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Rich Osborn

Richard Osborn is a raga style guitarist who studied and performed with legendary trailblazer Robbie Basho in the early 1970’s. He was sidelined for almost 30 years by a catastrophic injury to his left hand, taking up painting in the meantime, and quietly working and raising his family. Rich returned to public view in 2010 on the Tompkins Square survey CD “Beyond Berkeley Guitar”. His solo debut album “Giving Voice: Guitar Explorations” garnered high praise in 2012, and he now continues to open wider the possibilities for the acoustic steel string guitar with his new release “Freehand” in 2015.

The years since John Fahey and Robbie Basho trailblazed a totally new and serious approach to the acoustic steel string guitar as a concert instrument have been dominated by Fahey style double thumbing and Michael Hedges style tapping techniques. Rich now takes up the raga style of free improvisation first created by Robbie Basho, bringing his own lifelong appreciation of world music traditions as well as Western classical techniques and influences to the mix. You will hear then touches of both Indian ragas and Bach, Japanese koto and Native American, as well as echoes of the landscapes of California and the old West.

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“....giving the exhilarating sense of music being discovered as it is played.” — (Dusted)

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