Grasstops Recordings 2014
01 The Grail & The Lotus
02 Cathedrals et Fleur de lis
03 Prologue for Pavan India
04 Pavan India (Pavan Hindustan)
05 Claire de Lune (California version)
Between 2013 and 2016, Grasstops Recordings embarked on a remaster and reissue series of Robbie Basho releases.
Original albums like 'Rainbow Thunder' and 'Visions of the Country' received beautiful treatments; although these were only released in small numbers, both the sound quality and artwork were gorgeous.
Alongside these were new archival releases; home demos and live recordings. Whole new albums such as 'Portrait of Basho as a Young Dragoon 1967-69' saw release and the Grass-Tops Soundcloud put out compilations of demos and live tracks.
It seemed like Basho was finally receiving the care and attention his music deserved.
Along the way something went wrong and I'm not quite sure what. I had all of these on pre-order, such was my excitement at every announcement, particularly when 'Bouquet' was due for release. A message on Grass-Tops revealed that the remaster would only be available in digital, but the physical release had to scrapped, due to (unexplained) copyright issues. 'Bouquet' came out, digital only (another beautiful job) and free of charge.
No other physical releases appeared and the Grass-Tops Bandcamp disappeared alongside the Soundcloud page, taking all of the digital only material with it.
I'm not sure what happened, although I've heard rumors of S*ny interference.
As I have stated before; one of the inspirations behind starting this blog was to make the music of Robbie Basho available again. I chose not to include the Grass-Tops remasters as Kyle Fosburgh seemed to be putting his own money (and obviously, a lot of love) into these projects.
Now, for whatever reason, these releases are unavailable again, so it's maybe time this blog saw some new Basho.
This release was a preview to the reissue of 1976's 'Art of the Acoustic Steel String Guitar 6 & 12'. A beautiful live recording featuring Robbie playing at his best.
I offer my sincere thanks to Kyle for the wonderful work he done.
I hope you don't mind.
P.S. If any reader wants to clear up the mystery in the comments, please do!
