Davy Graham – Angi (Tab)

Davy Graham – Angi (Tab)


MP3

Davy Graham has never really got the attention he deserves. He developed the style of guitar playing picked up by the likes of Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, John Renbourn and even Jimmy Page’s acoustic outings. But a lot of his stuff was a little too out-there for the early sixties with heavy Indian influence and deep jazz experiments that wouldn’t take off until the latter half of the 60s. Added to that, his decades spent in Syd Barret like solitude meant he never had much commercial success.

But his tune Angi was immediately accessible and became the must-play piece for the aspiring guitarists of the 60s folk revival. It’s been covered by pretty much everyone, almost always with a different spelling, Bert Jansch recorded it as Angie and later by Simon and Garfunkel as Anji. I’ve tried arranging it for ukulele in the past and could never get it right. But with him passing away in December I reapplied myself to the task and got an arrangement that I’m happy with.

My arrangement is heavily based on Bert Jansch’s and is quick tricky to play. In the fingerpicking sections I’m usually coving the A string with my middle finger, E string with my index finger and G and C strings. There are a few places where I switch to one finger per string (such as bar 6).

I was busking it rather than strictly following the tab for the MP3 so it does differ slightly from the arrangement in the tab. But you get the idea.

View Comments

33 Comments

  1. Vincent January 25th, 2009 3:23 pm

    Wow! I really didn’t expect this song over here. I bought the Jansch record on which this song appears and listened to it on a loop for about a month.

    Looks like a challenge, but one I’m real happy to take on.

    Thanks for sharing your hard work!!!

    You’re my new hero

    -Vincent

  2. cardboardfrog January 25th, 2009 3:31 pm

    wow, awesome arrangement for the uke there mr woodshed, not sure i’m up to this challenge, but good work it sounds great!

  3. Vincent January 25th, 2009 7:18 pm

    Quick question about fingerings in the main (opening) riff:

    I play the hammer-on with my index finger and my fingers seem to want to play the second fret of the top string with my thumb. Do you bring your index back up to play it? And then is it the same index that goes to the first fret to play the 3rd string?

    Thanks

  4. Vincent January 25th, 2009 7:46 pm

    Forget my previous question, I was just not using my pinky. It all makes sense now…

  5. Minamin January 25th, 2009 8:50 pm

    This is another one I’ll have to put on hold until I finally get those superpowers.

  6. J-Hob January 25th, 2009 9:45 pm

    Sounds great but beyond my current abilities! Was a highly enjoyable listen none-the-less

  7. Vincent January 25th, 2009 10:58 pm

    Minamin: Work on this one for 3 months, nail it, and then you’ll realize that you developed those super powers!

    Good luck!

  8. zym January 26th, 2009 1:18 am

    wow – great work Al

    But i think i’ll wimp out and go sit with the rest of the ladies ;)

  9. julesmail67 January 26th, 2009 8:00 am

    Brilliant arrangement! And what great playing on the mp3 track Sir! Definitely hidden (extreme) talents there.
    I like the comment from Minamin, and definitely relate. But I’ll give it a go….over the next decade or so!

  10. Cashew January 26th, 2009 1:29 pm

    Whoa… I’m not worthy~ I’m not worthy!

    Excellent playing, and a wonderful arrangement.

  11. Armelle January 26th, 2009 7:40 pm

    What a really great tune and beautifully arranged !

    Thanks for sharing it with us !

  12. Woodshed January 26th, 2009 9:34 pm

    Vincent: Glad you figured it out. I never fret with my thumb. I mostly hold the chord shapes in the first section. Good luck with it.

    cbf: Thanks!

    Min: I’m still praying for x-ray vision.

    J-Hob: Cheers.

    zym: Ech, you big girls blouse.

    Jules: I think I might have been playing this tune for ten years myself, so that sounds about right.

    Cashew: You’re worthy, you’re worthy.

    Armelle: Thanks very much.

  13. Chris January 27th, 2009 3:15 am

    Wow that sounds awesome. Might take me awhile but i’m gonna figure this one out.

    Thanks!

  14. Luapelele February 7th, 2009 11:10 pm

    I saw Gordon Giltrap perform this song last week. We were talking about it afterwards and Gordon was saying how upset he had been about the loss of Davy. I have been playing this on guitar and now look forward to cracking it on uke. Thanks Al, you are a complete star.

  15. Woodshed February 8th, 2009 3:36 pm

    Luapelele: Gordon’s version on Angi is incredible (here for anyone who’s interested). I leant fingerstyle guitar from his Total Guitar columns, so he’s a bit of a hero of mine.

  16. Luapelele February 15th, 2009 9:40 am

    I’m very fortunate to know Gordon, and he is not only an incredible guitarist ( properly the best acoustic player this country has produced) he is a lovely man. He recently helped me track down a baby Armstrong, So I now join Gordon, Joe Brown, Dhani Harrison and Rob Armstrong in owning one.

  17. Woodshed February 16th, 2009 5:58 pm

    Luapelele: No doubt that he’s a fantastically talented player. Incredible some of things he does.

  18. Geekthras June 1st, 2010 8:19 am

    Oh man, I had been working on tabbing the Jansch version, as note-for-note as I can, but this is great, gotta try it… even if it takes me a year to master it

  19. Woodshed June 6th, 2010 12:15 pm

    Geekthras: It’s definitely worth learning. Incredible tune.

  20. Baker June 8th, 2010 9:36 pm

    Awesome tune! It it played with a high-g or low-g?

  21. Woodshed June 9th, 2010 11:09 am

    Baker: High-g. Everything is high-g unless I say otherwise.

  22. Baker June 9th, 2010 9:02 pm

    Okay cool. Now to try and learn to play it lol. Any chance you’d be willing to upload a video for reference?

  23. Woodshed June 14th, 2010 4:27 pm

    Baker: I’ve been meaning to do a video of it but it’ll probably take me a good while to get round to it.

  24. Christian Messerschmidt January 5th, 2011 2:42 pm

    this arrangement would have made Davy proud- much in his spirit you ported the tune to a new dimension while not being able to rely on the bassline as its driving power. Also, Davy loved exotic string instruments!

    Bravo for a very playable jam tune!

  25. Woodshed January 16th, 2011 11:50 am

    Christian: Thanks very much. That’s very kind of you. I hope he would have approved.

  26. Kristen May 16th, 2011 1:52 am

    Holy crap! That is beautiful!

  27. Woodshed May 18th, 2011 10:05 am

    Kristen: Thanks very much!

  28. Ivy Arch May 18th, 2012 11:47 pm

    Watching footage of Davy Graham this evening prompted an internet search and I’m amazed to find your tab for Anji. This is wonderful! Can’t imagine I will ever be able to play it but I am going to try, very, very slowly. Thank you!

  29. Woodshed May 19th, 2012 11:45 am

    Ivy Arch: Thanks so much! Best of luck with the practicing.

  30. Anna March 16th, 2013 9:14 am

    I saw ‘Acoustic Routes’ the other night featuring Bert Jansch, Davy Graham et al – some incredible playing and some even more incredible hair!

    Angie/Anji/Angi was credited as the song you have to be able to play before you can call yourself a folk musician, so here goes! Thanks for the tab.

    One quick question – why do you play the opening G two different ways?

    Thanks!!

  31. Woodshed March 17th, 2013 11:11 pm

    Anna: Hmm, I can’t remember! I don’t remember doing it so it may have just been how I felt like doing it at the time.

  32. Ian November 8th, 2015 7:39 pm

    Like this a lot thank you, reminds of my times with Davy Graham, I used to go over to his place for lessons and learnt alot.

  33. Woodshed November 9th, 2015 9:10 am

    Ian: You had lessons with Davy Graham? Wow! That’s amazing!

Sorry, Comments Are Broken Right Now

You must be logged in to post a comment.