Richard Osborn (guitarist)

Richard Osborn
Born 1947
Pasadena, CA, U.S.
Genres Folk, Free Raga, American Primitive Guitar
Occupation(s) Musician
Years active 1969-1980, 2010-present
Labels Obsolete Recordings, Free Range Raga Records, Tompkins Square Records
Associated acts Robbie Basho

Richard Osborn (born 1947) is an American fingerstyle guitarist, in the tradition known as “American primitive guitar”.

Biography

Born in Pasadena, California in 1947,[1] Richard received a B.A. in English Literature from Stanford University in 1969.[2][3][4] While there, he became friends and playing partners with guitarist William Ackerman who later founded Windham Hill Records.[4] In 1968 he studied with the legendary innovator Robbie Basho.[5][6] In the 1970’s he opened for several of Robbie Basho’s concerts in the San Francisco Bay area.[1][2] Richard is one of the interviewees in the documentary film “Voice of the Eagle: the Enigma of Robbie Basho” (by Liam Barker, 2015) for which he is also listed as an associate producer.

In 1980, a catastrophic injury to his left hand left him unable to play the guitar. For the next 15 years he turned his creative energies to painting abstracts.[1][2][3] In 1995 he began to realize that he might have the strength to play the guitar again, and spent the next 10 years rebuilding his chops.[4][5][7]

Josh Rosenthal, owner of Tompkins Square Records and creator of the “Imaginational Anthem” series of guitar compilations, included Osborn on Tompkins Square’s 2010 compilation album “Beyond Berkeley Guitar”; it was his first public recording. Osborn followed that up with the self-published solo debut album “Giving Voice: Guitar Explorations” in 2012,[1] and “Freehand” in 2015.[2][3] In 2017, his first widely available album “Endless” was published on the Tompkins Square label.[4][5][6][8]

In 2018, Richard appeared with over 30 other musicians at the first ever festival celebrating the fifty years of the American primitive guitar movement, held in Takoma Park, Maryland, the hometown of John Fahey. The festival was entitled “The Thousand Incarnations of The Rose: A Festival of American Primitive Music”.[9]

He has resided in the San Francisco Bay area since 1965.

Guitar style

Although Richard Osborn is included in the general category of “American primitive guitar”, a term invented by one of its main founders John Fahey, he prefers the term “free raga style” to describe the style of playing created by Robbie Basho.[1] This term relates it to the classical traditions of improvised music in India that were Basho’s biggest inspiration.[10] However, like Basho, Osborn remains open to influences from western classical music, folk, and other world music traditions.[6]

Like Basho and Fahey, Osborn tends to use open tunings for most of his work, gravitating to variants of open C tuning.[4]

Primary instruments

1915 OM parlor guitar by Vincenzo DeLuccia;[4] Tony Yamamoto 12-string;[6] National Resophonic O-14;[11] Lowden O35-C.[5]

Discography

Compilation albums

  • Beyond Berkeley Guitar (Tompkins Square, 2010)
  • Basket Full of Dragons: a tribute to Robbie Basho, Vol II (Obsolete Recordings, 2016)

Solo albums

  • Giving Voice: Guitar Explorations” (Free Range Raga Records, 2012)
  • Freehand (Free Range Raga Records, 2015)
  • Endless (Tompkins Square, 2017)
  • The Graton Sessions (Bandcamp download only, 2017)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 producer), Rosenthal, Josh (Sound recording. The record store of the mind. [San Francisco, California]. ISBN 9781625179135. OCLC 929985688.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "American Primitive Guitarist Richard Osborn Marks Long-Awaited Return". Acoustic Guitar. 2016-03-23. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  3. 1 2 3 "Interview with Richard Osborn (March 2017) on neuguitars". NeuGuitars. 2017-03-04. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Richard Osborn's Modern Primitive "Free Raga" Improvisations". GuitarPlayer.com. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "The Late Blooming of Richard Osborn". PegheadNation.com. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Richard Osborn: Endless (Album Review) | Folk Radio UK". Folk Radio UK - Folk Music Magazine. 2017-01-20. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  7. ↑ Copon, Miguel (2016-03-20). "PREPARED GUITAR: Richard Osborn 13 Questions". PREPARED GUITAR. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  8. ↑ "Richard Osborn — Endless (Tompkins Square)". dusted. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  9. ↑ "The Thousand Incarnations of the Rose: A Festival Of American Primitive Guitar". Folk Radio UK - Folk Music Magazine. 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  10. ↑ "Basket Full of Basho". PegheadNation.com. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  11. ↑ 07 - Song Of New Beginnings, retrieved 2018-09-03
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