BASHO, ROBBIE - Bonn Ist Supreme

"Subtitled: Live at the Kulturforum, Bonn, Germany, November 24, 1980. Another in the Wooden Weavil series, this time an unreleased live Robbie Basho recording from Germany in 1980. Robbie Basho was one of the great pioneers of the acoustic steel string guitar in the U.S., along with Leo Kottke and John Fahey in the 1960s. This program appears to have been recorded in one go. Robbie scatters his Americana numbers throughout, beginning with "Redwood Ramble," and ending with "California Raga." This date finds Robbie in fine fettle, his playing sharpened by the intensity of touring, his mood seems ebullient, at times (as on "Fandango") he comes off like John Lee Hooker's sun-kissed cousin, stomping furiously along to his playing. There is sweetness to his material, yes, but this is not, as Jack Rose put it, "music for wineries." There is the galloping muscularity of Basho's playing, coupled with the sheer hugeness of his sound; the fearless employment of dissonance as part of his musical