Robbie Basho
Visions of the Country

THE REVIEW

«The temple bell stops
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers». (Matsuo Basho)

The neck of Robbie Basho's guitar is that metaphysical bridge connecting North America with the Far East. Each composition that emerges appears initiatory, occult, yet inexplicably enchanting, steeped in an atavistic allure. His very name represents the happy dualism that characterizes his recording career: Robert, very common in Western countries; Basho, an evident reference to the famous haiku composer, adopted due to his interest in oriental cultures. This surname probably helped him rediscover an identity he felt lost since childhood, when he was orphaned.

Basho died in 1986, at only forty-five years of age, due to a case of medical malpractice. The legacy he left to music was notable, and it has continued to influence generations of acoustic guitarists (Jack Rose and James Blackshaw primarily). However, his discography doesn't receive the care it deserves, as very few of his works have been reissued on CD. Crystallizing the testament of such a versatile artist is equivalent to committing a crime: a glaring example is the masterful "The Thousand Incarnations of the Rose", contained in "Contemporary Guitar" (published in 1967 and never reissued on CD), a true manifesto of primitivist guitarism signed by its main exponents, such as John Fahey, Max Ochs, Bukka White, Harry Taussig, and Basho himself.

The album under analysis here consists, in the artist's own words, of "frescoes depicting America and other joys". It is an esoteric representation of rural America, far from the specter of urbanization. On the landscapes of the Rocky Mountains, the rivers, and the great valleys, lotus flowers and lilies peep out: country music blends with raga, giving rise to long flows of sonic consciousness. Before being defined as a musician, Basho should be considered, above all, an alchemist; distancing himself in part from the long guitar digressions of his Takoma period (John Fahey's record label), he engages in an ancestral melodism, typical of oriental traditions.

While excellent exercises in country style ("Rodeo" and "Variations on Easter") are not lacking, it is the more extensive compositions that delineate the backbone of the work, from "Green River Suite" to "Rocky Mountain Raga", where Basho's baritone voice stands out, pastoral and evocative. It is, however, with "Blue Crystal Fire" that his singing reaches excellence, making a poetic folk ballad even more melancholic ("sweet and smiling moonbeams / be my rhapsody"). This melancholy turns into autobiographical anguish in "Orphan's Lament", characterized this time by a cathartic piano, also present in "Leaf in the Wind", where even a simple whistle manages to sublimate a moment of extraordinary beauty. The conclusion is entrusted to the contemplation of the night sky ("Night Sky") and to a further ode to the natural beauties of America ("Call on the Wind"). An extraordinary panism is immediately noticeable, a genuine sense of connection with nature that is difficult to find elsewhere.

"Visions of the Country", released in 1978, has been recently remastered and reissued on CD by Grass-Top Recordings. It doesn't require a particular commitment in listening, which comes naturally in an extremely intimate dimension that abolishes and abhors virtuosity for its own sake: quoting Basho himself, "first the soul, then the technique".