Peter Walker

Noted for dynamic instrumental pieces inspired by the Indian Raga and Spanish flamenco traditions blended with traditional American folk and occasional rock influences, Peter Walker’s debut LP Rainy Day Raga was released by Vanguard Records in 1966, followed by the release of Second Poem in 1968. Along with Sandy Bull, John Fahey, and Robbie Basho, Walker is considered one of the premier guitarists of his generation. On Second Poem, Walker plays guitar and sitar and is accompanied by flutist Jim Pepper (of The Free Spirits) along with violin, tabla, & tamboura. Walker is the missing link between Ravi Shankar and Timothy Leary in more ways than one. 

"Walker sits behind a plate of candles, tells stories about the historical congruencies between flamenco and raga, and switches between a nylon string guitar for the Spanish stuff, and a steel-stringed one for the Indian-derived music. 

Walker’s virtuosity, in both disciplines, is pretty astonishing, but what’s also striking is how those long years of study and practise seem to have resulted in an intuitive understanding of the guitar and its possibilities; that an obsession with technique has created, unusually, a devotional take on traditional forms that is transcendent rather than hamstrung by muso perfectionism." - John Mulvey, Uncut - review of Peter Walker live at Cafe OTO in 2008