It was only a couple years ago when I became keenly aware of the American folk guitarist, Robbie Basho. I learned that along with fellow guitarist Leo Kottke, both men were disciples of John Fahey, and recorded their early works on Fahey's Takoma Records label. It was Basho's 1978 album "Visions of the Country" which gave me the proper introduction to this storyteller whose compositions, whose unusual, meditative playing and the deep baritone voice of a healer... I worked his catologue backwards and roundabout... immediately delving into his "Venus in Cancer" from 1969, then the mid-1960s Takoma stuff with Fahey and Max Ochs. Then, in the past couple weeks thrashing my way through seasonal allergies here in North Carolina, I picked up "Zarthus", and this, "The Voice of the Eagle" from 1972, which Basho "dedicated to Avatar Meher Baba and in the spirit of love and respect to the American Indian."
Whether Basho was a healer, or all of his devoted fans before me projected too much into his myth, I'm still occasionally feeling like shit and coughing up a lung.
Nevertheless, his music was so damn good. I play it to counteract the negative waves from the drooling masses.
Oddball has my back on this... he does.
Here he was on a San Francisco (KQED) television show in 1971, performing "Cathedral et Fleur de Lis"...
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