Peter Walker

Along with the likes of John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Peter Walker is recognised as one of America's most original and adventurous guitarists, noted for blending fingerstyle folk music with Indian raga, Spanish flamenco and many other musical cultures. Born into a musical family in Boston, Massachusetts, he started playing guitar as a boy and became a fixture on the Greenwich Village folk scene. He also studied under the great sitar player Ravi Shankar and Hindustani classical musician Ali Akbar Khan and formed a close alliance with the free-thinking hero of the psychedelic generation Timothy Leary. His debut album Rainy Day Raga was released in 1966 and it was followed, two years later, by Second Poem. Both albums subsequently became collectible as Walker disappeared from public view, while continuing his study of the guitar, focusing on flamenco music. He eventually re-emerged in 2007, recording anew on the album A Raga For Peter Walker, also featuring acolytes like Jack Rose, James Blackshaw, Steffen Basho-Junghens and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. An album full of new Walker material, Echo Of My Soul swiftly followed along with live appearances to put him back on the map. Has Anybody Seen Our Freedom - an album originally recorded in 1970 but which remained unheard for 43 years - finally got official release as a result of the renewed interest in Walker's experimental approach to the guitar.

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