It would be fair to say that Rich Osborn has been around since the beginning of the American Primitive movement spawned by Robbie Basho and John Fahey. Osborn studied with Basho and rubbed elbows with many guitar giants in the ‘70s as a teacher and performer. A severe hand injury in 1980 forced him to stop playing for 20 years, but for the past six he’s been pursuing a style he calls “free raga.”
Raga is a classical Indian mode which depends on the season, the time of day, and emotional resonance -- it is a style quite unusual to the Western ear. Osborn's version is pretty standard new age format, melodic noodling that often builds from silence into resonant sound, or drops into it quietly.
Overall I found the album pleasant, and perhaps a more trained ear would rate it higher.
~review by: Lisa Mc Sherry
Artist: Rich Osborn
Free Range Raga Records, 2012
CD
www.richardosbornguitar.com
