Folk /
Všechno Dobré
Stoned To Death delivers what might just be one of the most unexpected and beautiful records of the year, Šimanský Niesner's "Všechno Dobré". Created by the Czech Republic based acoustic guitar duo of Jakub Šimanský and Tomáše Niesner, within cascades of tonality emerges a profound meditation on place and time, binding elements traditional folk and drone, with American primitive guitar playing and thrilling attitudes toward experimentalism. It's a stunning thing to behold.
Dayspring
Released in 1983 on a miniscule run of 300-self-financed LP’s, Dennis Taylor’s ‘Dayspring’ remains a lost masterwork of transcendental instrumental guitar. An important missing link between the 60’s folkloric experimentalism of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and the new age atmospherics mined by William Ackerman and Michael Hedges in the early 80’s. Though Taylor’s guitar playing remains crisply unadorned on these 10 tracks, his technique and his compositions stretch beyond the folk roots of the g…
Bizzarrophytes
Carl Erdmann’s Bizzarrophytes was recorded in Roswell, New Mexico, during the final years of the 70’s. A desert-fried haze of buzzing sitar raga, shimmering guitar soli, and lonesome instrumental psych. Erdmann had been galvanized several years prior by witnessing an intimate performance by Ravi Shankar at Austin’s University of Texas. Erdmann spent the next several years with a sitar in the back of his pickup truck - teaching himself the instrument between stints working on an oil field as a ge…
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…
Transgression!!! (Lp)
On Transgression!!!, Donald Miller, guitar icon known for destroying worlds in the great Borbetomagus, takes the listener on an unexpected journey through the 12-string acoustic guitar. Utilizing his occult kinetic picking style, Miller reveals undiscovered universes with nothing but a slide and a spell to guide you. Playing a blues that bristles against structure while transmitting ineffable mastery, Transgression!!! is a modern guitar album like no other. Recorded in his current city, New Orle…
Arc Minutes (Lp)
A dazzling display of 12-string melodicism, Arc Minutes is the second full-length LP from once New Englander, now Tokyo-based, instrumentalist Rob Noyes. If one had to pin an influence from the holy trinity, rather than the existential drift of Fahey or the raga-tinged interpretations of Robbie Basho, Noyes excels at Leo Kottke-style dynamics playing huge, bright runs within compact arrangements that explode with exuberance. Since his debut, Noyes has matured with an intense focus and here deliv…
Guitar
There are few instruments more uniquely suited to capturing the beauty and ennui of the rural American midwest than the acoustic steel-string guitar. In the hands of a master, the range of evocable emotion and experience is truly limitless. Daniel Hecht is one such master. His 1973 self-released debut album, simply titled Guitar, is an indispensable piece of the endless puzzle that is instrumental Guitar Soli music. Guitar was written and recorded while Hecht was living and working on a commune…
Songs of the Great Mystery
Robbie Basho was one of the big three American acoustic guitar innovators, John Fahey and Leo Kottke being the other two. Basho was the least commercially successful of the three, but his influence and reputation has steadily grown since his untimely death in 1986 at the age of 45. And with good reason; for Basho's deeply spiritual approach, intellectual rigor, and formal explorations (among his goals was the creation of a raga system for American music), present a deeply compelling, multi-facet…
Midnight Man
* 2023 stock * LP version. "Davy Graham is recognized as an early influential figure on the 1960s British folk scene, where he inspired many famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar such as Bert Jansch, Paul Simon, John Martyn and indeed Jimmy Page. Not one to be categorised Graham could be seen as a true world music artist covering the genres of folk, blues and jazz. He also popularized DADGAD tuning, later widely adopted by many acoustic guitarists. Midnight Man was Davy's 2nd s…
Hat
LP version. "Davy Graham is recognized as an early influential figure on the 1960s British folk scene, where he inspired many famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar such as Bert Jansch, Paul Simon, John Martyn and indeed Jimmy Page. Not one to be categorised Graham could be seen as a true world music artist covering the genres of folk, blues and jazz. He also popularized DADGAD tuning, later widely adopted by many acoustic guitarists. Released in 1969 Davy noted that the fourtee…
The Falconer's Arm 2
Limited edition pressing of 500 copies. Originally released by John Fahey's Takoma label in 1967. The Falconer's Arm pair of LPs is widely considered Basho's best work; monumental pieces of folk guitar invention from the pioneer, with guitar lines in unusual tunings influenced by both blues and Indian music. Fully remastered with excellent sound.
Drawing his name from a Japanese poet, his musical style from eastern raga sounds and his sartorial style from American Indians, Robbie Basho was eclec…
Dream Letter: Live In London 1968
Recorded in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 10, 1968 this impressive 2-hour live concert presents the Washingtonian prodigy folk singer at his best. Tim Buckley was only 21 years old when he had this incredible chance to show the world his talent which would carry him through a short but prolific career -- 9 albums released between 1966 and his death in 1975. Accompanied by Lee Underwood, David Friedman and Pentangle's bass player Danny Thompson, Buckley caressed his 12 string acoustic gui…
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…
Thank You For...
The English singer and guitarist Bridget St John was introduced to the London folk scene by guitarist John Martyn, her rich and unusually deep voice making John Peel one of her greatest champions, and when Peel formed the Dandelion label in 1969 with former Elektra record plugger Clive Selwood, the original intention was to issue St John’s music. Following debut album Ask Me No Questions and follow-up Songs For The Gentle Man, 1972’s Thank You For had Martyn’s stunning guitar on “Fly High” and a…
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…
Barry Dransfield
* Edition of 500. 140 gm Green Vinyl * Originally released in 1972, on Polydor’s Folk Mill imprint, Barry Dransfield's first solo album was an extraordinary debut, comprised of inspired original songs, traditional tunes, and some unexpected covers, including a legendaty version of Michael Hurley’s The Werewolf and a solo folk rendition of Procol Harum's Broken Barricades - it was also one of the rarest folk-style albums of the 1970s, vinyl copies changing hands for ridiculously large amounts of …
Fretted and Indebted
* Edition of 300 * Alasdair Roberts is one of our more beloved folk singers of recent years (though he hates the term folk singer apparently). The Scottish musician here supplies another document of his fascinating interpretations of wild and rare traditional songs he's sourced from various parts of Scotland. Comes on a single sided 12".
I am indebted to my piping friend Donald Lindsay for The Blythsome Bridal, The Braes of Tulliemet and The Smith’s a Gallant Fireman, while Chief O’Neill’s Favou…
The Black Swan
* 2020 stock. Last Copies * Originally found on Jansch’s final album of the same name, The Black Swan is featured here on a 7” single, flanked by an early demo. The two songs are at parallels; where the demo shows the bare bones of the track (working title: ’Space Highway’), the finished article is something altogether more orchestral, with Helena Espvall’s (then of Espers) soaring cello providing a foil for Jansch’s supremely melodic refrain.
Fans will surely be intrigued to see the process inv…