Folk & Traditional / Fingerstyle

"Around the turn of the century there seemed to be a wave of guitarists versed in experimental and electronic musics who sought out ways of drawing new sounds from their instrument of choice; the likes of Fennesz, Tim Hecker, Keith Fullerton Whitman …

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 B…

2014 Release. Light In The Attic and the legendary folk/blues/roots label Vanguard Records are proud to begin a series of collaborations under the umbrella Vanguard Vault. The series will explore the vaults of Vanguard and see the reissuing of obscu…

After a long hibernation, Anoema Recordings is back with a fantastic split LP of fresh Finnish music. This time we bring joy to the world via six beautiful acoustic six string exercises by two Turku-based masters of guitar: Niko Karlsson and Topia…

Awash in color and texture, Arian Shafiee's debut album, A Scarlet Fail, brings to light a guitarist whose sound and mastery are in full bloom. Best known for his work in the East Coast dance/punk group Guerilla Toss, Shafiee has spent years warping …

Though frequently overshadowed by his contemporary and Takoma Records labelmate John Fahey, the compositions and performances of Daniel R. Robinson Jr., best known by the stage name Robbie Basho, were integral in the development of the American primi…

This is the album any record collector would have at the top of his wants list when visiting Spain. No matter if you are into prog rock, psychedelia, leftfield jazz, kraut or just looking for interesting breaks and beats, this is THE record you will …

Harvey Mandel is among the most innovative guitarists to emerge from the Chicago blues scene of the late 1960s. His career began at Twist City and other local hotspots, sharing stages with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Buddy Guy. He came up in th…

Limited edition 7" single (600 worldwide) Contains "Deep Sea Diver", which does not appear on Gwenifer Raymond's debut LP, You Never Were Much of a Dancer

Duck Baker is an internationally acclaimed American acoustic finger-style guitarist who plays in a variety of styles: jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk, and Irish and Scottish music. He has written many instruction books for guitar, famously release…

2016 remastered edition, clear vinyl edition of 500 copies. "For several years major labels had been issuing records in both mono and stereo formats. By 1967 Takoma was doing well enough financially to justify the recording of John Fahey's first and …

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 trip…

2016 remastered edition, green color vinyl edition of 500 copies.Originally released in 1964, Dance of Death offers a glimpse of an artist in transformation. More than half the album's titles draw from the traditional blues and country repertoire Fah…

2016 remastered edition, blue color vinyl edition of 500 copies. "Death Chants is John Fahey's second album, following the brilliantly apocryphal Blind Joe Death. As massive as that earlier work was, it represented only a tentative first step towards…

2016 remastered edition, gold color vinyl edition of 500 copies. Originally released in 1967. The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death is John Fahey's classic fifth album from the mid-1960s and is one of his most influential. This album has an amazing …

**Limited 50th Anniversary Sky Blue Vinyl Edition** Sweet Child, released in 1968, at the peak of Pentangle's career, is probably the most representative of their work. A sprawling two-record set, half recorded in the studio and half live at the Roya…

2018 Stock. 180 gram audiophile vinyl, Gatefold sleeve. Cruel Sister was an album recorded in 1970 by Folk Rock band Pentangle. All the tracks are versions of traditional songs. Whereas their previous album had been produced by Shel Talmy, and featur…

2018 Stock. 180 gram audiophile vinyl. The Pentangle was the 1968 debut album of the band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. It brought together their separate influences of folk, jazz, blues, early mu…

The second of two albums that Bert wrote in America in the mid 70s, ‘Santa Barbara Honeymoon’ foregrounds some of Bert Jansch’s most charming and addictive melodies. Album highlights include ‘Baby Blue’, ‘Lost and Gone’ and a reworking of Jackson C. …

The story goes that Ian A. Anderson and Gef Lucena were walking the streets of Clifton, trying to come up with a name for their new record label. At the time (the early 70s) Greenwich Village was naturally the mecca destination for any musician wo…

First of a diptych of albums recorded in and influenced by Bert Jansch’s time in America. As the title suggests, this album was something of a contrast to Jansch’s usual style – taking in swathes of Nashville-infused pedal steel to sparkling effect. …

Tompkins Square is very proud to announce the signing of Welsh multi-instrumentalist, Gwenifer Raymond. Hailing from Cardiff and now residing in Brighton in the South of England, Raymond began playing guitar at the age of eight. Tompkins Square relea…

On Buck Curran's second solo album, Morning Haikus, Afternoon Ragas, the emphasis switches to acoustic guitar, as compared to his first solo album, Immortal Light (ESPDISK 5014CD/LP, 2016). Side A, all solo acoustic instrumentals, seems to have fal…

160-gram DMM LP version. Limited edition of 350. Includes download code. Immortal Light is the debut solo album by psychedelic folk guitarist-singer-songwriter Buck Curran. Since 2005, Curran has recorded and performed as one half of the psych-folk d…

An evening in a Kyoto coffee house from decades past that was living forever anyway, now captured as "vinyl". Formats of our contemporary time that have a long way to go before they outlast the music beneath John Renbourn's fingers.

**2025 stock. 180 gram vinyl LP + insert with obi-strip** Chris Thompson started out his career in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1965, then turned professional in 1968. In the early seventies he moved to England, where he played the guitar with California…

Land Of Our Fathers' is a stunningly beautiful compilation of never-before-released and hard-to-find recordings by America's great guitar mystic Robbie Basho. Spanning 16 years, this is 42 minutes of essential and extremely rare music from throughout…

Ceremony of Dreams by Entourage. Available here on Triple CD. Sampled by Four Tet, their name whispered in reverence through the decades, Entourage forged bold musical ideas on their two rare '70s Folkways LPs. Now, collected for the first time, 30 p…

CD edition. The Italian guitarist Maurizio Abate is a rare breed - an experimental musician from Europe working within, and expanding the American tradition of Guitar Soli, an idiom first pioneered by John Fahey.  Abate initially emerged within a …

Comprising Bert Jansch’s seminal 1960s output (alongside his only album as a duet with Pentangle bandmate John Renbourn) this four disc set covers an era that forged creative paths for everyone from Neil Young to Johnny Marr. New listening notes f…

Tompkins Square reissues two albums by Texas singer/songwriter Will Beeley - the self-released mega-rare (only 200 copies) private press LP 'Gallivantin' from 1971, and 'Passing Dream', originally released by Malaco Records in 1979. Recorded in Sa…

"One of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk scene, Davy Graham inspired many practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar of the era, notably Bert Jansch, John Martyn and Jimmy Page. Graham is probably best known for his acoust…

First released in 1968, Large As Life And Twice As Natural is a tremendous acoustic-folk-blues-jazz masterpiece. As always with Davy Graham, the music seems to defy categorization. Perhaps the simplest description would be "great." Davy is joined by…

 A deeply innovative musician whose style is credited as the foundation for the minimalist style of American Primitive Guitar, the output of John Fahey is both illustrious, far-reaching in its influence, and difficult to categorize. From the 1960s th…

Larry Conklin bought his first guitar, a Gibson J-45, in 1970, after he got out of the army. "I taught myself to play. I wrote songs and instrumentals (at that time Bert Jansch was my guiding light). I listened to a lot of people - Leo Kottke, J…

Gentle Wilderness was released as a private press LP in 1978. River Sun River Moon consists of previously unreleased recordings from the same time period. Deitrick came to our attention via Brooks Rice and Michael Klausman, who compiled Imaginational…

Tompkins Square is proud to release two solo acoustic guitar albums by Rick Deitrick. Gentle Wilderness was released as a private press LP in 1978. River Sun River Moon consists of previously unreleased recordings from the same time period. Deitrick …

Texas Songwriter Will Beeley's Rare LPs from 1971 & 1979 Reissued by Tompkins Square. Tompkins Square reissues two albums by Texas singer/songwriter Will Beeley - the self-released mega-rare (only 200 copies) private press LP 'Gallivantin' from 1971,…

Fifty years ago, Harry Taussig and Max Ochs were featured on a sampler LP, 'Contemporary Guitar - Spring '67', alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Bukka White. Both guitarists were "re-discovered" by Tompkins Square in 2005, and have since rel…

First-generation American Primitive guitarist Richard Osborn studied with Robbie Basho in the late 60's. 40 years later, Osborn finally recorded, appearing on Tompkins Square's 'Beyond Berkeley Guitar' comp in 2010. 'Endless' is his first widely a…