Folk & Traditional / American Primitive

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…

*250 copies limited edition* "The first full length LP by Joshua Massad and Dylan Aycock. Massad is a tabla player living in India and studying under Zakir Hussain. Massad and Aycock came together in Tulsa to record these improvisations live at the legendary Church Studio which was founded by Leon Russell in the 70's. Over a few nights they captured some moments in the studio before it came under new ownership and just before Joshua moved to India. Aycock improvising on 12-string with Massad acc…

*100 copies limited edition* Raoul Eden is a french solo guitarist in the American primitive tradition. Leaving behind strumming, he began playing fingerstyle guitar. Coming from the old European continent, Raoul Eden has singular influences, which he puts down to the crossroad position of his roots – between the eastern and western world, north and south. Arabic music has always been present around him; he is fond of Gnawa music and plays guembri (a Gnawa bass lute also known as a sintir, gimbr…

CD. Remastered edition: John Fahey has made a habit of recording a new album of Christmas music every five or six years, but The New Possibility, which was originally released in 1968, is still his best. One of the best and most influential acoustic guitarists of his generation, John Fahey's music fused past and present, borrowing from the traditions of blues and folk music and filtering them through a modern musical viewpoint. Some of Fahey's most striking (and most popular) work appeared on a …

*150 copies limited edition. 2023 stock* Tomáš Niesner started his guitar player path long while ago when he co-formed noise rock band Unna. Loud noise quartet stir the waters of little czech avant rock pond with music written directly to the precomposed beat of drummer Jakub Šimanský. Loud shows played all around Czech Republic took its toll and and by 2017 they turned down the DB to death low. The band was over. Jakub Šimanský was living in their former practice room in Přerov, playing acousti…

Tip! Almost 40 years since its original release on cassette, Robbie Basho's 13th album is now available for the first time on vinyl. Remastered from the original master recording (discovered during the production of "Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho"), it has never sounded better. Included are notes from the original lyric sheet, as well as insights from Glenn Jones, Henry Kaiser and others. Bonus tracks (Digital only) include an epic 13-minute solo version of "Land of Our Fathers"…

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.

Red Favorite, a cycle of compositions for guitars, electronics and voices created by Jeremy Pisani was first released as a limited edition CD on Spirit of Orr and is now offered, as it was originally conceived to appear, on an LP. He moved closer and looked through the peephole. And he saw: the world stretched out before him, a quiet and gentle space with a broad expanse of grass that practically glistened in its greenness. A sparkling brook ran through the meadow in the middle distance, and now…

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…

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…

The finger-picking guitarist and blues enthusiast John Fahey enjoyed a long, influential and distinguished career. Born in Washington DC in 1939 and raised in Takoma Park, Maryland, he lauched his own Takoma label to issue self-produced work in the late 1950s and then delivered his master's theses on the blues of Charlie Patton at UCLA. Then, while based in the radical town of Berkeley, California in the San Francisco Bay area, began issuing filed recordings of forgotten blues legends such as Bu…

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…

Originally released in 1978, Music By William Eaton is a private-press album from the accomplished experimental stringed instrument builder. The atmospheric recording techniques, mixed with a hint of John Fahey/Takoma-lineage make for a listening experience akin to the mountainscape drawing represented on the album cover. The experience may seem simple at first, but like any great trip in nature, new details consistently reveal themselves upon each listen. “When I started building instruments, p…

*2022 stock* "This album is a fantastic document of two guitarists complementing each other, giving each other space to work out ideas and while being technical top notch, they put a lot emotions into their compositions. Some of the melodies are touching something deep inside me, that is hard to explain, but I bet every music lover knows that feeling... Do not miss this album, even if you can't read or pronounce the track titles. This is pure bliss!" – Dying for Bad Music

Tip! Builenradar is the new moniker under which Belgian visual artist and musician Wouter Vanhaelemeesch performs his damaged post-apocalyptic bikerfolk. Previously known as Urpf Lanze, he’s been producing trance-like guitar boogie that takes inspiration from disparate influences since the early 2010s. Builenradar plays in a self-developed unorthodox style with a resophonic guitar on his lap and a voice ranging from messy grunts to eerie whistling and absent murmurs. Once, after Vanhaelemeesch o…

*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 100 copies.* "Rootless (or, more properly, rootless) is a solo project that's been going for better than five years now, helmed by Brooklyn's Jeremy Hurewitz. Two types of sounds are created under this banner -- low key electronics is one, and fingerpicked acoustic guitar is the other. What The Truth Leaves Out focuses on the latter. The shared thread between these styles is a highly personal and intimate feel. When listening to rootless, you often get…

500 copies. Orange vinyl Originally released in 1966. John Fahey's never recorded an album that was more thoroughly of its moment. From the groovy flute and twangy sitar accompaniment to the backwards guitar, this Birthday Party is a charmingly trippy 60s time capsule. But it isn't a two dimensional one. The album gains immense depth from the tension between his sweeping, fingerpicked melodies and discordant string-battery. It's the audible battle between yearned for rose colored luminescence a…

*200 copies limited edition* 'The isolation of lockdown was challenging for guitarist J.R. Bohannon. In refreshingly vulnerable linear notes, he describes how his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were made worse by the pandemic. But he accommodated by creating Compulsions, a set of solo acoustic guitar improvisations in an American folk style, each recorded during a panic attack. These slow and melancholy pieces have compelling melodies, which Bohannon used to calm himself. He …

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…

Mindblowing!!!!!! Originally released in 1979, "Art of the Acoustic Steel String Guitar 6 & 12" was Robbie Basho's 15th record, and his magnum opus of solo guitar. It is the culmination of his life's effort to usher guitar music into a new artistic paradigm, and to "establish the steel string as a concert instrument indigenous to America."This album represents Basho’s most technically fine guitar work. In both composition and performance, the album is enormously complex and yet conveys an effort…

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…

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…

Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a feature-length documentary on the extraordinary life and visionary music of the American guitarist, singer and mystic Robbie Basho. Before his bizarre death at the hands of a chiropractor, Robbie Basho was sure that his compositions would not outlast him. Orphaned during infancy, diagnosed with synaesthesia (a union of the senses that caused him to interpret sound as color) and claiming to be the reincarnation of a 17th century poet -- the Balt…

**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…

Hot on the heels of last year's Matthew J. Rolin LP (FTR 502LP, 2019), here is a new duo recording featuring Rolin's acoustic twelve-string and the hammered-dulcimer of Jen Powers. They've had a couple previous cassettes, but I've never seen 'em! If you have, I can offer you something fine in trade. As with his first LP, Rolin's command of his guitar is quite wonderful to hear. He uses the whole breadth of the twelve-string's harmonic potential, which creates a wide surging stream of sound. Powe…

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.

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…

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 …

**Edition 200** Mind-blowing set of duo improvisations from a string player once known as the King of the Dobro, and the original drummer for Morphine. Long based in the Boston area, Lloyd Thayer is a master musician as well as a teacher, a street performer (retired, I think) and a collector of esoteric stringed instruments (many of which are played with a slide). We were introduced to his work by Glenn Jones, who more or less grabbed us by the collars and hauled us to see him down at the 1000 I…

Minneapolis guitarist, Matt Sowell, is another of the many great players we were first introduced to at the Thousand Incarnations of the Rose festival in Takoma Park, MD. Matt played a richly dark and brooding set at Rhizome, with a style deeply indebted to the American Primitive tradition. His set had the raw strength of Fred Gerlach, the precision of Peter Lang, showed a country/blues influence that seemed to reference Fahey, and possessed the raga-meets-ragtime eclecticism of Jack Rose. We we…

This bundle includes two LPs recently issued by Canadian imprint Morning Trip.William Eaton "Music By William Eaton" (1978)Originally released in 1978, Music By William Eaton is a private-press album from the accomplished experimental stringed instrument builder. The atmospheric recording techniques, mixed with a hint of John Fahey/Takoma-lineage make for a listening experience akin to the mountainscape drawing represented on the album cover. The experience may seem simple at first, but like any…

Sound American and Canary Records collaborate for The Widow's Joy: Eastern European Immigrant Dances in America 1925-1930, the first release of Sound American Records. Canary Records curator Ian Nagoski has crafted the ultimate Lemko party record as a labor of love for the forgotten music of the Austro-Hungarian diaspora in the midwest region of the United States. The Widow's Joy with a cover by Mississippi Records' E. Isaacson features the music that helped immigrant coal workers and laborers f…

Huge Fluid Freedom is a singular melding of American primitive & instrumental guitar rock by one of the most important young guitarists currently mining the underground. Sean Smith conjures fire and sweat, dew and ash through the guitar. From his Bay Area locale, Smith has been elevating the language of the acoustic steel string & exploring volume shredding electric excursions concurrently for the better part of the last decade, forging a tightrope walking hybridization of 2 seemingly disp…

Robbie Basho's Zarthus, dating from 1974, is, in his own words, "An album of Persian, Arabic, Westerns Themes (sic), woven together into a single 'Fabric D'Amour' to cover the barren manekin (sic) of modern times." Easily the album that most indulges his obsessions with Eastern modal scales and odd meters, and even Western classical themes. All of it is grounded in Basho's guitar though, and the discs first two tracks, "Zarthus" (dedicated to Meher Baba, Pete Townshend's guru) and "The Lord Of T…

John Fahey’s first album, released in 1959 for the record label he co-founded, is a beautiful introduction to this incredible artist. Blind Joe Death remains a wonderful album and displays Fahey’s ability to re-interpret the blues and folk idioms prevalent at the time in his own inimitable style. The album's mystique probably owes more to the 1959 record's rarity (and utter oddity in the context of its era) than the music, in which Fahey's experimental blues-folk acoustic fusion is just be…

Every decade John Fahey's work creates a wave of followers all trying to fuse acoustic blues with the Indian and Western classical traditions. What most of them miss when studying their hero's albums is his knack for crafting wonderfully infectious tunes. Sure, Fahey is totally avant garde, as he descends into esoteric tunings and maze-like picking. But that never prevents an album like 1967's Days Have Gone By from making listeners hum, clap and whistle along. This is folk music, after all.