I just heard, through Josh Rosenthal (Tompkins Square Records), that the Eugene, Oregon-based guitarist and mbira player Richard Crandell passed away on October 28, 2022. You can read some of Josh’s memories of Richard below.
It’s thanks to Tompkins Square that I first heard Richard’s work; they reissued his 1980 private-press debut album, In the Flower of Our Youth in 2008. It is considered by many, one of the finest solo acoustic guitar records of all time – what Josh called an indispensable “rainy day” or driving record, a stone classic. His music was also later introduced to many via Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem Vol. 3 (2009), as well as the Numero Group guitar compilation Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli which was recently reissued.
Richard began playing the guitar when he was just a kid but began to take it more seriously in the 1960s after hearing John Fahey play. He moved to Eugene, Oregon in the 1970s where he began to write his own material, and he also opened for John Fahey during this time. Crandell’s composition “Rebecca” was recorded by Leo Kottke on his LP Chewing Pine although he never went on to achieve Kottke’s level of fame.
Josh Rosenthal describes his music as ‘echoes of John Renbourn, Fahey’, with ‘the topography of the Pacific Northwest inhabit[ing] his playing, but a closer listen unearths a deft and unique melodic touch.’
In 2009, NPR’s All Things Considered series ran a piece on Richard, highlighting his struggle with essential tremor, a movement disorder that causes uncontrollable shaking. While this made it hard for him to play difficult guitar pieces, it was while driving a tour bus for Thomas Mapfumo and his band that he discovered the mbira, a Zimbabwean thumb piano.
Richard speaks about this period in the video below, recorded at Via Via Hotel/Bar/Restaurant in Leon, Nicaragua. He also plays some of his tunes.
It was after turning to the mbira that he came to the attention of saxophonist, composer and producer John Zorn. He recorded two albums for Zorn’s Tzadik label (Mbira Magic in 2004 and Spring Steel in 2007).
Josh Rosenthal on Richard Crandell
Richard recorded about a dozen albums, including two wonderful guitar duet records with Bill Bartels, two with koto player Masumi Timson, appears on Imaginational Anthem vol. 3 and a Numero Group guitar comp, and released a collection of unreleased guitar tunes spanning 25 years in 2016 via Tompkins Square entitled Then and Now; the set was reviewed in depth by Joseph Neff at Vinyl District, and UNCUT gave it an 8/10 (“gorgeous guitar hypnosis”).
On March 3, 2013, Richard played WOW Hall with Daniel Bachman in his hometown of Eugene, OR. Before the show, Richard banged out an improvised tune on an old upright piano in the hallway. Raggy, bluesy, heady and inside out, it was pure Richard – the same clever, surprising phrasing that could be found in his guitar recordings. Just a pure musician.
We hope you will revel in the joy of discovering Richard Crandell. A gentle soul, a dedicated swimmer, and one amazing Obscure Giant of Acoustic Guitar. In the pantheon, forever.
Listen to the NPR All Things Considered episode mentioned above (or you read and listen here)