Davy Graham - Large As Life And Twice As Natural - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Leonard Cohen - Various Positions [COMPACT DISCS] date 02/01/2008

With the exception of 1964's Folk, Blues & Beyond, this is Graham's finest non-compilation album. It's also his most fully arranged and rock-influenced effort, with backing by a meaty ensemble featuring Danny Thompson (of Pentangle) on bass and British blues stalwarts Jon Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith (Graham Bond, Colosseum) on drums and sax respectively. Even Davey's singing sounds better than usual. Graham offers some decent blues, but more interesting are his frequent excursions into raga folk-rock of sorts, especially on InchBlue RagaInch (learned from Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan). The raga-jazz interpretation of Joni Mitchell's InchBoth Sides Now,Inch which moves from meditative opening drones into a freewheeling explosion of modal folk-rock, is one of the highlights of Graham's career on record and one of the best expressions of his ability to make a standard his own. Fledgling. 2005.

Davy Graham - Folk Blues And Beyond [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/03/2017