Davy Graham
He Moved Through The Fair - The Complete 1960s Recordings
(Cherry Red)
★★★★

THIS beautifully packaged CD retrospective extends over eight highly listenable discs as it presents a comprehensive overview of folk guitarist Davy Graham’s stunningly eclectic musical output during his creative heyday, well over half a century ago. 

Graham’s innate fascination with obscure guitar tunings and the delights of Indian, Middle Eastern and North African culture may have placed him far away from the musical mainstream during those far off days, but his innovative recordings would go on to influence luminaries such as Paul Simon, Jimmy Page and Pentangle’s John Renbourn. 

This peerless collection finds him applying his distinctive imprint to everything from Rufus Thomas’s Walking The Dog to Paul Simon’s I Am A Rock alongside the original 1962 version of Davy’s classic instrumental, Anji. 

Nick Magnus
A Strange Inheritance 
(Magick Nuns Records)
★★★

PROG-ROCK keyboard wizard Nick Magnus’s main claim to fame is the lengthy period that he spent as a key member of former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett’s recording and touring band between 1978 and 1989, and Hackett repays the favour here by contributing a bluesy harmonica solo on the epic 10-minute opener, An Almost Silent Witness.

Concept albums may not be particularly fashionable these days, but this splendid addition to what has become a much maligned genre certainly repays closer investigation, with the multitalented Magnus wielding a variety of instruments with style and imagination as a swashbuckling 18th-century tale of love, loss and revenge unfolds with cinematic clarity. 

To Whom It May Concern, Philadelphia and Nick’s orchestral mini suite, Four Winds are particularly impressive efforts.

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
Live at Montreux 1968
(Repertoire)
★★★

THIS hitherto unreleased live recording captures Driscoll, Auger and company’s memorable appearance at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival more than half a century ago. 

This refreshingly open-minded outfit brought their genre-busting approach to music making to bear on an eclectic assortment of self penned material and commanding covers, including stylish revamps of everything from Donovan’s Season of the Witch to Aretha Franklin’s Save Me and The Beatles’ epic A Day in the Life, although their recent chart topping version of Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire unfortunately wasn’t given an airing. 

London-born Hammond organ ace Augur and vocalist Julie Driscoll would go on to follow much less commercial paths in subsequent years, Augur with jazz fusion outfit Oblivion Express and Driscoll with the esoteric vocal music penned by her husband, the jazz pianist and composer Keith Tippett.