Cherry Tree, the folk/singer-songwriter imprint of the Cherry Red record label, have announced the release of Davy Graham: He Moved Through The Fair – The Complete 1960s Recordings, 8CD Box Set. The set includes Graham’s first recording, released on Topic Records (3/4 A.D. – later reissued in 2013), The Guitar Player, Folk, Blues & Beyond, Folk Roots, New Routes (with Shirley Collins), Midnight Man, After Hours (Live at Hull University, 4th February 1967), Large as Life & Twice as Natural, Hat, and The Holly Kaleidoscope and Godington Boundary.
Alongside additional live recordings, five are shown as previously unreleased recordings: Worksong, Saturday Night Shuffle, Angi, God Loves His Children, Brother, and Hey Bud Blues.
Here he is performing She Moved Through the Fair in 1963 on the TV programme Hullabaloo. You may also spot a young Martin Carthy seated behind him.
Long-time readers of KLOF Mag may recall the earlier reissues (and remastered) releases of Hat and Midnight Man in 2019 via Bread and Wine. When reviewing both albums, KLOF’s Danny Neill notes:
Listening again to the two sixties Decca albums that Bread And Wine have re-issued, there is a suggestion that Davy Graham was, in his own way, trying to deliver work that would be popular and well-received. He certainly wasn’t being a difficult artist; the problem (if there was one, it would only have been in terms of sales figures, not musical capacity) was that the average, casual listener is more comfortable with categorisation. But Davy was casting his net all over the place; on the ‘Midnight Man’ album, he had tried amplified guitar on three tracks; one of these was a cover of Rufus Thomas’s 1963 Stax hit ‘Walking The Dog’; an odd marriage on paper but this all-rounder carries it like a natural soul man. …in ‘Hat,’ he opens with a version of the Beatles ‘Getting Better, an interpretation that gives the relentlessly positive Paul McCartney a run for his money in uplifting vibes. How many albums buffer between summer-of-love pop, Jimmy Witherspoon’s ‘Lotus Blossom’ and Art Blakey’s study in Jazz rhythms ‘Buhaina Chant’ within the first four tracks and retain any cohesive sense? If you get behind Davy Graham’s vision and open-minded approach to music, it all stacks up naturally, but sadly, I’m not sure that enough people did, even in an era as progressive as the late sixties.
In that review, Danny also recalled seeing Graham live, a couple of years before his 2008 death, playing at a month-long festival of folk at Spitalfields in London:
The guitar playing was still of a masterful standard, with the occasional bit of singing less so, but that was never his strongest asset. What I remember above all, though, was the sense that this man was not interested in the art of performance one little bit. People talk about Bob Dylan paying no attention to his audience, but compared to the Davy I saw that night, Bob is a veritable people-pleasing raconteur. Davy lifted his hat once or twice; he even listened when the odd brave punter shouted out a request, but only because he preferred total silence whilst playing; there was no intention to honour any shout-outs. He was so disengaged with the people present that you wondered if he’d even been told he was turning up to play a gig, if, in fact, there had been some subterfuge in getting him to attend and agreeing to go up on stage and knock out a few tunes was part of a negotiation to be released from this awkward social engagement. After about 45 minutes, he wordlessly got up off his stool and left. So too, the audience shuffled out bemusedly around 9.30pm but, from what I recall, no one complained; after all, we had still spent some thrilling private moments with an absolute master. The lack of ceremony emphasised the preciousness of what we had just witnessed. Had he lived, I would definitely have grabbed the chance to see him again.
Here’s a rare clip – Graham playing God Bless The Child live at the 2nd ‘Folk Heroes’ gig, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, April 30th 2000.
Around the time Beverley Martyn released The Phoenix And The Turtle, Mark Pavey, who produced her album, contacted me and shared a feature-length movie he made of Davy travelling to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 with Bert Jansch. It’s interspersed throughout with archive footage as well as interviews with both Davy and close friends such as James Hamilton (Founder and Editor of Encyclopaedia Psychedelia International). The opening scene is quite shocking as you see Graham’s living conditions – an old single room – a bedsit – he would have been 65 years old.
Three years later, he died (15 December 2008). Mark Pavey told the Guardian on 16th December: “He was diagnosed with lung cancer only weeks ago and suffered a seizure at his home at around 3.30pm yesterday.”
Davy Graham & Bert Jansch: The Parting Glass
He Moved Through The Fair Track Listing
DISC ONE
The First Recordings and The GUITAR PLAYER
1 Angi
2 Davy’s Train Blues
3 ¾ AD
4 Worksong +*
5 Saturday Night Shuffle +*
6 Angi +*
7 God Loves His Children, Brother +*
8 Hey Bud Blues +*
9 She Moved Through The Fair
10 Mustapha
11 Careless Love
12 Hallelujah, I Love Her So
13 Sunset Eyes
14 Southbound Train
15 Take Five
16 Don’t Stop The Carnival
17 Sermonette
18 Take Five
19 How Long, How Long Blues
20 Sunset Eyes
21 Cry Me A River
22 The Ruby & The Pearl
23 Buffalo
24 Exodus
25 Yellow Bird
26 Blues For Betty
27 Hallelujah, I Love Her So
DISC TWO
FOLK, BLUES & BEYOND…
1 Leavin’ Blues
2 Cocaine
3 Sally Free And Easy
4 Black Is The Colour Of My True Love’s Hair
5 Rock Me Baby
6 Seven Gypsies
7 Ballad Of The Sad Young Men
8 Moanin’
9 Skillet
10 Ain’t Nobody’s Business What I Do
11 Maajun (A Taste of Tangier)
12 I Can’t Keep From Cryin’ Sometimes
13 Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
14 My Babe
15 Goin’ Down Slow
16 Better Git It In Your Soul
DISC THREE
FOLK ROOTS, NEW ROUTES
1 Nottamun Town
2 Proud Maisrie
3 The Cherry Tree Carol
4 Blue Monk
5 Hares On The Mountain
6 Reynardine
7 Pretty Saro
8 Rif Mountain
9 Jane, Jane
10 Love Is Pleasin’
11 Boll Weevil, Holler
12 Hori Horo
13 Bad Girl
14 Lord Gregory
15 Grooveyard
16 Dearest Dear
DISC FOUR
MIDNIGHT MAN plus
1 No Preacher Blues
2 The Fakir
3 I’m Looking Thru’ You
4 Hummingbird
5 Watermelon Man
6 Stormy Monday
7 Money Honey
8 Walkin’ The Dog
9 Fire In My Soul
10 Lost Lover Blues
11 Neighbour, Neighbour
12 Jubilation
13 Rags And Old Iron
14 Jelly Roll Baker
15 Jubilation *
16 Travelling Man *
17 Sally Free & Easy *
18 I’m Ready *
19 Work Song *
20 Rock Me *
21 No Preacher Blues *
22 The Preacher *
23 Sweet Home Chicago *
24 The Cat Came Back *
DISC FIVE
AFTER HOURS, Live at Hull University, 4th February 1967
1 Work Song *
2 Cocaine *
3 Buhaina Chant *
4 Grooveyard *
5 Bourée In E Minor *
6 Gavotte or Bourée from the D Minor Suite *
7 How Long Blues *
8 She Moved Thru’ The Bizarre / Blue Raga *
9 Miserlou *
10 Hey Bud Blues *
11 Buffalo *
12 Jubilation *
13 Louisiana Blues
14 Afro-Blue
DISC SIX
LARGE AS LIFE & TWICE AS NATURAL plus
1 Both Sides Now
2 Bad Boy Blues
3 Tristano
4 Babe, It Ain’t No Lie
5 Bruton Town
6 Sunshine Raga
7 Freight Train Blues
8 Jenra
9 Electric Chair
10 Good Morning Blues
11 Beautiful City
12 Blue Raga
13 Better Git It In Your Soul *
14 Neighbour, Neighbour *
15 Panic Room Blues *
16 Skillet Good & Greasy *
17 Buhaina Chant *
18 Money, Honey *
19 Maajun *
20 Miserlou *
DISC SEVEN
HAT plus
1 Getting Better
2 Lotus Blossom
3 I’m Ready
4 Buhaina Chant
5 Homeward Bound
6 Love Is Pleasing
7 Hornpipe for Harpsichord Played Upon Guitar
8 Down Along The Cove
9 Hoochie Coochie Man
10 Stan’s Guitar
11 Pretty Polly
12 Bulgarian Dance
13 I Am A Rock
14 Oliver
She Moved Through
DISC EIGHT
THE HOLLY KALEIDOSCOPE and GODINGTON BOUNDARY
1 Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall
2 Wilt Thou Unkind
3 Blackbird
4 Blues At Gino’s
5 Since I Fell For You
6 Sunny Moon For Two
7 Fingerbuster
8 Here, There And Everywhere
9 Ramblin’ Sailor
10 Mary, Open The Door
11 I Know My Love
12 Charlie
13 Bridge Over Troubled Water
14 Little Man You’ve Had A Busy Day
15 I’m A Freeborn Man (Of The Travelling People)
16 The Preacher
17 All Of Me
18 Afta
19 On Green Dolphin Street
20 Dallas Rag
21 ‘Round Midnight
22 Work Song
23 Joe Joe, The Cannibal Kid
24 Everything’s Fine Right Now
25 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
26 Mother Nature’s Son
27 Grooveyard
28 Forty Ton Parachute
* live recording
+* previously unreleased recording