On a rare visit to the Bay Area from his home in Bergamo, Italy, guitarist (and guitar-maker) Buck Curran stops by KPFA to visit with host Derk Richardson and perform his original music live in the performance studio, with Tony Ferro engineering. Initially known in acoustic guitar and freak-folk circles for the five albums he made with his longtime partner and former wife Shanti Deschaine in the Maine-based duo Arborea, Curran has released two brilliant solo albums–Immortal Light and Morning Haikus, Afternoon Ragas–and produced two Robbie Basho tribute collections, We Are All One, In the Sun and Basket Full of Dragons, as well as a Basho 1982 concert recording, Live in Forli, Italy 1982, albums by his partner Adele H, and the essential psych-folk anthology Leaves of Life (with Devendra Banhart, Alela Diane, Marissa Nadler, and others.
Read more about Curran at Peghead Nation.
Although you might think of Basho and John Fahey when you hear Curran’s music, its influences range beyond those two avatars of American Primitive guitar; Curran lists as further inspirations Arborea, Peter Green, Chris Whitley, John Keats, Jack Kerouac, Tim Buckley, Sandy Denny, Nikhil Banerjee, Martin Simpson, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Hemingway, Terrance Malick, and Duane Allman.
Listen to Curran’s “Song for Liam” here.
Tune in at 10 p.m., right after the Bonnie Simmons Show, to hear Curran play his guitars, perhaps sing a few tunes, and be joined by a friend on soprano sax and flute.