I've been all over the place for the last few days and haven't had the opportunity to mention just how the world has lost some of it's intellect and charm recently.
Conor Cruise O'Brien was a fantastic man with an inspirational fury. It was the Cruiser who cured me of my ambivalence about Irish republican violence, and I know I'm not alone in this. If I wasn't so flat out, I'd be tempted to try and pull together a proper obit, but I can't at the mo.
Davey Graham was probably the first exponent of what became known as 'world music' - I can't think of anyone who took a popular idiom and charged around hammering new musical forms from around the world into it with Davey's verve - and certainly no-one before him did it. I was driving along one day and heard his version of Art Blakey's Moanin' - I had to pull the car over until it finished to avoid killing someone. If there is anyone you truly love, buy them Folk Blues and Beyond for xmas this year. Lots of records get called seminal but few with the justification of FB&B. Listen to Maajan to see what I mean.
Just on a personal note, I'd been playing guitar for years before I heard Davey. After hearing him, I retuned my guitar to a DADGAD and now prefer this setup a lot of the time. It makes it almost a different instrument.
This YouTube is worth a listen.
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