C or D: Robbie Basho, "Basho Sings"

*listens to robbie basho instrumental song*

"OMG this guy is the greatest of all time"

*robbie basho singing song comes up*

"....oh dear god"

^ hahahah otm

the worst is when it's like a sublime 9 minute track that you think is instrumental but then his vocals kick in around the five minute mark

his singing rules fuiud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJKhHY2OhEQ

i'm afraid i will be fu'd in this case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYaGChm8RWw

not loving this does not compute imo

oh, haha. already upthread oops.

basho sings is not one of my favorite bashos, but song of the stallion and visions of the country are two of my vary favorite vocal records.

very

someone upthread compared his voice to antony hegarty, which was quite apt, as I cannot stand hegarty's voice either. i dunno, just something about it. basho is a pretty unstoppable guitarist, though. people always say jack rose was a fahey acolyte but i'd say he was more the reincarnation of basho. big arpeggiated 12 string epics. i've never been able to get into basho because his stuff is hard to find around the internet and physical copies of his stuff are also hard to find! it's almost like his work didn't get any momentum out of the takoma revival, i wonder if it's becuz of his singing/that some of his stuff was released as 'easy listening' near the end of his career?

yeah, when he wasn't wearing his dr ragtime hat, jack rose played a lot on the 2nd & 4th beats, loose & expansive ala basho. he cribbed p evenly from both tho imo

So can someone recommend me some more players doing stuff similar to Basho on tracks like "The Falconer's Arm" and "Lost Lagoon Suite"? I am pretty firmly entrenched in Takoma worship, and am already quite enamored of Jack Rose, who I feel comes closest to evoking that feel imo (Catedral et Chartres <3 omg). However, James Blackshaw puts me to sleep for whatever reason, so don't tell me to check him out, unless I'm really missing something. So enlighten me. Who am I missing?

Hey global, check out William Tyler - Behold the Spirit...

Also did you ever get lessons with peter lang?

new album by daniel bachman is very jack rose-y. not super basho-y

Yeah dude, 8-9 of em! It was fun. We'd do a lot of b.s'ing about music in general. He'd get a bit rambly at moments but I didn't mind- he's kind of like an endearing kooky uncle. He said I was one of the more advanced/quick learners he'd taught at the school in terms of the American Primitive style, so he taught me a lot of tunes he doesn't generally teach? Got to learn Thoth Song, which is a fun one, in fact we did all four of his off that Lang/Fahey/Kottke one. Also learned some basic blues/folk standards. Probably 15 songs in total.

Overall, it's fun to learn straight from the mind of the guy who wrote the songs, and hear stories about hanging out with Fahey/touring, the 60s, etc. I don't think I got a ton better technique wise, since I was already fairly decent. But I definitely broadened my overall sense of the fretboard and songwriting, which is probably more of a fundamental thing in American Primitive since it's less about chops and more about spirit? At the same time, he seemed like he could really get you going if you've never fingerpicked in your life, too, he's got like 3-4 more basic tunes he teaches to newer players as well. He's a good teacher in that he can teach to all levels. It was funny listening to him talk about teaching Turnpike Terror to a group of 10 year olds!

The WBSM is a fantastic thing for the community, too, so there's that too.

I'm surprised at the number of people here do dislike Basho's singing, A North American Raga is one of my favorites of his, and all of Song of the Stallion. I especially love the songs where his voice comes in after 5 minutes of beautiful guitar. What I dig about Basho is how serious he was, his mysticism and all.

cool global, currently playing phone tag w.him can't wait to start...

it's less about chops and more about spirit?

man i've just now started playing closer attention technique in listening to fahey and that guy's tempo is BONKERS...like he's constantly speeding up and slowing down, maybe on purpose?

yeah, i think it's mainly on purpose, there was some quote where he talked about his sense of time, but i can't remember where. there are definitely tempo things that fahey does that i've found to be mindsplitting, sort of other dimension playing that i don't think you could ever "learn."

i need to read more about fahey, but yeah it's striking, where, god, i bet he's swinging 20 bpms either way in the course of one song

or the same larger phrase!

been a while since i read it, but fahey wrote his thesis on charley patton, and patton is the king of irregular tempos/bizarro rhythms. as well as being the king of the delta blues.

yeah duh, of course, tons of those delta dudes had way fucked up phrasing and meter, so i guess that's only natural

My God, how was anyone able to enjoy music before drum machines were invented? (What's amatta with you people?)

i wasn't saying it was bad, just notable.

I'm surprised at the number of people here do dislike Basho's singing, A North American Raga is one of my favorites of his, and all of Song of the Stallion. I especially love the songs where his voice comes in after 5 minutes of beautiful guitar. What I dig about Basho is how serious he was, his mysticism and all.

― JacobSanders, Monday, October 29, 2012 3:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

EXACTLY

The phrasing/timing variations are definitely intentional, warping time/space to get into your subconscious.

fahey version of waltzing matilda makes a good case study imo

just got into him for the first time because myspace, of all places, suggested him after i listened to the only HQ version of Gene Estribou's "Eeee Minor" on the internet.

it's been a day, and all i've done all day is listen to him, and holy fuck.

sooooo have we all checked this out yet? http://archive.org/details/RobbieBashoLiveAtTheDeliNaturalRestaurantCedarRapidsIowa

actually a bunch of live basho on the archive (and the same stuff here: http://www.bluemomentarts.de/bma/rbasho_archives/en/special.html)

:D thx

listening to this early 80s interview/performance now - pretty sweet: http://archive.org/details/1.RobbieBashoLiveFromStudioOneKuni

all of this stuff is amazing fyi

When Robbie says at the beginning of the California Raga, "well he knows where the vibes are" it was because a large dog had climbed on stage and laid his head on Robbie's foot, where he remained staring up at him throughout the rest of the song

:D

Thanks for this! Gonna enliven a dull day at work

Also that Basho doc doesn't seem like it's gonna hit its Kickstarter goal. Dunno why but I find that a bit sad :(

lol:

Basho lashes out at Americans for their " degenerate moral standards and lack of manners " which he says are evident in comtemporary music. " Punk rock is demonic, degenerate ". He advocates a " back to basic melodies "

I agree and disagree with that.

haha, well he was signed to windham hill...can't imagine any of those dudes would be like oh yeah i love the dead boys.

the syntax on that is pretty fucked but if i'm reading it right, he's advocating going back to basics? and yet, as awesome as his music is, it is pretentious and obtuse and overstuffed in so many myriad ways, and punk would fulfill a 'back to basics' to a much greater extent imo?

it's fun hearing his chatter on these boots, he seems ever more like a big weirdo, i love it

And he never lost the Baltimore accent, which I find awesome.

i couldn't really imagine any of those guys loving punk rock really

Blue Crystal Fire... Oh man... I don't know much by this guy but that song is incredible...

new visions of the country reish sounds great. the vinyl rip i had was not doing the album justice.

just picked up bashovia and guitar soli comps after learning about him. really excited to dig into it.

fahey's liner notes to bashovia are fucking excellent. i love that he came back to basho and got into it. didn't know there was a visions of the country reissue, that's great! the twilight peaks reissue a year or two ago was great, highly recommend it.

yeah here's the info - http://www.gnomeliferecords.com/robbie_basho.html

everyone I've ever played 'Blue Crystal Fire' to has loved it, it's a massive hit in some parallel universe.

btw the documentary Kickstarter that looked like it was gonna fail managed to creep over the finishing line at the last second - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/326705872/voice-of-the-eagle-the-enigma-of-robbie-basho. Could be v interesting.

think i've pretty much come around on basho's vocals. this dude is magic.

fahey's liner notes to bashovia are fucking excellent.
― ogmor, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 1:37 PM

are those online anywhere

i don't think so. fahey says there is a tiny robbie basho shrine in tokyo somewhere. he draws a map!

listening to pavan hindustan, it is an awe-inspiring bit of music imo, glistening, regal & so expansive, like galloping across the steppes towards the altai mountains

To be honest, I got it right before I moved so it quickly went out of sight and out of mind. Since finding it I've only spun it once so far.

I can't confirm any time soon (traveling), but the youtube list on the discogs page might be accurate?

https://www.discogs.com/Robbie-Basho-Land-Of-Our-Fathers-Rarities-1967-1983/release/12025590

ah, so a lot of the bouquet stuff!

Basho died unexpectedly at the age of 45 due to an accident during a visit to his chiropractor, where an "intentional whiplash" experiment caused blood vessels in his neck to rupture, leading to a fatal stroke.

Yup. Super freaky!

Phew -- new 5 CD set of unreleased Basho due out in December:

http://www.tompkinssquare.com/bashoboxset.html

It's out, and it's spectacular - depending on your tolerance for his voice, which is all over these tracks. (My personal tolerance is sky-high.) Other than some random string-tunings and asides to studio personnel, the tracks are pretty realized, not odds-n'-endsy at all.