dian musician, had his first major album release. He transformed “the Hawaiian slide guitar into a more Indian instrument, adding chikaris and sympathetic strings, and eventually coming out with a 24-string instrument based on the old Hawaiian six-string. This is universally regarded as the highest form of the slide guitar’s development anywhere, making Bhattacharya one of the masters of the instrument, especially when considering his amazing abilities in playing Indian forms on it (19).” Bhattacharya is one of the greatest musicians I have ever witnessed play on stage.
”In 1997 “Twenty-seven-year-old musician Jack Rose hears Fahey’s 1974 LP “Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier’s Choice)” on WUVT FM in Blacksburg, VA. “Basically that record was the blueprint for me on how to merge Asian and American country blues into a raga form,” he says. “When I first heard it I thought the entire record was improvised. Later I found out ‘Thus Krishna on the Battlefield’ was improvised, but that the…title track was completely composed (2).”
In 1998 Ben Chasny released his first album under his moniker Six Organs of Admittance. This was the same year the Chasny first heard a cassette of Peter Walker’s “Rainy Day Raga” and it deeply influenced his guitar playing. He would go on to make many albums evolving the psych folk, psych rock, American primitive and raga guitar styles as well as noise and avant-garde.
1998 Sir Richard Bishop released his first solo album “Salvador Kali.” He was a founding member of the experimental rock outfit the Sun City Girls and has continued his love of eclectic musical styling. His albums range from the avant-garde, jazz, blues, folk, world music, raga, ragtime and free form improvisations.
February 22, 2001, John Fahey left his body for the unknown expanse.
Jack Rose released his first homemade CD-r in 2001.
In 2003 Chesny (Six Organs of Admittance) would release “For Octavio Paz” a solo guitar album which is a gem in the instrumental American Primitive style and one of two solo guitar albums (7).
Six Organs of Admittance – For Octavio Paz
In 2003 “James Blackshaw, a young musician from Kent, England, puts out his debut, “Celeste”, a CD-R of pastoral acoustic-guitar numbers with an initial run of 80 copies. “Discovering Robbie Basho was a real turning point for me,” Blackshaw says, “and to call him influential with regard to my own work is an understatement. Much more so than Fahey, even. (2).”
James Blackshaw – The Cloud of Unknowing (2007)
2004 Glenn Jones released his first solo album, “This is the Wind That Blows It Out.” Before going solo he was a member of the group Cul de Sac which collaborated with John Fahey on one of their albums. Glenn is a student of the “Takoma style” and plays a clean and beautifully melodic guitar and banjo pieces (8).
2004 Jack Rose releases a pair of debuting albums, “Two Originals of Jack Rose” on the Beautiful Happiness label and “Raag Manifestos” on VHF. Jack Rose got his start in the avant-garde electronic noise-punk band Pelt most known for their double CD “Ayahuasca.”
2004 Meg Baird comes to the surface with the band Espers, a Philadelphia based psych folk ensemble featuring Greg Weeks, Helena Espvall and Otto Hauser. The group first appeared in 2002 and released 3 full length albums. Which include intricate finger picked guitar styling with a heavy psychedelic folk influence. Meg Baird would later release solo albums and collaborate with her sister Laura Baird to form The Baird Sisters.
The Baird Sisters – Until You Find Your Green (Grapefruit Record Club)
2005 “Kensington Blues” by Jack Rose also released on the label VHF is a masterpiece in the American primitive style with many raga influenced pieces.
Jack Rose – Kensington Blues
2005 Minneapolis based musician Paul Metzger releases “Three improvisations on Modified Banjo.” This album is filled with meditative long form arrangements for a 21 string modified banjo built by the artist himself. The album integrates folk, jazz with a heavy middle eastern, raga influence and Japanese Bouzouki music. Glenn Jones stated in M