American Primitive

American primitive is the solo steel-string guitar tradition founded by *John Fahey* in the late 1950s, in which fingerstyle players treat the acoustic guitar as a self-sufficient orchestra. Drawing on country blues, ragtime, folk and hymnody, and later on classical and non-Western music, Fahey and his #Takoma Records# circle built compositions from alternate tunings, droning bass lines and shifting repetitions. *Robbie Basho* added a mystical, raga-influenced lyricism, *Leo Kottke* a virtuoso drive, and a twenty-first-century generation led by *Glenn Jones* and *William Tyler* revived the form, which sits between folk, blues and experimental music.