A guitarist who is credited with sparking the folk-rock revolution in the UK in the 1960s. He inspired many of the famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar, such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Paul Simon and even Jimmy Page who heavily based his solo White Summer on Graham's She moved thru' the Bizarre/Blue Raga. Graham is best-known for his acoustic instrumental, Anji.

Davy Graham was born to a Guyanan mother and Scottish father and took up the guitar at the age of 12. As a teenager, he was strongly influenced by a guitar player called Steve Benbow, who had travelled widely with the army and played a guitar style influenced by Moroccan music.

At the age of 19, Graham wrote what is probably his most famous piece, at least for aspiring guitarists: the acoustic solo tune Anji. Along with John Fahey in the US, Graham is often credited with single-handledly inventing the concept of the folk guitar instrumental. He is also famous for introducing the DADGAD guitar tuning to UK guitarists, though it is not clear if it originated with him.

During the 1960s he released a string of eclectic albums with music from all around the world in all kinds of genres. He was always unpredictable, which did little to endear him to concert organisers and the more commercial elements of the music world. On one occasion, in the late 1960s, he was booked for a tour of Australia but, when his plane stopped for an hour in Bombay, he changed his plans and spent the next six months wandering through India. His continuous touring of the world, picking up and then recording different styles of music for the guitar, has resulted in many musicians crediting him with founding world music.

He also became addicted to drugs in the 1960s. First-hand accounts of Graham's concerts at this time agree that his performances, which were sometimes brilliant, were on other occasions marred by symptoms consistent with cocaine addiction. Certainly he reached a point where he ceased to work and entered a period of obscurity and comparative poverty. Nevertheless, he continued to teach the guitar.

In the last few years, he once again returned to the stage, playing live acts, and also working with familiar guitarists and friends, including Bert Jansch, Duck Baker and Martin Carthy. These concerts were typically eclectic, with Graham playing a mix of acoustic blues, Romanian dance tunes, Irish pipe tunes, songs from South Africa and pieces by Bach. His final album, Broekn Biscuits, consisted of originals and new arrangements of traditional songs from around the world.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008 and died in December 2008.