There's no such thing as a bad
Graham
album from the 1960s. While
Hat
isn't necessarily the first one you should dig into, it offers the standard pleasures that you expect from his records: excellent, feverishly imaginative acoustic guitar playing; vibrant jazz-blues arrangements; and covers of blues numbers,
Paul Simon
, and
Lennon
-
McCartney
. He's just as capable of good-time blues (
"I'm Ready"
) and a folk cover of
"Getting Better"
from
Sgt. Pepper
as dark, slightly dissonant instrumentals with a modal/Eastern flavor. As is the case with most of his '60s albums, it's very hard to find, especially in the U.S., where
did not have a record deal. ~ Richie Unterberger