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Artist News Obituaries
Davy Graham dies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 17 December 2008
Veteran folk musician Davy Graham has died at the age of 68, after a short battle with cancer. His manager/collaborator Mark Pavey confirmed to The Guardian: “He was diagnosed with lung cancer only weeks ago and suffered a seizure at his home at around 3.30pm yesterday”.
Graham was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire, to a Guyanese mother and a Scottish father, and began playing the guitar when he was 12.
Often credited with a pivotal role in the growth of the sixties folk revival, he influenced the likes of Paul Simon and Bert Jansch, but was not genre-bound to the folk movement; jazz and blues also informed his work, as well as the various kinds of world music that he’s credited with exposing to a wider audience.
His most famous track, ‘Angi’, which appeared on his 1962 debut EP, was covered by myriad artists, including Simon and Garfunkel who released a version on their 1966 album ‘Sound of Silence’.
Graham will be interred at a private funeral this week, but a public memorial service is being planned for next month.
