk songs that foreshadowed the coming U.K. folk-rock movement. The next year’s solo effort, Folk, Blues and Beyond, likewise proved foundational, highlighted by his raga-inflected treatment of the British traditional piece “She Moved Through the Fair” that employed the DADGAD tuning. Together with “Anji,” these two albums are routinely acknowledged as landmark works that shaped artists including Richard Thompson, Martin Carthy, Jimmy Page, and Ray Davies.
Three further solo albums appeared on Decca during the late 1960s: 1966’s Midnight Man, 1968’s Large as Life and Twice as Natural, and 1969’s Hat. By 1970 Graham had married American folk singer Holly Gwinn, who appeared with him on the pair of 1970 releases Holly Kaleidoscope and Godington Boundary. When Gwinn returned to the United States, a marijuana conviction barred Graham from joining her. Having also formed a heroin habit modeled on those of his American jazz heroes, Graham saw his career decline. Remaining in England, he taught guitar and participated in charity efforts, though he did not record again until the self-released 1976 album All That Moody. A modest resurgence produced two further titles on the small Kicking Mule folk label: 1978’s The Complete Guitarist and 1980’s Dance for Two People.
In subsequent decades he performed only sporadically and otherwise remained largely out of the public eye. The BBC aired the radio documentary Whatever Happened to Davy Graham? in 2005, followed a year later by his appearance in the BBC Four program Folk Britannia. Guitarist Mark Pavey persuaded Graham to emerge from retirement for several concerts alongside Martin Carthy, Duck Baker, and Bert Jansch. Pavey likewise facilitated the recording of Graham’s final album, 2007’s Broken Biscuits, issued on the newly founded Les Cousins label. Davy Graham succumbed to lung cancer on December 15, 2008, at age 68. His stature as a guitarist—especially within British folk music and the evolution of world music—remains immense, even though many of those he influenced achieved greater renown. Since his death, Pavey’s Les Cousins imprint has reissued numerous Graham albums, while the Cherry Tree label issued the eight-disc box set He Moved Through the Fair in 2024, devoted to his 1960s recordings.
Born in Hinckley, Leicestershire, Graham spent his childhood in London’s Notting Hill Gate district, where he became self-taught on piano and harmonica. During his teenage years he took up guitar, drawing inspiration from blues figures such as Big Bill Broonzy and Lead Belly as well as British guitarist Steve Benbow. Like Benbow, he developed an interest in music from other cultures, particularly Indian and Middle Eastern traditions. Travels across North Africa prompted him to devise the open tuning known as DADGAD. National attention first arrived via an acoustic instrumental performance of the American torch song “Cry Me a River” on the BBC television program Monitor. Three years afterward came his debut EP, 3/4 AD, which featured his best-known composition, “Anji.” This evocative minor-key instrumental exerted considerable sway over other folk-scene guitarists and was later recorded by fellow Britons Bert Jansch and John Renbourn as well as by Paul Simon, who resided in London while Graham’s profile rose. The Guitar Player, his first full-length album, surfaced on Pye’s budget imprint Golden Guinea in 1963, yet the two subsequent LPs proved far more consequential. In 1964 he joined Shirley Collins for Folk Roots, New Routes, a set of traditional folk songs that foreshadowed the coming U.K. folk-rock movement. The next year’s solo effort, Folk, Blues and Beyond, likewise proved foundational, highlighted by his raga-inflected treatment of the British traditional piece “She Moved Through the Fair” that employed the DADGAD tuning. Together with “Anji,” these two albums are routinely acknowledged as landmark works that shaped artists including Richard Thompson, Martin Carthy, Jimmy Page, and Ray Davies.
Three further solo albums appeared on Decca during the late 1960s: 1966’s Midnight Man, 1968’s Large as Life and Twice as Natural, and 1969’s Hat. By 1970 Graham had married American folk singer Holly Gwinn, who appeared with him on the pair of 1970 releases Holly Kaleidoscope and Godington Boundary. When Gwinn returned to the United States, a marijuana conviction barred Graham from joining her. Having also formed a heroin habit modeled on those of his American jazz heroes, Graham saw his career decline. Remaining in England, he taught guitar and participated in charity efforts, though he did not record again until the self-released 1976 album All That Moody. A modest resurgence produced two further titles on the small Kicking Mule folk label: 1978’s The Complete Guitarist and 1980’s Dance for Two People.
In subsequent decades he performed only sporadically and otherwise remained largely out of the public eye. The BBC aired the radio documentary Whatever Happened to Davy Graham? in 2005, followed a year later by his appearance in the BBC Four program Folk Britannia. Guitarist Mark Pavey persuaded Graham to emerge from retirement for several concerts alongside Martin Carthy, Duck Baker, and Bert Jansch. Pavey likewise facilitated the recording of Graham’s final album, 2007’s Broken Biscuits, issued on the newly founded Les Cousins label. Davy Graham succumbed to lung cancer on December 15, 2008, at age 68. His stature as a guitarist—especially within British folk music and the evolution of world music—remains immense, even though many of those he influenced achieved greater renown. Since his death, Pavey’s Les Cousins imprint has reissued numerous Graham albums, while the Cherry Tree label issued the eight-disc box set He Moved Through the Fair in 2024, devoted to his 1960s recordings.
Albums
