Search Results for:

TOMPKINS SQUARE

Various Artists

Imaginational Anthem Vol. XII: I Thought I Told You - A Yorkshire Tribute To Michael Chapman

    Michael Chapman (1941-2021) released his debut album Rainmaker in 1969 on Harvest. He went on to release over fifty albums and influence many with his evocative songwriting and guitar prowess. From heady jams to expressive ballads to experimental noise, Chapman’s work continues to inspire. Tompkins Square recruited Henry Parker to curate a collection of covers by working musicians from Chapman’s home turf in Northern England. With stunning artwork by local artist Bunty Marshall mapping the important places in Michael’s life, this 12th volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem series is the ultimate tribute to a very dearly missed artist.

    Notes from Henry Parker: Tompkins Square approached me in Autumn 2022 about putting together a tribute album to Michael Chapman who had passed away one year ago, on my birthday, in 2021. I remember it well; Michael Chapman had always been a huge inspiration to me since starting out on the acoustic guitar and was the first artist I had heard who played the instrument with that heavy thumb, drop tuned sound. I first got the chance to see him live at the Bradford experimental music festival Threadfest in 2015 and then went on to watch him play many more times, in the northern towns of Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Preston, also getting the chance to support him on a couple of his Yorkshire dates in 2018, in Saltaire and his hometown of Leeds. With both Michael Chapman and myself proudly coming from the county of Yorkshire in northern England, Tomkins Square and I decided to make this compilation decidedly Yorkshire focused, bringing together seven other artists from the county who have drawn influence from the profound music of this man.

    [For those who don’t know, Yorkshire is an area that spans much of northern England, with its people taking great pride in the county, never too seriously, and poking fun at the “soft south” or it’s near neighbour Lancashire.] Michael’s sound always spanned from introspective folk songwriting to more experimental forms and naturally so does this album, created for Tompkins Square. When it came to choosing musicians to contribute to the record, I was grateful for the Yorkshire limitation on who I could draw from, as the resulting album is comprised of eight artists, who have all shared stages with each other across the folk and experimental scenes in the area. The lack of “bigger” names on the record feels natural, there’s no ego about this project as there never was with Michael, who always seemed content touring the smaller clubs and making records for anyone who was interested.

    The artwork for the project came together organically, and firmly within the Yorkshire cottage industry. Two months before I was asked to put this album together, I had played a show in Leeds for the launch of a new zine, centred on folklore and mythology. The artist and founder of the zine Bunty has an exceptional eye for detail and a profound love of Yorkshire landscape and culture. Her intricate maps and illustrations created for ‘Hwaet’ zine were the perfect starting point the for this record, and the cover art and inner sleeve is an ocean of detail for Michael Chapman’s incredible life, music and his connection to Yorkshire.

    TRACK LISTING

    In The Valley - Henry Parker
    Caddo Lake - Dean Mcphee
    You Say - Katie Spencer
    Heat Index - Bobby Lee
    March Rain - Holly Blackshaw
    (some) Trains - Andrew Dr Abbott
    Kodak Ghosts – Hawthonn
    Among The Trees - Chris Brain

    Bobby Lee

    Endless Skyways

      Endless Skyways is Bobby Lee’s third full album and second release on Tompkins Square. Returning to the full band sound of his debut, the name Endless Skyways is borrowed from a line in Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, one of the cornerstones of American music. That song’s mix of the terrestrial (“ribbons of highway”) and celestial consciousness encapsulates Lee’s brand of widescreen cosmic americana; a duality also evident in the album’s split between deep-fried rural rock and ambient country. Dusty boots but third eye open.

      Bola Sete

      Samba In Seattle: Live At The Penthouse, 1966-1968

        Bola Sete - Samba in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse, 1966-1968 is the first official release of the legendary and influential Brazilian acoustic guitarist BOLA SETE's live recordings at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle, WA featuring bassist SEBASTIÃO NETO and drummer PAULINHO MAGALHÃES.

        Produced by Grammy-nominated jazz detective ZEV FELDMAN, and remastered from the original tape reels in cooperation with THE BOLA SETE ESTATE, this deluxe 3-CD set includes an extensive 40 page booklet with rare photos from THE PENTHOUSE; essay by music critic and GREG CASSEUS (aka GREG CAZ); new interviews and statements by guitar icon CARLOS SANTANA, legendary composer/pianist LALO SCHIFRIN, Sete's friend, pianist and producer, GEORGE WINSTON, and Bola Sete's widow ANNE SETE; plus an effusive tribute by the late guitar great JOHN FAHEY. Samba in Seattle is a significant addition to the recorded legacy of an oft–sampled musician (A Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla and Dan The Automator) whose career straddled bossa nova, jazz–pop and early New Age.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Consolação – Baden Powell, Vinicius De Moraes
        2. Meditação – Antônio Carlos Jobim, Newton Ferreira De Mendonça
        3. Prelude No. 1 – Heitor Villa-Lobos
        4. Soul Samba – Bola Sete
        5. Deve Ser Amour – Baden Powell, Vinicius De Moraes
        6. Valsa De Uma Cidade – Ismael Netto, Antônio Maria
        7. Garota De Ipanema – Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes
        8. Malagueña - Ernesto Lecuona

        Disc Two (October 13 & 20, 1967)

        1. The Shadow Of Your Smile – Johnny Mandel, Paul Francis
        2. Webster
        3. Satin Doll – Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn
        4. Spanish Dance No. Five – Enrique Granados
        5. Prelude No. 3 In A Minor – Heitor Villa-Lobos
        6. Manhã De Carnaval – Luiz Bonfá, Antônio Maria
        7. A Felicidade – Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes
        8. Samba De Orfeu - Luiz Bonfá, Antônio Maria
        9. Samba De Avião – Antônio Carlos Jobim
        10. Samba De Verão – Marcos Valle, Paulo Valle
        11. Valsa De Uma Cidade – Ismael Netto, Antônio Maria
        12. Asturias - Isaac Albéniz
        13. Partita In E Major, BMV 1006a III. Gavotte ‘en Rondeau’ – Johann Sebastian Bach
        14. Flamenco Fantasy – Bola Sete

        Disc Three (July 26 & August 2, 1968)

        1. Tristeza – Haroldo Lobo, Niltinho
        2. Corcovado – Antônio Carlos Jobim
        3. Deve Ser Amour – Baden Powell, Vinicius De Moraes
        4. Consolação – Baden Powell, Vinicius De Moraes
        5. O Barquinho – Roberto Menescal, Ronaldo Bôscoli
        6. One Note Samba – Antônio Carlos Jobim, Newton Mendoça
        7. Satin Doll - Duke Ellington, Billy Strahorn
        8. Recuerdos De La Alhambra – Francisco Terraga

        Rick Deitrick

        Coyote Canyon

          Coyote Canyon is a wilderness area behind my daughter's house where coyotes gather and howl before taking off for their nightly foraging. Little Tujunga (pronounced "Tuhunga") is a river running through the Angeles Forest near a house I lived in five decades ago. Half my ideas for this piece came from onshore guitar ruminating. The rest was improvised in studio. Emma was my close and sweet companion during this period, a lifelong deep friend. I composed her song one evening at the kitchen table of our place while she was cooking.

          Tumbleweedin' describes a desert tumbleweed storm. I menaced every inch of the Yamaha, recreating the effect of these 4 windblown monsters screeching along boulders, smacking into cactus and anything else in their way at often impossible speeds, following the whims of the heavy winds. This song was completely improvised at the moment in studio and forgotten. Roy's Rain is a tribute to my great good friend and musician killed in a car accident in 1973. I found For Marsha Version2 on a well-worn studio tape. It's a variant of the same composition on the Gentle Wilderness album. I like this loose and flowy version. Movin' On has one thing on its mind -- getting away fast and now. Going Home is my improvised take on an American root song. The above seven were recorded between 1972-1975. Three Sisters was recorded on a 20-minute studio break in 1999 describing three barren red hills somewhere in the Arizona desert, a cherished location.

          Russell Potter

          A Stone's Throw

            The latest in a series of reissues spawned from Imaginational Anthem Volume 8 : The Private Press, following Tom Armstrong - The Sky Is An Empty Eye and Rick Deitrick - Gentle Wilderness/River Sun River Moon Reflections on Russell Potter by IA8 co-producer and poet, Michael Klausman : The two latest reissues to spin off from our acclaimed Imaginational Anthem Volume 8: The Private Press feature the solo guitar compositions of Russell Potter, recorded in the last waning days of the initial American Primitive explosion. A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Potter harnessed a similar DIY ethos to his own ends by starting his own label & self-publishing his first record, 'A Stone’s Throw’, while a freshman enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont in 1979.

            Assembled at the legendary Boddie Records in Potter’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and sprinkled liberally with references to his heroes, from the initial record label name of Fonytone (which more than a little recalls Fahey’s earliest record label, Fonotone), to the arcane song titles and references to obscure rags. Even as he looks to his elders, Potter’s debut release nimbly evinces a complete mastery of his form and is all the more remarkable for one of such tender years, as only the chutzpah of youth can account for such moves as successfully grafting one of your own composition to one of John Fahey’s, as he does here. There’s a very immediate, lovely, and real homespun quality to Potter’s chiming twelve-string compositions that puts it in the realm of those classic records that seem to simply exist outside of time. Shortly after ‘A Stones Throw’, Potter produced & released a 45rpm single by an Ohio bluegrass band featuring the cult singer songwriter Bob Frank performing a cover of Devo’s ‘Mongoloid’, before moving on to his second (and sadly final) album the following year, ‘Neither Here Nor There’. Following an independent study with a Goddard College ethnomusicologist, Potter’s compositions and performance only deepened on his second release — the recording quality steps up a little but loses none of the immediacy, the playing gets more exuberantly virtuosic —but then more reflective too, particularly on the tunes that are influenced by the gorgeous traditional Irish slow airs.

            He’s still tipping his hat to Fahey occasionally as well, this time with an audacious electric guitar setting of the classic “Dance of the Inhabitant of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain.” Though these albums landed at a time when American Primitive guitar music’s 1960s & 1970s heyday was in the rear view mirror, they absolutely look ahead to the genre’s eventual 21st Century resurrection, anticipating both in form & content many of the same concerns you find in the great contemporary work of the last two decades by Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Daniel Bachman, et al., and as such provide about as fine a stepping stone between these two eras as you’re likely to find

            Russell Potter

            Neither Here Nor There

              The latest in a series of reissues spawned from Imaginational Anthem Volume 8 : The Private Press, following Tom Armstrong - The Sky Is An Empty Eye and Rick Deitrick - Gentle Wilderness/River Sun River Moon Reflections on Russell Potter by IA8 co-producer and poet, Michael Klausman : The two latest reissues to spin off from our acclaimed Imaginational Anthem Volume 8: The Private Press feature the solo guitar compositions of Russell Potter, recorded in the last waning days of the initial American Primitive explosion. A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Potter harnessed a similar DIY ethos to his own ends by starting his own label & self-publishing his first record, 'A Stone’s Throw’, while a freshman enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont in 1979.

              Assembled at the legendary Boddie Records in Potter’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and sprinkled liberally with references to his heroes, from the initial record label name of Fonytone (which more than a little recalls Fahey’s earliest record label, Fonotone), to the arcane song titles and references to obscure rags. Even as he looks to his elders, Potter’s debut release nimbly evinces a complete mastery of his form and is all the more remarkable for one of such tender years, as only the chutzpah of youth can account for such moves as successfully grafting one of your own composition to one of John Fahey’s, as he does here. There’s a very immediate, lovely, and real homespun quality to Potter’s chiming twelve-string compositions that puts it in the realm of those classic records that seem to simply exist outside of time. Shortly after ‘A Stones Throw’, Potter produced & released a 45rpm single by an Ohio bluegrass band featuring the cult singer songwriter Bob Frank performing a cover of Devo’s ‘Mongoloid’, before moving on to his second (and sadly final) album the following year, ‘Neither Here Nor There’. Following an independent study with a Goddard College ethnomusicologist, Potter’s compositions and performance only deepened on his second release — the recording quality steps up a little but loses none of the immediacy, the playing gets more exuberantly virtuosic —but then more reflective too, particularly on the tunes that are influenced by the gorgeous traditional Irish slow airs.

              He’s still tipping his hat to Fahey occasionally as well, this time with an audacious electric guitar setting of the classic “Dance of the Inhabitant of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain.” Though these albums landed at a time when American Primitive guitar music’s 1960s & 1970s heyday was in the rear view mirror, they absolutely look ahead to the genre’s eventual 21st Century resurrection, anticipating both in form & content many of the same concerns you find in the great contemporary work of the last two decades by Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Daniel Bachman, et al., and as such provide about as fine a stepping stone between these two eras as you’re likely to find

              Bobby Lee

              Origin Myths

                Bobby Lee trades in a wide screen brand of cosmic country-folk, full of space and pawn shop guitars. There are touches of JJ Cale's analogue Americana, the swampy groove of Tony Joe White and Richard Thompson's sinewy, modal guitar work. Amps hum in the warm afternoon sun, kids and dogs snooze on the grass and broken drum machines keep time with the universe…Open sky/scorched earth improvisations recorded to four track tape during the rare moments of solitude afforded by lockdown and early fatherhood.

                Bobby Lee’s “worn-denim psych-country” remains, but the ancestral spirits of Ashra, Popol Vuh and Terry Riley are present here too. Time and technological limitations have been embraced. A song dreamt up, tracked and mixed in an afternoon, never to be tampered with again. Imperfections allowed to stand; knowing that nothing is ever truly finished. The Bob Ross school of philosophy. “Overdriven drum-machine low slung choogle" – MOJO “The further Bobby unmoors himself from songs and heads towards long-form abstraction, the more engrossing it becomes”

                Gwenifer Raymond

                Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain

                  Welsh musician Gwenifer Raymond’s 2018 debut album, You Never Were Much of a Dancer, introduced a new voice on acoustic guitar, receiving 5 stars in The Guardian, big spreads in MOJO and UNCUT, and airplay on multiple BBC programmes. This led to months of touring on the European festival circuit. Her latest, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, finds Raymond ranging into unexplored experimental territory, drawing from her Welsh roots.

                  In her own words : My new album, 'Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain', has eight songs in it. All were recorded in a basement flat in central Brighton, locked-down amidst a global pandemic. I recorded them myself and neither I, nor any of the songs saw said outbreak coming. Coronavirus may have dictated the circumstance under which the album was recorded but it did not otherwise inform any of the compositions that run through it; like I said, we didn't see it coming. Growing up in Wales was not a theme strongly present in my first record (perhaps not too surprising in an album of 'American Primitive'), but I feel as though my memories of that time have started to insinuate themselves in the tunes here.

                  In my opinion, landscape does a lot to shape a community's folk music; from my childhood I recall tall, spooky trees, black against the grey sky, breath misting in cold air, and I have tried to take something of Welsh folk horror to make my own 'Welsh Primitive'. Whilst this isn't the only theme present in the album, childhood memories do form the background for a couple of tracks: coal trains steaming along the foot of our garden, rattling the glasses on the kitchen table; and the titular 'Strange Lights...' dancing above the peak of the mountain which loomed over the house where I grew up. Dead men also feature prominently, as well as personal tragedies and the madness of touring. It's possible this album is leaning more into the left-field than the first - the songs are longer and more 'compositional' for lack of a better word, rather than deriving so heavily from the folk and blues traditions, though, they're still there - all of those dead men are hard to shake. Some parts go fast and others go slow. Sometimes I play more aggressively than I intend to and other times I play exactly as aggressively as I intend to. I still say it's punk music and I have no idea what key the last tune is in.For Erik Satie, Master Wilburn Burchette, and Ruben the dog.

                  STAFF COMMENTS

                  Barry says: At points taut, but brilliantly emotive throughout, 'Strange Lights...' is an album full of rhythmic twists and unbelievably skilful and effecting performances.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  1. Incantation
                  2. Hell For Certain
                  3. Worn Out Blues
                  4. Marseilles Bunkhouse
                  5. Gwaed Am Gwaed
                  6. Ruben’s Song
                  7. Eulogy For Dead French Composer
                  8. Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain 

                  Wall Matthews

                  Spine River:The Guitar Music Of… 1967-1981

                    Guitarist Wall Matthews is surviving member of experimental 70's collective, Entourage. Sampled by Four Tet, their name whispered in reverence through the decades, Entourage forged bold musical ideas on their two rare ’70s Folkways LPs. Tompkins Square released 'Ceremony of Dreams : Studio Sessions and Outtakes, 1972-1977', in 2017 to wide acclaim. 'Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981' is a collection of unreleased or obscure music by the master guitarist. This volume will be released as a limited edition LP, along with four other digital volumes of Wall's music, chronologically mapping his career. Praise for Entourage : "A three-hour stream of instrumental riches, whether you’re looking to find samples or get lost in a trance....

                    These 30 tracks alternately conjure the ecstatic minimalism of John Cale and La Monte Young, the billowing clouds of Arvo Part, the aleatory intrigue of Derek Bailey, and the strange guitar beauty of Sandy Bull" – Pitchfork "As seriously as they clearly took their playing, the music never lost its sense of playfulness and joy" - PASTE (8.7/10) "This is essential and irresistible vintage American weirdness." - All Music Guide (4.5) "...it's transporting stuff." - Rolling Stone "Erring between Alice Coltrane-esque spiritual jazz, Steve Reich’s minimalism and stunning instrumental folk, Ceremony of Dreams highlights 30 tracks from a fiercely creative period between 1972 and 1977 that did not appear on the two Folkways albums released at the time." - Vinyl Factory "New age gongs, drones, sax, pastoral guitar, scraped violas … Think Third Ear Band's druid rock meets early Popol Vuh with the obvious chops of a less slick Weather Report" - Record Collector (4 stars)

                    Various Artists

                    Ryley Walker Presents Imaginational Anthem Vol. Nine

                      Tompkins Square label's very first release in 2005 was the acoustic guitar compilation, Imaginational Anthem Volume One. The concept was to showcase new talents alongside first-gen American Primitive guitar legends, a formula that stuck across the first three volumes. Volume Four, released in 2010, featured all contemporary players, giving many folks their first taste of William Tyler, C Joynes, Chris Forsyth and Tyler Ramsey. The label then started farming out curation duties to others : Sam Moss for Volume 5, Chris King for Volume 6 (Origins of American Primitive Guitar), Hayden Pedigo for Volume 7, and Michael Klausman & Brooks Rice for Volume 8 (The Private Press). Tompkins Square recruited label alum Ryley Walker to compile Volume Nine. Given his deep Rolodex and exquisite taste, it's no surprise that this comp is probably the most diverse of the series. Nine of the eleven artists were previously unknown to us, so we get to discover new artists just like our label fans do. 

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1/Mosses - Om Ah Hung
                      2/Shane Parrish - Leicester Hwy
                      3/Eli Winter - Woodlawn Waltz
                      4/Dida Pelled - Walkin' My Cat Named Dog
                      5/Kendra Amalie - Boat Ride
                      6/Matthew Sage - Camaro Canyon
                      7/Pete Fosco - Variations On Themes For Blind Dogs
                      8/Fire-Toolz - World Of Objects (Guitar Edit)
                      9/Lucas Brode - Knots Where Never Was
                      10/Dave Miller – Seedlings
                      11/Matthew Rolin - I Used To Sing

                      Will Beeley

                      Gallivantin'

                        Tompkins Square reissue the self-released mega-rare (only 200 copies) private press LP Gallivantin' from 1971. Recorded in San Antonio, Gallivantin' shows Beeley's heartfelt, folky side - a wistful set of original tunes, plus a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and a spaced-out, 10 minute+ Eastern-influenced psych take on Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Little Wheel Spin & Spin / Co'Dine".

                        Now a truck driver living in New Mexico, Will Beeley recently recorded his first new album since 1979's Passing Dream. Produced by Jerry David DeCicca of The Black Swans (who also produced Larry Jon Wilson's final album), the new one features Michael Guerra (The Mavericks), and is mixed by Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, Cat Power's The Greatest). The album is slated for release on Tompkins Square sometime in 2018.

                        The first legit reissues of these rare, stellar LP's by DC-based singer/songwriter Bob Brown. Richie Havens took Bob under his wing, produced both albums, and released them on his Stormy Forest label distributed by MGM. Although they failed to make a commercial impact at the time, cosmic-folk enthusiasts and vinyl-heads have long placed these albums in high esteem alongside the works of exploratory greats like Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley. 

                        Kid Millions Reworks Harry Taussig

                        Beyond The Confession

                          Kid Millions is a musician, composer and writer best known as the drummer and founder of Brooklyn's experimental rock behemoth Oneida. For the last twenty years, Millions has been at the forefront of the NYC experimental music community collaborating with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Yo La Tengo, Boredoms, So Percussion and William Basinski. Enter his album-length conversation with the recordings of the unjustly obscure guitarist Harry Taussig, whose 1965 private-press album Fate Is Only Once was reissued by Tompkins Square in 2006. This strange gem was followed by two new Taussig recordings - Fate Is Only Twice(2012) and The Diamond of Lost Alphabets (2014). Tompkins Square proposed that Millions take this raw material and fashion something completely new. Millions took the material up to Kingston NY and through working with his engineer Matthew Cullen emerged with an album of rare beauty in keeping with the spirit of Taussig's work while suggesting directions previously unexplored in his oeuvre. To create this new work, Millions and Cullen overdubbed guitars, drums and organs onto the original tracks and sent the material into other damaged psychedelic dimensions only hinted at in the original works. Millions writes in the liner notes, "[Taussig is] not slavishly attended to technique but we also don't feel any boundaries to his expression. One of his classic tunes is subtitled "Fantasia in A" and in a way this term is a perfect label for his entire oeuvre. A fantasia is an improvisation that touches on many themes and styles. Some of his songs are very tight and tidy and I was drawn to some of them. But I also wanted to stretch these moments of loose revelation and turn a spotlight on Taussig's generous search." We're left with a kind of revelation - a so-called "remix" album which can actually stand on its own and illuminate both artists' work.

                          The essential contemporary guitar anthology series continues. Since 2005, Tompkins Square label's 'Imaginational Anthem' compilations have featured some of the greatest acoustic guitarists in the world, with recordings spanning five decades. More than mere samplers, these albums have served as state-of-the-art dispatches from the front lines of the art form. The first three volumes, available as a low-priced box set, intermingled generations of American Primitive players - lost, forgotten masters next to contemporary players. Volume 4 saw a departure from that formula, featuring only new jack players. Volume 5, available November 13, also features the current crop of younger players, but with a twist. This is the first volume not compiled by Tompkins Square's Josh Rosenthal. Instead, he recruited guitarist Sam Moss. "I felt I'd exhausted most of the older guys I wanted to dig up, and I wasn't hearing that much new guitar that I really liked. I sensed that Sam knew what was going on." The result is a gorgeous panoramic view of contemporary guitar, full of agile finger-style, and a few jagged detours.

                          TRACK LISTING

                          1. Temple Walk - Steve Gunn
                          2. I Think We'll Be Happy Here- Jordan Fuller
                          3. Lookout Point- Danny Paul Grody
                          4. There Is A Place In This Old Town- Nick Schillace
                          5. Hemet Pine Singer- Will Stratton
                          6. John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can- Bill Orcutt
                          7. Confederate Rose- Daniel Bachman
                          8. Through A House Of Violet Abandon- Eric Carbonara
                          9. Her Unmediated Eyes- Tom Lecky
                          10. Standing At The Entrance Of A Hidden City- Alexander Turnquist
                          11. Modern Man In Search Of A Song- Cam Deas
                          12. Rivers Gone Badly Wrong- Yair Yona

                          Various Artists

                          Imaginational Anthem Volume Two

                            Released in October 2005, "Imaginational Anthem Volume One" featured two generations of important acoustic guitarists, from John Fahey and Sandy Bull to Jack Rose and Kaki King. Volume Two expands and builds on this theme with 70+ more minutes of guitar magic. 23-year old UK 12-string upstart James Blackshaw opens the record, while the late master Robbie Basho, a clear influence on Blackshaw's style, closes it. Basho's track is the only live recording by this groundbreaking guitarist ever released. Riches abound with new recordings by former Takoma roster alumni Peter Lang (who made an album with John Fahey and Leo Kottke), Billy Faier (an original Greenwich Village folkie who's late 50s Riverside records inspired a fellow crack banjo player, Steve Martin) and an archival home recording by Fred Gerlach (a favorite of Jimmy Page). The new breed is well-represented by fascinating figures of today - Smith, Christina Carter, Jesse Sparhawk, Sharron Kraus, Jack Rose and James Blackshaw. Legendary singer/songwriter Michael Chapman, whose first albums for the Harvest label in the 60s are now seeing the light again, contributes as well.


                            Latest Pre-Sales

                            167 NEW ITEMS

                            E-newsletter —
                            Sign up
                            Back to top