★Tompkins Square
Snow Beneath the Belly of a White Swan: The Lost Live Recordings
"It has been said that Robbie Basho's art was strongest in concert. To what extent the experience can be reconstituted is uncertain. Whatever the case, Snow Beneath the Belly of a White Swan is the mother lode of Basho live recordings. On these five discs we are treated to some remarkable pieces that have never been published, as well as surprising renditions of old favourites. Compiled from Basho’s sprawling personal collection of master tapes (discovered during the production of Voice of the E…
James Toth Presents... Imaginational Anthem Vol. XIII: Songs Of Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn is one of the most celebrated Canadian artists of all time. Unlike fellow Canadians Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell or Neil Young, Cockburn has not been fully embraced by a younger generation of indie musicians and younger fans. Tompkins Square recruited well-respected indie artist James Toth, known for his work with Wooden Wand, to curate the 13th volume of its guitar series, Imaginational Anthem. Although there is a focus on Bruce as a guitarist, there are also vocal tracks on the …
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 fa…
The Unguitarist : Complete Works, 1969-2022
Ohio-born Rick Deitrick took up the guitar at 16 and decided to approach his playing as if he was the only guy on an island and the instrument had just washed ashore one day. According to Rick, "I completely divorced my playing from any formal music knowledge, but it was very important to me to use original tuning. During those years, the ‘60s/70's, there was a lot of acoustic guitar playing, often using open tuning as a base. I wanted to create whole tones without de-tuning and keep access to t…
Fiddle
First, the music was obscured by history and now almost by the story behind it all.
Searching in Grenoble : The 1978 Solo Piano Concert
Searching In Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert is a previously unissued recording of jazz icon Mal Waldron's mesmerizing performance at the "Five Days of Jazz" series in Grenoble, France on March 23, 1978. Waldron was Billie Holiday’s final accompanist, played on classic sessions with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Jackie McLean among others, and recorded dozens of solo albums as a leader before his passing in 2002. Originally produced by the legendary André Francís and transferred from t…
Coyote Canyon (Lp)
Coyote Canyon is the fourth Rick Deitrick album released by Tompkins Square, recorded 1972-1975 (except "Three Sisters" recorded 1999). From Rick Deitrick "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 i…
Volume II: Neither Here Nor There (LP)
* In process of stocking * A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Russell 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, fr…
A Stone's Throw (LP)
A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Russell 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…
Selections from Song of the Avatars: The Lost Master Tapes
**Housed in top-lifting boxes with gold foil, poster and booklet** Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of what’s commonly known today as American Primitive guitar. Growing up in Maryland alongside neo-traditional guitar explorers John Fahey and Max Ochs, Basho’s path would take a decidedly different turn, bringing Hindi, Indian, Japanese and Native American musical traditions into his work. His albums for Takoma and Vanguard have left an indelible trail of influ…
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 second album, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, finds Raymond ranging into unexplored experimental territory, drawing from her Welsh roots.
Song of the Avatars
Sold out at source, few copies availble. Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of what’s commonly known today as American Primitive guitar. Growing up in Maryland alongside neo-traditional guitar explorers John Fahey and Max Ochs, Basho’s path would take a decidedly different turn, bringing Hindi, Indian, Japanese and Native American musical traditions into his work. His albums for Takoma and Vanguard have left an indelible trail of influence across generations of…
Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 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 2018 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 …
The Complete Paramount & Brunswick Recordings, 1929
From 1926 to 1930 one of the most popular rural string bands on record was Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers. Through their 78 RPM discs and their various performances, Charlie Poole was second only to Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers. Poole's uniquely syncopated three finger banjo picking style coupled with his Piedmont vocal inflections eventually colored and defined much of what we consider "old-time" music. The classic configuration of banjo, fiddle and guitar with vocals was enc…
Fate Is Only Twice
Released as a short-run private press LP in 1965, Harry Taussig's 'Fate Is Only Once' has long been a coveted collectible among American Primitive guitar enthusiasts. The album presages the broader movement. Acoustic musicians were still largely stuck in a rigid "Folk" mindset in 1965, and there are just not that many other examples of the exploratory guitar sounds found on 'Fate' during this time period. Alternating between haunting originals and jaunty blues-based traditional numbers, this abs…
Imaginational Anthem Vol. 6
"If American primitive guitar begins with John Fahey and the Takoma School, then the actual origins of this sound are found within this collection of fourteen classic solo guitar performances. Recorded between 1923 and 1930, this set is the 'Rosetta Stone' of style and repertoire tapped into deeply by Fahey, Basho, and Rose, among many others. Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, Bayless Rose, Sylvester Weaver, Lemuel Turner, Frank Hutchinson, and Davey Miller are the rural artists included in this …
After the Rain: A Night For Coltrane
**500 copies** In the beginning there was John Coltrane. Teodross Avery experienced an epiphany at 13 when he first heard Trane’s Giant Steps. He emerged in the mid-1990s with two critically hailed releases for GRP / Impulse! Avery’s long and productive journey has taken him down many musical paths, from gigs with jazz legends and hip hop stars to sessions with NEA Jazz Masters and platinum pop albums. With his Tompkins Square label debut After the Rain: A Night For Coltrane, Avery has found his…
Willoughby's Lament
"In the end Willoughby’s Lament is distinguished by sharper execution, both instrumentally and vocally, of more assured songs with greater overall heft the result; the growth is quickly discernible in the expertly rendered dynamic shifts of opener If I’d Live Alone and the chamber classical-inclined resonances of Interlude.Fleeting moments on The Wall I Built Myself could underscore Bob Brown as ambitiously striving to stand apart from an army of sensitive strummers with back pocket notebooks fu…
Snake Pit
Harvey Mandel is among the most innovative guitarists to emerge from
the Chicago blues scene of the late 1960s. His career began at Twist
City and other local hotspots, sharing stages with Muddy Waters, Howlin'
Wolf and Buddy Guy. He came up in that scene alongside Charlie
Musselwhite, Mike Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg and Steve Miller, leading
to an invitation from Bill Graham to open for Cream at San Francisco's
Fillmore Auditorium in August 1967.Mandel was a member of Canned Heat, appeari…
The Two Worlds
Power's self-titled debut, received wide praise from UNCUT (9/10, "Masterpiece"), MOJO (4 stars), The Guardian (4 stars), Irish Times (4 stars) and was featured on NPR World Cafe, as well as several BBC programs. 'The Two Worlds' was produced by Peter Broderick and recorded at Analogue Catalogue in County Down, Ireland.In Brigid Mae Power own words : Most of these songs were written in the last year in Ireland and they're all about the different feelings I had at the time. Last year I moved back…