17 Facts About Davey Graham

David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival.

Davey Graham inspired many famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar such as Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page, who based his solo "White Summer" on Graham's "She Moved Through the Fair".

Davey Graham was born in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England, to a Guyanese mother, Winifred and a Scottish father, Hamish, a teacher from the Isle of Skye.

Davey Graham grew up in Westbourne Grove, in the Notting Hill Gate area of London.

At the age of 19, Davey Graham wrote what is probably his most famous composition, the acoustic guitar solo "Angi".

Davey Graham came to the attention of guitarists through his appearance in a 1959 broadcast of the BBC TV arts series Monitor, produced by Ken Russell and titled Hound Dogs and Bach Addicts: The Guitar Craze, in which he played an acoustic instrumental version of "Cry Me a River".

Davey Graham appears playing guitar in a pub in Joseph Losey's 1963 film The Servant.

Davey Graham married the American singer Holly Gwinn in the late 1960s and recorded the albums The Holly Kaleidosope and Godington Boundary with her in 1970, shortly before Gwinn had to return to the US and he was unable to follow her, because of his visa problem due to a marijuana conviction.

Davey Graham later described himself as having been "a casualty of too much self-indulgence", becoming a heroin addict in imitation of his jazz heroes.

In 1976, Davey Graham recorded All That Moody, essentially a private pressing.

Davey Graham recorded two further groundbreaking albums for Kicking Mule, 1978's The Complete Guitarist and 1980's Dance For Two People.

Davey Graham continued to play concerts, but dedicated the main thrust of his life to studying languages; he was fluent in Gaelic, French, and Greek and could hold his own in Turkish.

Davey Graham collected poems and folk songs and would regale his neighbours.

Davey Graham was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008 and died on 15 December of that year, at his home in London.

Davey Graham did not seek or achieve great commercial success, though his music received positive critical feedback and influenced folk revival artists and fellow players such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Ralph McTell, Wizz Jones, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Ritchie Blackmore, and Paul Simon, as well as folk rock bands such as Fairport Convention and Pentangle.

One of Davey Graham's lasting legacies is the DADGAD guitar tuning, which he popularised in the early 1960s.

Davey Graham then went on to experiment playing traditional folk pieces in DADGAD tuning, often incorporating Indian and Middle Eastern scales and melodies.