Raised in Baltimore as Daniel R. Robinson Jr., composer, guitarist and pianist Robbie Basho is known as one of the first musicians to popularize the steel string guitar in America. His interest in acoustic guitar developed while he attended university with his friends and future recording guitarists John Fahey, Ed Denson and Max Ochs. At the time of his first guitar purchase, Basho became fascinated with Asian culture and changed his name to Robbie Basho. Aided by several phases of philosophy, Basho created a vision to make the steel-string guitar a concert-level instrument. His guitar playing style, evident on 16 studio albums, including his 1965 debut The Seal of the Blue Lotus, was characterized by meticulous finer picking and unusual open tunings on a twelve string guitar, giving his music the deep twang of traditional Indian music. Basho usually used Eastern modes and scales to create his melodies, but was also influenced by American blues and European classical music.
