Michael Chapman (1941-2021) released his debut album Rainmaker in 1969 on Harvest. He went on to release over fifty albums and influence many with his evocative songwriting and guitar prowess. From heady jams to expressive ballads to experimental noise, Chapman’s work continues to inspire. Tompkins Square recruited Henry Parker to curate a collection of covers by working musicians from Chapman’s home turf in Northern England. With stunning artwork by local artist Bunty Marshall mapping the important places in Michael’s life, and package design by D. Norsen, this 12th volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem series is the ultimate tribute to a very dearly missed artist.

A transcendent collection of cuts snipped from a bumper 5CD set of unheard Basho material recorded between 1965 and 1985. American Primitive guitar / Fahey / Takoma / Six Organs of Admittance fans pay attention.

Multi-instrumentalist Sandy Bull’s debut, Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo, was for all intents and purposes the beginning of the “world music” movement. And if that seems like a bold claim, keep in mind that while many classical composers had borrowed folk motifs throughout the centuries, the mélange of folk, jazz, blues, classical, gospel, and even rock ‘n’ roll that this record offered—back in 1963!—was simply unprecedented. It all comes together on the album’s first track, a 21 minute and 51 second stylistic odyssey appropriately entitled “Blend.” Backed by jazz drummer Billy Higgins, Bull improvises in a fashion akin to jazz, but his guitar style displays elements of folk, and the droning quality and raga-like climax echo aspects of Middle Eastern and Indian music.

The Storm Sessions is the latest glowing proof that Elkhorn are one of the most durable and adventurous platforms of the new guitar age. Snowed in with their friend Turner Williams (Ramble Tamble, Guardian Alien) on the night of an emotionally important gig, the duo-plus-one turned it into a cathartic blizzard-bound collaboration and rumination — and a new step for Elkhorn.

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-faceted artist. Basho was actually a college friend of John Fahey, and his early recordings (like Kottke's) were for Fahey's Takoma label. Following Fahey 's move to Vanguard, Basho followed suit, and released Voice of the Eagle and Zarthus for the label in 1972 and 1974, respectively (his most commercially successful records were made for the Windham Hill label later in the decade)./quote]