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May 16 2008
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Elly Roberts reviews
Davy Graham
at L.I.P.A., Liverpool
Sunday, 21st October, 2007
Folk Blues and Beyond: 
Rating: 6/10
For the uninitiated, David Michael Gordon aka Davy Graham, born in Hinckley Leicestershire (22 November 1940), is credited with inspiring some of the greatest guitarists in the world.
He is credited with sparking the the folk-rock revolution in the 1960s and
introducing a the DADGAD or or D modal tuning (instead of the standard EADGBE)
to British gutarists.
Giving dazzling performances at the famous Howff folk club in Edinburgh, he
went on to influence legends such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy,
Paul Simon and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Eventually his music would embrace all
nations as he dipped into indigenious repertoires, thus promoting world music.
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The 66-year-old guitar maestro gave what can be called a rare appearence in
the intiamte setting of Sennheiser Studio Theatre at Liverpool Institute for
Performing Arts on Sunday night. About 70 fans turned up. Looking dapper in
pinstriped suit, fancy shirt, short hair and moustache, he sat on the neat but
simple set: stool, mics, and two guitars in their boxes.
After the applause, he said "Thank you very much. I’ve never played here
before. I’d like to do some pices in D, a favourite key with guitar players...
two pieces by Sans and two by Milan" (Luis Milan a 16 century Spanish musician
from Valencia).
From the off, Graham showed intense concentration, almost gurning as he
focused on two pieces by Francisco Bartolome Sanz aka Gaspar Sanz, a Spanish
17th century maestro, himself displaying all the hallmarks of his technical
ability with some complex and intricate fingerwork. This was followed by what
he thought was an Irish song, Careless Love, a delighful love ballad,
which I believe to be from an annonymous American composer.
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Delving into tradition Irish music, he gave a masterclass on the famous Kitty’s
Rambles, a fingers on fire excercise, and two others. Then things seemed
to get a bit confusing. A quick glance at his watch, followed by a setlist
check on the back of his guitar, he announced he’d be playing The Blackbird,
but instead he went for Ask My Father.
Graham played for some years with the Balkan Orchestra. Even more confusing we
were to get an Armenian piece, but ended up playing a Romanian composition,
then the Armenian, followed by a Turkish march, all done with the finesse
associated with Graham. After the Northumbian’s classic, Flower Mountain
on which he sang, he made a sharp exit to warm applause.
As a showcase, this was a disappointing gig, because it lasted barely 35
minutes. Considering his reputation, I expected a lot more.
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Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
For prints of any of Elly's concert pics online,
email Elly
or call 07765 862017.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
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Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
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