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SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE WIN A BOURGEOIS GUITAR! Urge for Going

GILLIAN WELCH

Orphan Girl

AVETT BROTHERS

The Ballad of Love & Hate

BOB MARLEY

Redemption Song

CARTER FAMILY

Wildwood Flower

FEBRUARY 2015 | ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM

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ANNIVERSARY EDITION THE GREATEST PLAYERS INNOVATIONS MOMENTS TIPS ALBUMS FILMS BOOKS QUOTES & MORE

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NEWS GEAR LESSONS REVIEWS

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Acoustic Guitar Ambassador p.33

5 SONGS

JONI MITCHELL

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CONTENTS

The Selmer workshop in Paris, 1932

Mario Maccaferri’s acoustic guitar innovations helped to revolutionize the trade. Read more in our 25th anniversary special section. p. 59

Special Focus AG Turns 25 20 Silver Strings AG celebrates 25 years of covering acoustic guitars in all their glory 25 Doing It with Style 25 acoustic-guitar legends who have helped to shape the instrument’s sound 33 Pay It Forward 25 musicians who have kept the acoustic guitar in the pop consciousness 41 What They Said 25 immortal quotes from the immortal musicians featured in AG 49 Top Tips 25 nuggets of wisdom from some of the greatest players in all genres

PHOTO ©HENRI SELMER PARIS

Miscellany 55 Ch-ch-ch-changes 25 milestones in the development of the acoustic guitar

10 From the Home Office 14 Opening Act 161 Ad Index 162 Events

67 Unplugged 25 crucial moments in acoustic-guitar culture 75 Born to Strum 25 all-time great acoustic-based albums 85 Celluloid Heroes 25 films that rocked the acoustic guitar 93 Digging the Roots 25 good reads that chronicle the artists and the instruments 103 Test Your AG IQ 25 trivia questions that will gauge your Acoustic Guitar loyalty

February 2015 Volume 25, No. 7, Issue 266 On the Cover Valerie June Photographer Dean Chalkley

AcousticGuitar.com 5

Number 1 of 10 in a series of anniversary guitars designed by Kim Breedlove for the 25th Anniversary. Visit www.breedlovesound.com/25th to learn more.

CONTENTS

Be Inspired.

144

1937 Jack Hall ‘matchstick’ guitar

NEWS 16 The Beat Astronaut and acoustic guitarist Chris Hadfield keynotes the 2015 Folk Alliance International Conference PLAY Songs To Play 112 Urge for Going by Joni Mitchell 118 Wildwood Flower by the Carter Family 122 Redemption Song by Bob Marley 124 Orphan Girl by Gillian Welch 126 The Ballad of Love and Hate by the Avett Brothers 128 Basics Add harmonic interest with compact chord progressions 130 Weekly Workout Put some spice in your lead lines with symmetrical scales 136 Here’s How Rhythm awareness is the key to staying in time AG TRADE 137 Shoptalk Sales of acoustic guitars continue to thrive 140 Makers and Shakers Travis Atz relies on classic designs for his Loar and Recording King instruments

142 Guitar Guru How does French polishing work, and should I have it done? 144 Great Acoustics 1937 Jack Hall ‘matchstick’ guitar 146 Review: Martin D-35 Brazilian Martin celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a triumphant new model 148 Review: Taylor T5z Plugged or unplugged, this instrument is a righteous tone machine 150 Review: Kala KA-GTR It’s bringing the old-style four-string back in vogue 152 Review: Zoom H6 A versatile, user-friendly, feature-rich digital recorder 154 Pickin’ Gretsch’s ‘Dixie 6’ guitar-banjo will expand your sonic palette MIXED MEDIA 158 Playlist Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen pays tribute to bluegrass on his latest album, Happy Prisoner, plus a new album from indie singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt, a newly discovered live performance from Peter, Paul & Mary, and a new box set from the late John Denver

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AG ONLINE

Grace Askew

Watch ‘Acoustic Guitar Sessions’ Online If you love AG’s print stories, don’t miss our online interview and performance series Acoustic Guitar Sessions. Go to AcousticGuitar.com/Sessions and watch Grace Askew, former contestant on The Voice, rip through two songs from her new album Scaredy Cat and talk about Memphis music, resonator guitars, and her self-described bluntry (that’s blues + country) sound. While you’re at the AG Sessions page, check out appearances from other artists including Seth Avett, Ani DiFranco, Richard Thompson, Valerie June, and more. GET GUITAR LESSONS, GEAR REVIEWS, AND MORE IN YOUR E-MAIL Sign up for Acoustic Guitar Notes and we’ll send you a guitar-related e-mail every afternoon. Recent Notes include how to play carterstyle bass lines, fretting hand exercises, and a video demo of the Fender’s Acoustasonic Amp. AcousticGuitar.com/Newsletter-Sign-Up SAVE BIG ON VIDEO LESSONS, SONGBOOKS, AND MORE Every Friday we are sending a special Deal to thousands of guitarists like you. Recent Deals include $2 back issues, 50% off an acoustic blues course, and a buy one, get one free offer on our Guitar Anatomy guide. AcousticGuitar.com/Deals 8 February 2015

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FROM THE HOME OFFICE Doc Watson: The patron saint of the acoustic guitar

OLIVIA WISE ILLUSTRATION

Be Inspired AG celebrates 25!

ell, the Berlin Wall tumbled, Nelson Mandela walked free, McDonald’s opened in Moscow—and MTV went acoustic.” That was the first sentence in one of the news stories from Acoustic Guitar’s inaugural issue in July 1990. A quarter-century later, the Berlin Wall is a distant memory, jailed revolutionary Mandela became president of South Africa, and last year the Kremlin shuttered that McDonald’s in Pushkin Square. But MTV Unplugged still airs occasionally, most recently featuring (believe it or not) a rapping, twerking, Dolly Parton-covering Miley Cyrus backed by acoustic guitar, banjo, standup bass, upright piano, and drums. And AG still publishes.

“W

Such is the power of the acoustic guitar’s sway on multiple generations of musicians. For the past 25 years, in hundreds of gear reviews and lessons, AG has assisted those musicians in learning or improving their technique, and in choosing the right instruments and gear for particular sounds and styles. The mission has been to introduce readers to the magic of the acoustic guitar in all its forms, and to the master luthiers and guitarists who bring these great instruments to life. In news and feature stories, AG’s writers have covered new developments in acoustic music of all genres, while maintaining a strong respect for tradition. Since its debut issue featuring classical guitarist Sharon Isbin, AG’s cover subjects have ranged from young upstarts, including the Indigo Girls, Ben Harper, Chris Thile, and Beck to veterans such as Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Joni Mitchell, and Jorma Kaukonen; vintage masters including Memphis Minnie and Lead Belly to international players such as West African guitarist Habib Koité; technique wizards from Doc Watson to Merle Travis; and virtuosos from Michael Hedges and Alex de Grassi to Kaki King and Andy McKee. In this special 25 th anniversary issue, AG looks back at some of the all-time most important acoustic-based recordings, films, books, innovations, players, ambassadors, and more—all in lists of . . . well, 25, naturally. Read it, play it, and be inspired for another quarter century. —Mark Segal Kemp

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CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Editorial Director Greg Cahill Editor Mark Segal Kemp Editor at Large Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers Managing Editor Blair Jackson Senior Editor Marc Greilsamer Associate Editor Whitney Phaneuf Senior Designer Brad Amorosino Production Manager Hugh O’Connor Contributing Editors Kenny Berkowitz, Andrew DuBrock, Teja Gerken, David Hamburger, Steve James, Orville Johnson, Richard Johnston, Sean McGowan, Jane Miller, Greg Olwell, Adam Perlmutter, Rick Turner, Doug Young

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10 February 2015

Except where otherwise noted, all contents ©2015 Stringletter, David A. Lusterman, Publisher.

THE STORY BEHIND

THE SOUND For the better part of a century, D’Addario has been creating the finest acoustic guitar strings in the world. Innovated to extremes, crafted with conviction, and perfected to sound true, these are the strings that set the standard.

EARLY INNOVATORS In the 1930’s, working with legendary guitar maker John

This alloy, and the hex-shaped core, gave acoustic

D’Angelico, John D’Addario Sr. was determined that the

guitars more volume, sustain, punch, and brightness.

future of the modern guitar was in steel strings. John spent his days working alongside his father Carmen

Guitar makers began stringing all their instruments with

out of their humble shop in Queens. His evenings were

D’Addario’s 80/20 bronze. The bar was set. For four

devoted to experimenting with wire material samples, a

decades, the crisp, deep, bright-sounding tone was the

practice that was his passion for fifty years.

standard for any musician with an acoustic guitar.

Eventually, John would sample a hexagonal-shaped mandolin wire for his core, theorizing that a geometric

FORGING NEW POSSIBILITIES

core would hold the string wrap tighter and better,

In 1974, 80/20 strings were used in the world’s most

creating a more consistent sound. He was right.

influential acoustic guitar music. But John’s son, Jim, wasn’t satisfied.

The masterpiece was complete when the Hudson Wire Company of New York sent him 80/20 brass wire. John

Reading a Mechanical Engineers Handbook, a single

had been experimenting with different wire for years,

passage caught Jim’s attention, “Phosphor bronze,”

but here was the breakthrough he’d been hoping for.

the passage informed, “is used for situations where

1930’s

1970’s

Working with John D’Angelico,

John’s son Jim invents a string

John D’Addario perfects the

prototype using a Phosphor

formula for the first iconic acoustic

Bronze wrap material. The set is

string set: a hexagonally shaped

immediately warmer sounding,

core coupled with an 80% copper

but the true revelation is that the

and 20% tin wrap wire.

strings last longer—sounding fresh weeks later.

D’Angelico is a registered trademark of D’Angelico Guitars of America, New York, NY.

resistance to fatigue, wear, and chemical corrosion

INTRODUCING NY STEEL

are required.” Jim thought that a material with these

From 2010 to 2013, the company focused on re-

properties might be the perfect alloy for acoustic

engineering high-carbon steel wire for music strings.

guitar strings.

The result is a material with unprecedented pitch stability

He immediately crafted a prototype and strung up his

and strength. This proprietary wire is called NY Steel.

prized D35 and D12-35 Martins. Within a few chords, he

NY Steel was first introduced in early 2014 in NYXL

was blown away.

electric guitar strings. The feedback from players was extraordinary. The five-star reviews continue to roll in.

What he heard was a whole new tone that was more

People all over the world are raving about the sound,

even, warm, and bright. A week later, the strings still

strength, and ability to stay in tune–no matter how long

sounded fresh. And a week after that. Phosphor Bronze

the set, song, or solo.

didn’t just sound great, they held their tone better than their 80/20 counterparts. This would set a precedent for

And now, this same technology is available in D’Addario’s

all future “extended life” innovations.

EXP acoustic guitar sets. Given the long-lasting protection that EXP provides for wound strings, the addition of NY Steel in the cores and plain steel strings

NEVER SATISFIED

ensures artists can string up and worry about one thing,

Over the next three decades, D’Addario not only

and one thing only: their music.

redefined instrument strings, but also perfected the process and materials used to create them. In time, Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills and Nash, George Harrison, and hundreds of the world’s most critical luthiers all preferred the 80/20 and Phosphor Bronze

With a consistent quality of tone and a now-unrivaled ability to last longer and stay in tune better, these strings, the sound, and ultimately the songs they help create, will surely endure.

iconic acoustic sound. In

2001,

D’Addario

introduced

EXP

coating

ALWAYS TRUE

to

their acoustic sets. This coating was engineered to create a longer-lasting string without sacrificing the quintessential sound and feel. While this innovation was game changing, D’Addario was determined to do more than improve the lifespan of their strings, but also improve their stability.

1990’s — 2000’s

TODAY

D’Addario perfects EXP coating,

NY Steel, a proprietary high-

which quadruples string life

carbon steel wire, is introduced

without compromising the

to EXP acoustic sets. The material

comfortable feel and legendary

is not only stronger, but exhibits

sound of D’Addario strings.

unprecedented pitch stability.

daddario.com/alwaystrue

OPENING ACT

Dave Rawlings HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO OCTOBER 4, 2014

14 February 2015

JAY BLAKESBERG PHOTO

NEWS

TK

THE BEAT

Chris Hadfield

Space Oddity

Astronaut and acoustic guitarist Chris Hadfield keynotes the 2015 Folk Alliance Int’l Conference BY WHITNEY PHANEUF

ommander Chris Hadfield is the definition of a folk hero. In 2013, the Canadian astronaut and guitarist produced what’s believed to be the first music video shot in space—a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” played on a Larrivée Parlor—and became an ambassador for both the space program and the acoustic guitar. Hadfield will be sharing the story behind that video, as well as many others, when he keynotes the Folk Alliance International Conference and Winter Music Camp, to be held February 18 to 22 in Kansas City, Missouri. The video, filmed during Hadfield’s five-month mission to the International Space Station, has racked up more than 23 million views on YouTube; Bowie himself shared the clip on Facebook, writing that it was “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created,” and personally approved the licensing of it. “Chris could have used many platforms, but he chose music to celebrate the idea of space travel,” Aengus Finnan, executive director of Folk Alliance International, said. “It speaks to his creative personality and character, but also the universal nature of music and art as a way to connect our stories.”

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What few may realize is that Hadfield had been jamming on the NASA-owned Larrivée—a three-quarter-size travel guitar made in Vancouver, British Columbia—since his initial mission in 1995. He was the first ever to record a song on the International Space Station, and went on to record an entire (yet-to-be-released) folk album. Hadfield also collaborated with Barenaked Ladies’ singer and guitarist Ed Robertson, recording the song “Is Somebody Singing?” from space and Earth, respectively. Hadfield retired as an astronaut in June 2013, a month after his third and final mission, and has since published the international bestseller An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. The memoir combines practical philosophy and space stories, which include the challenges of strumming a guitar while weightless and how his son Evan helped make him a YouTube sensation. The Folk Alliance’s Finnan said Hadfield has been a fixture on the Canadian folk scene for some time. After the two worked together on the 2014 Gordon Lightfoot tribute show, The Way We Feel, Finnan recruited Hadfield to bring

his intergalactic stories to the conference’s international audience. Hadfield’s keynote will address his life as an astronaut and musician—and how he’s combined those passions to great success. “Chris is one of the few humans who has looked at planet Earth from above. I wanted to zoom out of the minutia of the event and look at Earth as a place where folk songs permeate the lines,” Finnan said, adding that more than 250 artists from around the world will take part in the conference’s official showcases. Evan Hadfield, who manages his father’s online presence, will appear as part of a panel discussion on social media best practices. Also on hand as a keynote speaker will be singer and Native American activist Rita Coolidge, who is expected to offer a few choice excerpts from her upcoming autobiography. And, as of press time, invited artists include the Austin, Texas, singersongwriter BettySoo, the Brooklyn-based singer and visual artist Natalia Zukerman, and the American primitive-inspired guitarist Steve Dawson. “The folk tradition,” Finnan said, “is a universal tradition.” AG

Leap of Joy

Vashti Bunyan plots her final escape BY PAT MORAN

ast fall, after nine years of near silence, the British cult singer Vashti Bunyan released Heartleap, her third set of ethereal, pensive songs. If it wasn’t for a painting by her daughter, Whyn Lewis, the album may never have appeared at all. “[The painting] shows how the hart—a male deer—will give a leap of joy when it knows it is escaping when being chased,” Bunyan says. “I was gazing at it one day, and I just picked up my guitar and there was the song.” The tune unlocked a long-germinating project. After her 2005 release, Lookaftering, Bunyan had worked sporadically on new material. “It was only when this last song, ‘Heartleap,’ was written and recorded that I knew the record could happen,” she says. An intensely personal collection that evokes emotions that are beyond words, Heartleap fits snugly among Bunyan’s two previous albums. She released her first one, Just Another Diamond Day, 45 years ago. It’s a set of magical-realist traveler’s tunes that documented

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Vashti Bunyan

JASON EVANS PHOTO

Bunyan’s exodus from swinging London to the Outer Hebrides, but sold so poorly that she quit making music for 35 years. After the neglected album was rediscovered in the 2000s by alternative acoustic musicians, she recorded and released the shimmering Lookaftering, which established Bunyan as the godmother of the early-2000s freak-folk scene. But don’t call Bunyan a folk artist. “I’m hard to categorize,” Bunyan admits. “But I don’t see my work as folk in any way— unless playing an acoustic guitar immediately makes you a folksinger.” With Heartleap, Bunyan did considerably more than play guitar. She recorded the album at her home studio, producing and arranging it herself. “An [outside] producer wouldn’t have had the patience to work as slowly as I do, building arrangements in layers,” Bunyan says. “I can’t play piano, so I recorded the notes one hand at a time and edited it together.” She says it would’ve taken three hands to play the ghostly music-box piano on “Mother,” Bunyan’s intimate memory of catching her parent singing softly to herself. “The moments I describe in the song actually happened. It’s about the sadness I feel for her because she didn’t get the chances I had to be more than a dutiful wife and mother.” While Bunyan gazed forward with Diamond Day and looked back with Lookaftering, Heartleap has been an inward journey, a sojourn in the realm of dreams, memories, and fading portraits. Yet underlying each tune’s misty whorl of reverie is a spine of iron resolve. Given Bunyan’s gentle strength—the kind of determination that can see a seven-years-inthe-making album through to its conclusion— it’s shocking to hear that the current album may be her last. Yet, just as Bunyan’s impressionistic songs shift meaning, news of Bunyan’s retirement is also open to interpretation “I’m a very slow writer,” she says, “so even if I had another couple of songs in the near future, I’d have to wait for eight more to appear to have enough for a collection. By that time, there may not even be such a thing as an ‘album.’” “I hope that I will keep writing, but maybe I will put music out in a different form.” AG

ACOUSTIC FLASHBACK, 1990 In the spirit of AG’s 25th anniversary, here’s a glimpse at the acoustic-music landscape, circa 1990. AND THE RUNNER-UP IS . . . Bruce Hornsby and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s The Valley Road wins the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. Among the runners up: bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys’ Live at the Opry. MAYBELLE’S BROOD The Carter Sisters—Maybelle Carter’s daughters June Carter Cash, Helen Carter, and Anita Carter—appear on Austin City Limits. The trio sing “Keep on the Sunny Side” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” NEIL YOUNG UNPLUGGED (SOMEWHAT) His 1990 album Freedom was packed with grungy electricguitar anthems, but Neil Young opened the disc with a live acoustic version of “Rockin’ in the Free World”—way to represent, Neil! FREEDOM! Tracy Chapman and Neil Young are among dozens of celebrity acts performing at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate the then–recent release of South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela. IF YOU WANNA BE A BYRD At a concert in L.A., the Byrds reunite for the first time in 25 years with special guest Bob Dylan, who sits in for a rendition of “Mr. Tambourine Man.” —Greg Cahill


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ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL FOCUS

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25 Essential Players

25 Acoustic Ambassadors

25 Quotes

25 Tips

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25 Innovations

25 Moments

25 Albums

25 Films

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25 Books

25 Trivia Questions

CONTRIBUTORS Greg Cahill Marc Greilsamer Mark Segal Kemp David Knowles Whitney Phaneuf Jason Walsh


Silver Strings AG CELEBRATES ITS FIRST QUARTER CENTURY IN THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ACOUSTIC GUITARS BY MARK SEGAL KEMP

In the spring of 1990, on a tiny television stage drenched in fuzzy purple lighting, a man in a black shirt, black slacks, and black hat sat alone on a stool, a Guild 12-string guitar in his lap, smoking through some red-hot acoustic blues. He was sloppy, but soulful, and he held the small audience gathered inside New York City’s National Video Center in pure rapture. The man was Stevie Ray Vaughan. The show was MTV Unplugged, a live-music series the cable channel had introduced a few months earlier with unlikely acoustic performances from modernrock acts such as Squeeze and 10,000 Maniacs. By the following year, Unplugged would expand to include rock legend Paul McCartney, button-pushing newcomer Sinead O’Connor, hair-metal bands, rappers, and such up-and-coming folk rockers as the Indigo Girls. Two months after the SRV Unplugged aired, in July 1990, the first issue of Acoustic Guitar landed on magazine racks with a story about the new concert series, remarking that it is “an extraordinary sign of the times that . . . a half-hour each Sunday has been devoted to acoustic music, on a show called MTV Unplugged.” Acoustic guitars had somehow squeezed their way back into the mainstream of popular music—right smack in the middle of hip-hop’s golden age and just months before Nirvana would take punk to the top of the charts. MTV had unintentionally introduced the Stevie Ray Vaughan

power and elegance of the acoustic guitar to young fans and players who would carry the torch forward. AG reader David Montalvo was one of those young people. He remembers seeing Nirvana’s Unplugged performance a few years later, and says it “inspired me to play guitar. ‘About a Girl’ is the first song I learned.” In the past 25 years, both AG and Unplugged have continued to showcase some of the best acoustic music the culture has to offer, albeit from different perspectives. While MTV mostly encouraged young rock and pop stars to put down their electric instruments for a night of music, AG—rooted in the acoustic-folk canon that came to prominence in popular culture when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released its landmark 1972 cross-generational musical summit, Will the Circle Be Unbroken—has geared its coverage to professional guitarists and amateur players looking to

A QUARTER CENTURY OF OUR BEST COVERS

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“Acoustic guitars had somehow squeezed their way back into the mainstream—right smack in the middle of hip-hop’s golden age . . .”

explore acoustic music of all kinds. And those artists and players have continued to push the boundaries of what acoustic-based music can be. Beck arrived in 1994 with an acoustic guitar, a beatbox, and a style that drew equally from the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, and Mississippi John Hurt; the Avett Brothers arrived a decade later, initially pounding out punk-inspired songs with British Invasion harmonies on traditional bluegrass instruments: acoustic guitar, banjo, and upright bass. The steady rise of acoustic music’s popularity over the last quarter century has also led to Shawn Colvin

increased demand for acoustic instruments, and for the past three years, sales of acoustic guitars have surpassed those of electrics.

umerous factors have kept interest in acoustic music growing during the 25 years that AG

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has been publishing. The success of Unplugged led to the emergence of new generations of

female acoustic singer-songwriters who watched as artists like Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, and Tracy Chapman carried the torch from the likes of Janis Ian, Joni Mitchell, and Joan Armatrading. Traditional folk and bluegrass got a shot in the arm with the arrival of a new festival in the late 1980s, MerleFest, which flatpicking guitar legend Doc Watson launched in the mountains of North Carolina. Watson encouraged diversity at the event, and by 1990 MerleFest was showcasing artists ranging from folk and bluegrass legends, newgrass pioneers, and young guitar virtuosos to Piedmont blues pickers such as Etta Baker and urban folk legends including the late Pete Seeger. MerleFest would go on to help launch the careers of younger traditional-minded artists, from Alison Krauss and Union Station and Nickel Creek to Old Crow Medicine Show, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Della Mae. Brothers Scott and Seth Avett were college students playing in rock bands when they attended their first MerleFest. They left with a resolve to put down their electric guitars and pick up acoustics. “The first time we went to MerleFest in the ’90s,” Scott Avett says, “I saw Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Kelly Joe Phelps, and, of course, Doc Watson for the first

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Archtop Extravaganza Classic Chord Changes $1,000 12-Strings Peter Mulvey Goes Underground

december 2002

Blues Special

Keb’ Mo’

Slide Lesson

Eric Bibb

How to Choose the Right Tools

HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE

Nickel Creek

Jerry Ricks Beginners’ Guitar Kits Playing Open Mics

MUSIC TO PLAY Bluegrass Nickel Creek Blues Mance Lipscomb Alt-Country Kelly Willis

Swing Marc Atkinson Christmas We Three Kings 1 www.acousticguitar.com www.acousticguitar.com

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time. I immediately knew that I wanted to be part of that world. I made a deal with Seth in 2002 or 2003 that if we got on the MerleFest lineup, I would commit myself to our musical endeavors and turn down acceptance to go to graduate school.” The Avett Brothers made their MerleFest debut in 2004. “This was a Avett Brothers

pivotal time in our journey,” Scott Avett says. Meanwhile, long-running folk festivals in Newport, Rhode Island; Telluride, Colorado; and Kerrville, Texas, continued to nurture traditional acts as well as young artists who would rise from new urban folk scenes like the fast-folk movement in New York City’s West Village and the punk-inspired anti-folk scene in the East Village. Those scenes and their far-reaching impact on budding singer-songwriters around the world would give rise to rebellious, experimental, sometimes politically charged acoustic folksingers—from Ani DiFranco, Beck, the Mountain Goats, and the Moldy Peaches to Devendra Banhart, the Tallest Man on Earth, Laura Marling, and the Milk Carton Kids—who took their cues from urban-folk forebears ranging from Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel to such Brit-folkies as Fairport Convention and obscure figures like singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan. In Texas, the Midwest, and West Coast, the early country-rock of Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, the Flatlanders, and L.A.’s Laurel Canyon singer-songwriters would inspire a ’90s post-punk acoustic-based sound that would become known as alt-country or Americana. Acoustic-based artists and bands—including Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Alejandro Escovedo, the Jayhawks, and Uncle Tupelo—laid the groundwork for later country-rock and indie-folk acts ranging from the Civil Wars and Kacey Musgraves to folk-blues traditionalist Valerie June and the Laura Marling

CSN-inspired folk-rock of Fleet Foxes. Another development in the late 1980s helped further expand Western ideas of acoustic-based music. Taking their cues from George Harrison, who introduced pop fans to the non-Western music of Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar, four legends of pop and folk—Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, Paul Simon, and Ry Cooder—began recording musicians from all over the world: India, the Far East, Africa, South America, and beyond. As interest in world music grew in the 1990s, acoustic players began gravitating to the acoustic-based sounds of international artists such as Habib

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Koité and Ali Farka Touré, leading to the later chart-topping success of the Cooder-produced Cuban collective Buena Vista Social Club. As for MTV Unplugged—the breadth and scope of its influence inspired acoustic-based pop-culture milestones like the Lilith Fair, an all-female tour that helped launch scores of young singer-songwriters, including Jewel, and the acoustic-soul movement, popularized by MTV-friendly singer-songwriters from former Fugees member Lauryn Hill and India.Arie to British newcomer Michael Kiwanuka, whose sound draws equally from Bill Withers and Nick Drake.

Buena Vista Social Club

Finally, an early-aughts surge of soulful acoustic singer-songwriters, such as Jack Johnson, Damien Rice, and Jason Mraz, led to the massive success of current acoustic teen-pop sensation Ed Sheeran. To longtime followers of traditional acoustic music, of course, the arrival of MTV Unplugged in 1990 and the steady stream of acoustic-based singer-songwriters and guitarists isn’t so earth-shattering. After all, folk and bluegrass pickers such as Peter Rowan, Jorma Kaukonen, Tony Rice, and Dobro king Jerry Douglas had been recording and performing non-stop since acoustic music’s 1970s heyday. No matter which ways the winds of popular culture blow, acoustic music deeply rooted in tradition has always existed and always will. And Acoustic Guitar magazine will be covering it—offering new lessons, song transcriptions, gear reviews, and profiles that dig beneath the surface of what master players are doing on their guitars and what kinds of guitars they’re playing. In this 25th anniversary special section, AG’s editors, staff writers, and contributors explore the world of acoustic music from every angle: the most influential acoustic-guitar players, albums, films, and books; the top acoustic-guitar ambassadors; the most significant moments in acousticmusic history; the key acoustic-guitar innovations; and much more. Naturally, the sections are divided into lists of 25, to celebrate the 25 years AG has been your guide to the acoustic guitar. Also included in this section are five songs from the forthcoming Hal Leonard silver anniversary songbook Acoustic Guitar’s 25th Anniversary Songbook. So, sit back, strum a few chords, enjoy this long strange trip through acoustic music, argue with the lists, marvel at the art, and learn the songs. That’s what AG is here for.

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24 February 2015


DOING IT WITH STYLE FROM ETTA BAKER’S PIEDMONT BLUES TO DOC WATSON’S BLUEGRASS VIRTUOSITY, THESE GUITARISTS HAVE DEFINED THE SOUNDS These are the virtuosos and the inventors—players whose contributions to raising the profile of the acoustic guitar and inspiring others to learn the art and craft in a variety of styles cannot be overestimated. Others may equal their talent, but these 25 essential acoustic guitarists have kept players learning chords, working on scales, copying techniques, and embellishing new genres from the early part of the 20th century to the present.

BLAIR JENSEN PHOTO



ETTA BAKER

Raised in North Carolina, Etta Baker started playing guitar at three, but did not become a professional blues musician until she turned 60. By that time she was a master of the Piedmont blues, a fluid, down-home fingerstyle technique that features alternating bass and melody lines. Baker picked with her index finger and thumb, and her style, which influenced such musicians as Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal, was more closely aligned with ragtime than straight-ahead blues. “Anybody who has picked up acoustic fingerstyle guitar has been influenced by Etta, whether they know it or not,” blues archivist Tim Duffy told the New York Times. Yet Baker told Acoustic Guitar in 1993 that her biggest infuences were pre-blues. “I don’t play blues too much. Not as much as country. I put more time in with country,” she said. “But I like to mix it up.” 1

PIERRE BENSUSAN

LENNY BREAU

MAYBELLE CARTER

Pierre Bensusan’s technique 2 has shown the way for a generation of DADGAD enthusiasts. Whatever tuning he’s using, however, he is considered one of the greatest guitarists, and his introspective yet elaborate solo compositions helped foster early interest in a genre that would eventually become known as World Music. Born in Algeria in 1947, Bensusan, who is Jewish, was raised in Paris, France, and melded Middle Eastern traditions with Celtic, jazz, and other styles to create a sound all his own. “I don’t compose with my guitar,” he told AG in 2006. “A lot of my ideas come from singing lines, listening to my internal chant, and following those ideas. . . . They sound so easy when you listen to them, they sound so natural.”

There was not a style of 3 guitar playing that Lenny Breau did not master. From Chet Atkins twang, to flamenco flourishes, to classical precision, to jazz syncopation, and confidence worthy of Django Reinhardt, Breau’s fingerpicking on a custom-made seven-string classical guitar was without equal. He often said he approached the instrument as Bill Evans did the piano, and guitarists from George Benson to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen have cited him as an influence. In an April 2003 AG lesson on two-note comping, based on Breau’s technique, Ron Forbes-Roberts noted that “the basic elements of his approach are straightforward and accessible to guitarists who have fundamental fingerpicking skills.” Though Breau left behind 23 albums and a documentary made by his daughter that chronicles his life, drug problems, and untimely death, Breau remains virtually unknown to younger guitarists.

Few guitarists are credited 4 with developing a new style of playing, but with the Carter scratch, a technique in which Maybelle Carter used her thumb for bass notes, and her index finger for rhythm and melody lines, the Carter matriarch left her mark on history, inventing the role of a lead guitarist. A member of the pioneering Carter Family from the late 1920s, “Mother Maybelle,” as she was known, influenced countless guitarists, both male and female. At 63, she appeared on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle be Unbroken three years after the Carter Family, in part due to pressure brought by her son-in-law Johnny Cash, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

26 February 2015

ELIZABETH COTTEN 5

Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1893, Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten wrote her classic “Freight Train” at 12. In a 1985 interview with musicologist Aly Bain, the unassuming folk legend recalled that she’d stoke the fire every morning in a neighbor’s iron stove for $1 a day. She gave the money to her mother, asking that it go toward a new guitar. A southpaw, she flipped a right-handed guitar upside-down, and picked out bass lines with her index finger while using her thumb for melodies in a style that would become known as “Cotten picking” and be widely emulated. After giving up the guitar for 25 years (she cared for the children of Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger), Cotten resumed playing at 68 and began her long-delayed recording career on Folkways Records. She played until shortly before her death in 1987. “She was pretty feisty, she had spirit,” Cotten’s friend Dana Klipp told AG in 1995. “Her hands became a problem, but she wanted to play— she loved to play.”

Paco, right, with singer Juan el de la Vara

PACO DE LUCIA “To have worked and played 6 music with Paco is one of the greatest blessings in my life,” guitarist John McLaughlin said following Paco de Lucia’s death in 2014. Considered not just one of the all-time flamenco greats, but a man who experimented with the genre and helped bring it to a wider audience, de Lucia’s speed and emotional connection to his instrument helped elevate him above his contemporaries. His classic 1980 collaboration with McLaughlin and Al Di Meola, Friday Night in San Francisco, remains an acoustic milestone in a career that saw no shortage of them. “I’d go up on stage and compete with these guys without knowing anything about improvisation. I really didn’t know . . . how improvisation worked,” de Lucia told AG in a rare, candid 1998 interview. “But still, an improvisation is supposed to be exciting, right? So you never know what’s going to happen. You jump headfirst, and sometimes you fly. Other times, you crash and get so banged up you never recover from it.”

TOMMY EMMANUEL 7

When he was eight and growing up in Australia, Tommy Emmanuel heard the Chet Atkins song “Windy and Warm” on his radio and knew he had to figure out “how to make that sound.” Specifically, Emmanuel was fixated on the way Atkins, like Maybelle Carter and Merle Travis, held down bass, rhythm, and lead lines simultaneously. Having mastered the technique, Emmanuel later met Atkins, who christened him a “Certified Guitar Player” two years before the legend’s death in 2001. Emmanuel has lived up to the title, and continues to add to a growing body of acoustic classics with each of his recordings. “I’m hoping that people will discover things through me,” he told AG last June, “and that they will take the time to go back and listen to the people I listened to and find out where this comes from and why it’s important for us to keep it going.”


25 Essential Players JOHN FAHEY

BERT JANSCH

The Godfather of American 8 Primitivism, John Fahey’s prolific recorded output is astonishing in its scope. On 36 studio albums, five live records, and appearances on 16 compilations, Fahey’s minimalist clarity and emotional depth helped reshape preconceptions about the versatility of the steel-string acoustic guitar. After founding Takoma Records in the late 1950s, Fahey’s own albums—most notably 1964’s Blind Joe Death—as well as those by guitarists like Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, Peter Lang, Mike Bloomfield, and later Fahey acolytes including post-punk acoustic instrumentalist Jack Rose helped make the case for the guitar as a solo instrument. “To find your own voice is the challenge for every musician,” Glenn Jones told AG last year in “A John Fahey Primer.” “Fahey can be a great catalyst, but he ought not be the final stop for anyone.”

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The leader of the influential British folk band Pentangle, Jansch got his start as a busker on the streets of Europe. Released in 1965, his self-titled first album went on to sell 150,000 copies, and one of its singles, “Do You Hear Me Now,” was subsequently covered by Donovan. Likened to Bob Dylan, Jansch forged a deep connection with his audiences in the London coffeehouse circuit. By the time Pentangle began touring in the late ’60s, Jansch was already regarded as one of the U.K.’s most important guitarists. Paul Simon covered Jansch’s “Anji,” and Jimmy Page copped one of his trad arrangements (“Black Waterside”) and renamed it as the Led Zeppelin tune “Black Mountain Side.” In 1993, Jansch told AG, “Music is an instantaneous thing that happens and changes. That’s why people come to concerts; to hear what is there and now.”

MICHAEL HEDGES 9

It’s tempting to wonder how much further Micheal Hedges would have pushed the envelope of guitar playing had he not been killed in a car accident in 1997 at 43. By that time, the Windham Hill Records pioneer had released six of the more influential guitar albums in history, none more so than 1984’s Aerial Boundaries, on which Hedges’ use of alternate tunings, harmonics, and minimalist composition set a high bar for guitarists who followed. Classically trained, Hedges saw himself as a composer rather than just a guitarist, and he never shied away from experimenting with new styles. “We talked about music constantly, sometimes staying up all night,” bassist and fellow Windham Hill artist Michael Manring said of Hedges in a 1998 AG remembrance. “The amazing thing about him was he’d be playing something that was totally rocking, totally melodic, and yet intellectually challenging.” 28 February 2015

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT 10

John Hurt is the bluesman that almost every player Acoustic Guitar has interviewed in the last 25 years cites as an influence. Born and raised in rural Mississippi, where he later worked as a sharecropper, Hurt taught himself a unique fingerpicking style that would later be copied by scores of players, including John Fahey and John Hammond Jr. In the 1960s, Hurt’s Library of Congress recordings helped spark an American folk revival, and his songs went on to be covered by musicians ranging from Doc Watson to Beck. “If you were hanging out with Mississippi John Hurt,” Tom Hoskins said in a 1998 AG feature on the late bluesman, “you were where you were supposed to be.”

KAKI KING

JOHN MARTYN

JONI MITCHELL

“There are some guitar 12 players that are good, and there are some guitar players that are really fucking good. And then there’s Kaki King.” That’s how Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl introduced King at a London concert. Whether on her custom Ovation acoustic, an electric, or a lap-steel, King—a spiritual daughter of Michael Hedges and actual student of Preston Reed—has never shied away from experimenting with alternate tunings, percussive tapping, and angular melodies. Her versatility has led her to embrace a variety of styles, which makes her equally at home sharing stages with indie-folk acts like the Mountain Goats as with Grohl and Co. “The best pieces I’ve written have started with hearing an idea in my head, and then I go to the guitar and say, ‘What’s the easiest way to do this,’” King told AG in 2004. “And that will dictate the tuning. But for a lot of it, I’ll just sit and play and let my fingers wander.”

Merging British folk with 13 American blues, John Martyn carved out a guitar style all his own in the 1960s that morphed into an acoustic-electric jazz-folk hybrid on his influential 1970 album Stormbringer! On 21 studio albums— and collaborations with guitarists including Eric Clapton—Martyn continually pushed himself to innovate on his instrument, even venturing into electronic ambient music. “He created a monster sound from the stage using his Boomerang wah-wah, Big Muff, Fender amp, Echoplex, and phase shifter on songs ranging from the 18-plus-minute acoustic-jazz-psychedelic freakout ‘Outside In’ to the crisply played, beautifully slurred ‘Bless the Weather,’” AG editor Mark Segal Kemp wrote in a November 2014 appreciation. Martyn was never shy about advertising his importance. “I feel good that no one else ever before had played the guitar like I do,” he told Melody Maker in 1978. “That’s important to me.”

Few guitarists have been as 14 fearless in employing their instrument in service of song as Joni Mitchell. “When I’m playing the guitar, I hear it as an orchestra: the top three strings being my horn section, the bottom three being cello, viola—the bass being indicated but not rooted yet,” Mitchell told Acoustic Guitar back in 1996. Using a dizzying number of alternate tunings, and a fingerpicking style all her own, Mitchell mines an emotional resonance from her guitar that is unmatched.

ELIADES OCHOA 15

Though Cuba’s Eliades Ochoa gained fame for his involvement in the 1997 Buena Vista Social Club album, his renown as a guitarist and singer on the Communist island began years earlier, with the influential group Cuarteto Patria. Ochoa became the leader of the group in 1978 and quickly began performing a style of dance music called son, which blended African and Spanish influences. On the strength of the Buena Vista Social Club project, Ochoa and Cuarteto Patria have toured the world, exporting his distinctive brand of Cuban music and highly syncopated picking on the nylon string tre and quarto to wildly receptive audiences.


25 Essential Players GABBY PAHINUI 16

A self-taught guitarist and singer who was raised in the 1920s in a poor neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii, Gabby Pahinui took up the steel-string guitar at an early age, and spent more than four decades playing the slack-key style on the club circuit. In the 1940s, Pahinui made some of the first slack-key recordings, which went on to influence such noted players as Ry Cooder, John Fahey, and Leo Kottke. Sadly, financial success eluded Pahinui for most of his life. He died in 1980, but was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2002 and has become recognized as one of the most important artists in Hawaiian music.

BADEN POWELL There has been no shortage of brilliant guitarists to come out of Brazil in the past hundred or so years. Atop that distinguished list is Baden Powell, who blended samba, bossa nova, jazz, and classical styles. Equally at home playing Bach or Thelonious Monk, Powell was known for his fluidity, his embrace of complex time signatures, and his rhythmic flourishes. Like the song “Samba Triste,” which was covered by artists such as Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, many of Powell’s original compositions have since taken their place as Brazilian standards.

WILLIAM P GOTTLIEB COLLECTION PHOTO

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DJANGO REINHARDT

Few guitarists have had a bigger impact on music than Django Reinhardt, the primary force behind what became known as gypsy jazz. Born into a family of Romanian immigrants who settled in an encampment in Saint Ouen, a suburb of Paris, Reinhardt’s left hand was badly injured in a fire in 1928, forcing him to play with just two fingers. It made his dexterity and inventiveness on the fingerboard just that much more mind-blowing. Guitarists the world over still imitate his distinctive style, but few have ever reached his heights. 18

Baden Powell was not just a creative guitarist. He was a creative spirit.

30 February 2015

Django Reinhardt left the music world a rich library of great guitar works, including these three sets of classics.

TONY RICE At the intersection of 19 bluegrass and jazz stands Tony Rice, the butter-smooth flatpicker whose solo work as well as his collaborations with David Grisman and Norman Blake stand as some of the classics of modern acoustic music. Inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2013, nearly six decades after he began infusing his original songs with jazz chords and phrasing, Rice’s poise through lightning-fast solo passages has earned him countless admirers. “He plays guitar almost like a fiddle, with a lot of slides and bends like a fiddler would play,” ex-David Grisman guitarist John Carlini said of Rice in a 1993 AG story.

CELEDONIO ROMERO 20

ANDRES SEGOVIA

Not all classical guitarists honed their chops at a conservatory, and even fewer honed a musical dynasty. Spain’s Celedonio Romero (1913-1996) may have eschewed institutional training, but he built a reputation as a virtuoso and world-class composer. Romero, whose exceptional tone defined his playing, fled his homeland during the fascist Francisco Franco dictatorship, and went on to write ten concertos for guitar and orchestra, more than 150 solo works, and founded the Romeros, an influential guitar quartet with his three sons—Celin, Pepe, and Angel—that was known as the “royal family of the guitar.” The Romeros—now comprised of Celin, his son Celino, and Pepe and son—continue to enjoy international fame.

Perhaps no player did more 21 to elevate the guitar to the status of a classical concert instrument than Andres Segovia. Often referred to as the “father of modern classical guitar,” he first performed in Granada, Spain, in 1909, when he was 16. Soon thereafter, Segovia began touring the world, expanding his repertoire beyond that of Bach, and had several noted composers writing pieces for him, including Heitor Villa-Lobos, Federico Mompou, and Mario CastelnuovoTedesco. Before Segovia’s death in 1987, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award to go along with his many other honors.

RICHARD THOMPSON 22

An early member of the influential British folk-rock group Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson is equally at home on acoustic or electric guitar, and is a virtuoso at both. His razor-sharp playing has an emotional quality characterized by bent notes that often seem to weep. A fan of alternate tunings, Thompson embraces a technique in which he uses a pick for bass notes and fingers for treble strings. His songs have been covered by acts as varied as R.E.M., Del McCoury, and Los Lobos, but few guitarists have ever matched the intensity and power that Thompson puts into them. “There’s an unspoken pact with the audience,” Thompson said to AG in 2001. “Because my crowd knows me and what I do, they expect me to push a little bit. . . . they expect me to be experimenting. . . . It’s very good. It helps me.”

Celedonio Romero

Richard Thompson

HILDA WIENER ILLUSTRATION


25 Essential Players ALI FARKA TOURÉ Whether on acoustic or 23 electric, Ali Farka Touré left his mark as one of the most important African guitarists of his generation. A native of Mali, a country whose music is a forerunner of American blues, Touré, who died in 2006, was hailed by the BBC as the “African John Lee Hooker.” Using his thumb and a pick on his index finger, Touré’s complex fingerpicking patterns

MERLE TRAVIS earned him the admiration of guitarists like Ry Cooder, who collaborated with Touré on the 1994 album Talking Timbuktu, one of 20 mesmerizing records he released during his career. That year, Touré told AG, “I am as transported as those who are listening, because this is what I live for. This music goes deep into my heart, and if my fingers give me satisfaction, if I like what I hear,

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then I am very, very content.” In 2005, Touré’s penultimate LP, In the Heart of the Moon, earned a second Grammy and solidified his standing as a guitarist whose influence is felt worldwide.

Though Merle Travis’ two biggest songs, “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark as a Dungeon,” brought him widespread acclaim, his guitar work on more than 20 solo albums left a greater impact. Travis is credited with pioneering the Travis-picking style, in which the thumb and index finger work in unison to create a complex, syncopated pattern. Travis’ most famous acolyte, Chet Atkins, named his daughter Merle, and famously said of the guitarist, “My claim to fame is bragging that we’re friends. People just don’t pick any better.” Travis was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.

DOC WATSON 25

“There may not be a serious, committed baby boomer alive who didn’t at some point in his or her youth try to spend a few minutes at least trying to learn to pick a guitar like Doc Watson,” former President Bill Clinton said of the folk and bluegrass legend. Born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in 1923, Watson, who died in 2012, was one the few players who could adapt the techniques of guitarists like Maybelle Carter and Jimmie Rodgers to a new fingerpicking style. He earned eight Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award, and hosted MerleFest, the influential bluegrass festival named for his guitarist son, who had died in a freak tractor accident three years earlier. “I play the guitar because I love it more than any other instrument that I could ever hope to learn . . . ,” Watson was quoted as saying in a 1996 AG story. “A good guitar is like a friend. Sometimes, when you’re lonely or bored or depressed, you pick up that guitar and play, and all at once it’s gone.” 32 February 2015


PAY IT FORWARD VALERIE JUNE AND A CADRE OF SINGERSONGWRITERS HAVE KEPT THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR IN THE POP CONSCIOUSNESS In the early 1960s, a young Midwestern-born folk revivalist named Bob Dylan turned out to be the Big Bang which led to a galaxy of post-’60s acousticplaying singer-songwriters that continues to expand. These 25 ambassadors have helped carry the acoustic torch across the decades, in spite of (and, in some cases, in concert with) technological trends and new musical genres. They are not the hardcore virtuosos (for those, see the list of 25 essential guitarists in the previous section)—they’re the popular artists who’ve kept acoustic guitars in the public eye (and ears).



JAMES TAYLOR

JOHN PRINE

Since its initial release in 1970, James Taylor’s first Top 10 single, “Fire and Rain,” has been ingrained in our collective consciousness. The singer-songwriter’s Greatest Hits collection, which included that song and similarly gentle, reflective tracks such as “Carolina in My Mind” and “Shower the People,” has sold upward of 11 million copies since 1976, and seemingly found its way into nearly every freshman’s dorm room. Despite his massive mainstream success, Taylor told AG in 1992, “Music exists for an emotional reason, and not for a commercial one.”

At a time when the “new 2 Dylan” tag was being tossed around with abandon, John Prine not only lived up to the billing— it might have sold him short. Plainspoken, bittersweet, and darkly humorous, Prine’s lyrics on his self-titled debut showed him to be the ultimate storyteller, effortlessly able to rope listeners into his characters’ worlds. He told AG in 2006, “The songs don’t care, they just come along when they want to, and you have to have your antennae out and write ’em down, because they don’t come along twice.”

1970 1

34 February 2015

1971

JOHN DENVER 1971 3

“Almost heaven, West Virginia”—still one of the most recognizable opening lines in pop-music history. John Denver rode “Take Me Home, Country Roads” to stardom in 1971, and for many young acoustic pickers, it would be the first song they would learn. Denver followed with a string of laidback, soothing hits, from “Rocky Mountain High” to “Annie’s Song,” often revealing the social and ecological consciousness for which he became known. And his numerous TV appearances (from Rocky Mountain Christmas to The Muppet Show) further raised his profile.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WITF TV HARRISBURG, PA

BILL WITHERS 1972 4

Inside the body of Bill Withers’ progressive R&B beats the heart of a contemplative folk singer. Playing and recording with some of soul music’s top guns, Withers seamlessly meshed his acoustic-guitar aesthetic with elements of pop and funk, and can be thought of as the godfather of acoustic soul. Recorded in the fall of 1972—at the height of his success with “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Use Me”—Live at Carnegie Hall finds Withers’ combination at its most captivating—intimate, groovy, and irresistible.

THE VIOLENT FEMMES 1983

These days, boundaries 6 among musical styles are practically nonexistent, but that wasn’t the case 30-plus years ago, when singer, songwriter, and guitarist Gordon Gano’s Violent Femmes hit the punk scene. Gano’s earliest musical influences (courtesy of his Baptist minister father) included country heavyweights like Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, and Hank Williams, but older friends and siblings soon introduced him to New York proto-punks such as Patti Smith and Lou Reed. The resulting marriage of acoustic guitar and punk would seem revolutionary.

JANIS IAN

SUZANNE VEGA

The former Janis Fink was 5 barely a teenager in 1965, when she wrote “Society’s Child” about a young interracial couple. Over the following decade, with folk-rock singles such as her Top 10 1975 hit “At Seventeen,” Ian’s brand of introspective, emotionally bare songwriting inspired a generation of likeminded women. “There’s a fine line sometimes between letting the guitar write the song and making the guitar be part of the song,” Ian said in a 1994 issue of AG.

When Suzanne Vega 7 released her debut album, its blend of deeply personal lyrics, pared-down instrumentation, and oddly detached singing encouraged scores of women to pick up acoustic guitars—even though her own music would later move in increasingly eclectic directions. “I was aware that I had a reputation for being sort of ethereal—wan, frail, and melancholy,” she told AG in 1993, “and it was worrying me that it was all going to sound like one color.” Not surprisingly, it was Vega who, in 1997, kicked off the very first Lilith Fair show.

1975

1985

TRACY CHAPMAN 1988 8

A product of the vibrant Cambridge, Massachusetts, “new acoustic” scene, Tracy Chapman emerged on her self-titled debut as a fully formed artist. Her husky voice and perceptive, socially aware lyrics were instantly recognizable, harking back to African-American folk forebears from Odetta to Joan Armatrading. “In every song there’s a part of me,” she told AG in 2003, “and what my perspective on the world is.” Though she recorded her first album entirely with a Fender dreadnought—her “first real guitar”—Chapman’s collection of acoustics now numbers in the dozens.

ANI DIFRANCO 1990 10

“I think just being in bars playing music—coffee shops sometimes, colleges sometimes, but mostly bars—is what taught me how to play,” Ani DiFranco told AG last year. “My playing style was all about getting you to turn around …” It worked. DiFranco’s fiercely independent spirit, robust social commentary, and distinctively percussive playing style have consistently challenged her fans, inspired budding singer-songwriters, and made her a beacon of modern folk music.

INDIGO GIRLS 1989 9

The opening line on Indigo Girls’ major-label debut jumps out like a declaration of intent: “I’m trying to tell you something about my life.” Amy Ray and Emily Saliers did just that when they came out as lesbians two years later, helping pave the way for other young musicians to be more open at a time when it wasn’t a great career move. The two had been singing together since their Georgia high school days, and their appealing combination of acoustic-driven pop, intricate harmonies, and weighty lyrics defined contemporary folk. “Everybody asks, ‘How do you become a good writer?’” Ray said to AG in 2007. “First of all, I’m not there yet …” AcousticGuitar.com 35


BECK 1994 Once upon a time, there was a musical movement known as “anti-folk”— basically, singer-songwriters with a punkrock aesthetic who rejected the solemnity and conservatism of “real” folk music— and Beck Hansen may be its foremost disciple. Steeped in old acoustic blues and folk music, Beck added elements of funk, hip-hop, alt-rock, and electronica to powerful effect, and while his gleeful genre-bending may sound quite normal in 2015, it took the music world by storm back in the 1990s. 13

UNCLE TUPELO 1990 11

Call an artist’s music “altcountry,” and you’re liable to get punched in the face. Despite the unpopularity of the term, the melding of post-punk vigor with country candor is still a winning formula. Following in the footsteps of artists like Gram Parsons, Uncle Tupelo (led by Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy) focused on the common ground between country and rock, not the disparities. “To us, punk rock and folk music are very similar,” Tweedy said to AG in 1994. “Maybe not sonically, but in terms of where it’s coming from.”

BEN HARPER

DAVE MATTHEWS

Ben Harper may very well 12 be the only bona-fide rock star to play a Weissenborn-style guitar, an acoustic lap-steel with a hollow neck, but Harper’s connection to acoustic music runs much deeper than that. His grandparents owned the Folk Music Center of Claremont, California, the landmark roots-music crucible and cultural hotbed that weaned the young musician. “Folk music has become too clever for its own good,” he told AG in 1996. “There are a lot of unmusical people making music.”

In AG’s 2000 Artists of the 14 Decade feature, Jeffrey Pepper Rogers wrote this about the Dave Matthews Band: “What a kick it would be to beam back to 1990, into a plush chair in some Big Record Mogul’s office, and offer this brazen prediction: One of the breakthrough bands of the coming decade would feature 1) an interracial roster of players with progressive rock and jazz backgrounds; 2) no electric guitar; 3) prominent violin and saxophone lines; and 4) long acoustic-guitar-driven songs with changing meters, weird chord progressions, and hardly any melodic hooks . . .” In addition to the work with his band, Matthews has a long-standing, far-reaching acoustic duo with Tim Reynolds.

1994

36 February 2015

1994

JEWEL 1995 15

Two years before Lilith Fair, Jewel Kilcher released Pieces of You, her debut studio album. Produced by veteran Nashville session man (and Neil Young sideman) Ben Keith, the album’s hopeful, down-to-earth, catchy songs clearly struck a nerve with pop-music audiences, going on to sell more than 12 million copies. “When my album went from being this underground folk thing to pop radio, I thought that my crowd would be different,” Jewel said to AG in 1997. “But it’s not. I still get to be a singer-songwriter, and the crowd still hangs in there for it.” As she noted at the ’97 American Music Awards, sincerity won.

GILLIAN WELCH 1996 16

Although Gillian Welch arrived on the music scene just as the Lilith Fair movement was about to hit its apogee, it was clear from the outset that she did not fit in with that crowd. Yes, she was a girl with a guitar, but her music eschewed the pop and polish of Lilith Fair in favor of a brooding, low-key, bucolic style that leaned heavily on bluegrass and old-time music. Her flattop strumming combined with the idiosyncratic leads of her partner, Dave Rawlings, on a ’30s-era Epiphone archtop still create an inimitable sound. “When I heard the Stanley Brothers,” she told AG in 1997, “I thought, ‘That’s what I should sing.’ It was tough and raw and really emotional.”

THE FUGEES 1996 17

Legend has it the Fugees scored their record deal by walking into Ruffhouse Records and rapping over Wyclef Jean’s acoustic guitar. By the summer of 1996, the Fugees were everywhere. Their second album, The Score, unveiled a jazzy, politically mindful fusion of soul, reggae, and hip-hop that fascinated fans from across musical boundaries. Jean and Lauryn Hill went on to pursue successful post-Fugees careers that brought an acoustic sensibility to hip-hop (a style presaged by Jean on The Score’s “Mista Mista”). Hill, in particular, took to performing solo with a nylon-string acoustic, including a 2001 performance on MTV Unplugged.

CHARLIE GROSS PHOTO

TODD SNIDER 2000 18

Influenced by master storytellers like Jerry Jeff Walker and John Prine, Todd Snider recorded three solid albums before Prine blessed his young acolyte by signing him to Oh Boy Records in 2000. Snider has slowly carved out his own niche in acoustic music, mainly on the strength of his live storytelling. His lyrics might be sardonic and sharp-tongued at one moment, compassionate and sensitive the next. “I don’t have a creative bone in my body,” he jokingly told AG in 2007. “I don’t make anything up. I’ve got a great memory, and I can rhyme.”

INDIA.ARIE 2001 19

By the time India.Arie released her debut album, Acoustic Soul, she had already generated a fair amount of buzz, winning a slot on Lilith Fair’s secondary stage three years earlier. The aptly named Acoustic Soul revealed an artist with maturity and taste, a deft, jazz-inflected acoustic guitarist with a deeply moving, yet somewhat understated voice, and a penchant for beautiful melodies. The album’s title wound up putting a name to a genre, bringing together under the acoustic-soul umbrella artists that both pre-dated Arie (like Lauryn Hill) and post-dated her (Corrine Bailey Rae, Cold Specks).


25 Acoustic Ambassadors JACK JOHNSON

AVETT BROTHERS

You can practically feel the 20 temperate breezes of Hawaii when listening to the lilting, easygoing songs of Jack Johnson. Born and raised on the North Shore of O’ahu, Johnson wears his unshakably mellow Island vibe like a crown, combining a tender vocal delivery with comfortable rhythms, warm-hearted lyrics, and a spare acoustic sound. “I want to write songs that I can play for 10-year-old kids that want to dance around,” he told AG in ’03, “songs that I’d feel comfortable playing for my mom.”

Back when Seth Avett 22 was playing punk and grunge in his native North Carolina, he probably never imagined he’d one day have his own signature-model Martin D-35. But even after Seth and his brother Scott turned to acoustic instrumentation for their honest, intimate songs, they didn’t abandon the energy of rock (much to the horror of many a traditionalist). The Avetts’ breakthrough fifth album, Emotionalism, won them two American Music Awards in 2007, and after more than a decade of touring and recording, the group’s stringband setup has now spawned a slew of copycats.

DAMIEN RICE

MILK CARTON KIDS

Though Damien Rice has 21 only released three albums during his decade-plus solo career, the Irish singer-songwriter’s debut, O, had a major impact on the indie-folk landscape. By delicately blending his gentle picking on a Martin (in the studio) and Lowden (onstage), with poignant, confessional lyrics featuring lush string arrangements and electronic embellishments, Rice arrived at a fine-spun, influential musical approach that is very much his own.

Not many younger artists 23 would willingly dub themselves “modern folk-chamber music,” but Milk Carton Kids are anything but typical. Their music brims with low-key, gracefully intertwining vocal harmonies, but it is the brilliantly interlocking sound of their two ’50s-vintage guitars—Kenneth Pattengale’s sparkling Martin 0-15 leads atop Joey Ryan’s Gibson J-45 rhythmic support—that truly grab your ear. “When [our guitars] are played together,” Pattengale said in an AG cover story last year, “they also create this other voice that we hadn’t heard.”

VALERIE JUNE

2007

2013

“I ain’t fit to be no mother, I ain’t fit to be no wife,” Valerie June sings on “Workin’ Woman Blues,” from her 2013 breakthrough, Pushin’ Against a Stone. “I been workin’ like a man.” With her trusty all-mahogany Martin 000-15, June devours all manner of gender, age, and racial stereotypes, though her amalgam of rural roots music is unmistakably Tennessee. As she told AG last year, “I just want people to have an open question mark in their minds. . . .”

24

WAYNE DABNY PHOTO

2001

2003

2011

ED SHEERAN 2014 25

Ed Sheeran was releasing his own music by the time he was 14 and busking his way across England a year later. Less than a decade on, his romantic lyrics and percussive playing style have proved to be more than just a flash in the pan with the release of his second major hit album, X. Inspired to become a singersongwriter by his idol Damien Rice, Sheeran’s signature and custom 00 Martin guitars are nearly as famous as the singer himself. While incorporating loops and beats have made his music more accessible to young fans, he told AG, “I think in 10 or 15 years time, I’ll relish the purely acoustic ones.” AcousticGuitar.com 39

25 Ambassadors

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25 Quotes

WHAT THEY SAID IMMORTAL WORDS FROM THE IMMORTAL PLAYERS IN THE PAGES OF ACOUSTIC GUITAR After a quarter century covering the acoustic-guitar world, AG has interviewed some of the greatest musicians and guitar builders of the modern era. Through hundreds of one-on-ones, the era’s preeminent singers, songwriters, guitarists, and luthiers have gabbed about songs, gear, and career—and invariably let their guard down long enough to share a particular insight into their work, or a selfdeprecating moment of humor, or a poignant reflection on the meaning of, well . . . it all. Here are 25 great quotes from the Acoustic Guitar archives.



25 Quotes

“I was on a mission from God to get acoustic equipment for this band. In L.A., you could find equipment for mariachi bands, but not for the folkloric material from Veracruz and the Huasteca, the music that really touched my heart.”

5

Cesar Rosas, Los Lobos, May 1993

“I’ve always worked from the premise that my stuff is perfect for the radio. But I’m willing to believe that I’m out of touch with what’s actually going on.” 1

John Hiatt, November 1990

“The country and hillbilly musicians were influenced by the blues, then they’d go play it and get the air time. And the blues musicians would hear it back on the radio, so they’d play the country-western music, which was influenced by black folk.” 2

John Cephas, May 1991

“The first guitar I ever had was a Spanish guitar. I was only 13, and I talked my grandparents into buying it for me, and I tried and tried and tried, and I gave up about a year and half later. I got nowhere with it. I took up guitar a bit later once I heard Muddy Waters, because it sounded like it was easier—wrong!” 3

Eric Clapton, September, 1992

4

“Improvisation is fast composition.” Jerry Garcia, January 1994

“Unless this record gets going, I may have to go out on the road. But I don’t love travel as much as I used to. The country’s not as beautiful anymore.” 6

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, November 1995

7

“Hip is a herd mentality, and it’s very conservative, especially among boys.”

Joni Mitchell, August 1996

“Some people say my work is very confessional. It’s not confessional. I’m not confessing anything. I haven’t sinned. These are not my secrets. This is just my life; this is the stuff I’ve seen, the stuff I did, and what I thought about it.” 8

Ani DiFranco, August 1997

42 February 2015

“It’s odd because, to me, Mississippi John Hurt has always been a pop star. There was never any line between John Hurt and the Bee Gees . . . the Bee Gees, John Hurt, and the Clash— it was all just music to me.”

11

Ben Harper, April 2000

“‘Purity’ is understanding flamenco; it’s knowing how to play it, it’s knowing how to jump in at a fiesta and play for a singer or a dancer, straight and simple, and to be able to pull off something crazy as well.” 9

Paco de Lucia, April 1998

“I never really played electric [guitar]. Sometimes when I pick one up, I’m surprised. It’s amazing how suddenly you’re just like [makes wailing rock lead sounds]. Yeah, I know what that feels like now! And then I put it down, and I just sit back down with an acoustic.” 10

Dave Matthews, August 1999

“People are not really interested in the story of a soccer dad. Unless it’s the story of a soccer dad who can’t take it anymore and shoots his family. Now, there’s a ballad!” 12

Richard Thompson, February 2001

“My mother said that songs came through God, and I’d like to believe that might be true.” 13

Johnny Cash, June 2002

“Today every song I hear in every genre has a message. Big difference [from the 1960s]—really big difference. There’s so much information out there that it seems like there isn’t any. It seems like nothing is going on. The fact is, everything is going on, and it’s fantastic.” 14

Richie Havens, March 2003


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25 Quotes

“It took me a lot longer to feel comfortable talking onstage. I never talked in the Byrds. I didn’t have to. David Crosby did all the talking.” 15

Roger McGuinn, October 2004

“It rained a lot this year, which helps me write, it helps me imagine things. When it rains, I can get there faster because there’s something in the air, some softening, and hidden qualities seem more visible.” 16

Ry Cooder, September 2005

“Jimmy Page is probably my greatest inspiration, and I think that’s where a lot of that duality of acoustic-versuselectric comes from. Songs like ‘Going to California,’ ‘Bron-Y-Aur Stomp,’ and other Zeppelin acoustic stuff was just as powerful as ‘Black Dog,’ ‘Trampled Under Foot,’ or ‘Achilles Last Stand.’” 17

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Dave Grohl, August 2006

“Way back when radio was good, I listened to radio. I don’t much anymore. It just upsets me.”

STANDARD

18

Charlie Louvin, July 2007

STRENGTH

“After Jerry [Garcia] checked out, he didn’t exactly leave: When I’m playing I can still feel him . . . maybe I should be telling someone this in a quiet room while lying on a couch, but it’s real for me.”

19

Bob Weir, August 2008

“The times that I really admire . . . that would be the beginning—that skinny little girl standing up there and singing in that most extraordinary voice. And I don’t have a problem saying that because I didn’t make this voice. I just do maintenance and delivery.” 20

Joan Baez, March 2009

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25 Quotes

A unique string with clear and profound sound

“I didn’t know anybody who made a living at music. No one in my family knew anybody. We weren’t in entertainment— we were in Rhode Island.” 21

Dave Rawlings, March 2010

“Real bluegrass, especially when you get into the slower, deeper material, is much more reflective. It isn’t just some amorphous quasi-pop music. It’s got backbone, an architecture you can almost see with your eyes.” 22

It was a privilege to have Paco endorsing our product for 30 years, for this reason, we will continue to honor the image of this great virtuoso.

Peter Rowan, June 2011

“Most of us performing musicians freely admit that we got into it for girls. Good God, what else? That’s the way the species has perpetuated itself forever.” 23

Rodney Crowell, October 2012 C

“Bob [Dylan]—when he was like 23 and 24 years old— was writing things like ‘My Back Pages.’ That’s what we were left with. The rest of us operate in [the] scorched earth that Dylan left behind.” 24

Steve Earle, September 2013

M

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“When I first heard Mississippi John Hurt’s guitar, I was like, ‘Oh my god, that is beautiful. How is he doing that?’”

25

Valerie June, June 2014

46 February 2015

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25 Tips

TOP TIPS TAJ MAHAL AND OTHER ACOUSTIC-GUITAR GREATS OFFER THEIR SAGE ADVICE ON HOW TO GET THE SOUND YOU WANT Acoustic-guitar players are always looking for that magic bullet—that advantage, that way to make it easier to write better songs, to be a better player. With 25 years on the pulse of the acoustic-guitar world, AG’s been privy to fantastic advice from fantastic musicians, both in print and on the Acoustic Guitar Sessions video series. And quite often they’ve provided some great nuggets of wisdom—those rare glimpses into the creative process that’s produced some of the finest music of the past quarter century. Here are 25 must-know tips from the VIPs of AG:

JAMES MINCHIN III PHOTO


25 Tips “Strengthen memory and concentration skills by practicing each of the pieces mentally, without the instrument. To do this, visualize all the left-hand (and occasionally right-hand) fingering patterns while you hear the music in your mind exactly as you wish it to sound.” 1

Sharon Isbin, November/December 1990

“The first step in working up any tune is to establish the melody as the foundation. Only then can you build up the solo.” 2

Steve Kaufman, May/June 1991

“The music will dictate the proper technique and also the proper interpretation, at least for you.”

3

Leo Kottke, November/December 1992

“Find out what your own folk music is by your own ethnic background, so you know what forms your musical landscape . . . Then, when you put a style together, it’s going to sound like something that’s happening.” 4

Taj Mahal, March/April 1993

“Sometimes you actually want to learn something and you make yourself learn it. And the way to learn it is to play it an awful lot and then let yourself go and eventually it emerges on the guitar . . . Other things need a more critical approach: You find that you have to look at a scale and the mode and find out how the fingers are going to work.” 5

John Renbourn, March/April 1994

“If it’s really hard to play something of mine, you’re probably doing it wrong.” 6

Jorma Kaukonen, November 1995

50 February 2015

“The best recording studios are the ones that have the tube philosophy and a collection of really fine old mics.”

7

Jackson Browne, November 1996

“I know about four chords and they’ve always worked for me: C, F, G7, and A minor.” 12

Johnny Cash, June 2001

“What [my mother] did was leave musical instruments around the house—not just a piano and an organ, but a squeeze box with buttons and pennywhistle and a marimba . . . by the time I was five, I could pick out a tune on all these instruments.” 13

Pete Seeger, July 2002

“I tell people the rhythm comes from the foot. If you cut off the foot, the hand doesn’t work. It’s very difficult for me to play without allowing my left leg to take off and run across the country [laughs]. That is my body’s metronome.” 14

Richie Havens, March 2003

“If you write a song, you can have ABC, and it’s over, or you can have ABCBA—you can write in so many different ways. Every good pop song is about 30 seconds of music repeated four times.”

15

“The most important advice I usually give . . . is to stay open-minded to new compositional methods.” 8

Michael Hedges, March 1997

“It’s OK to be proficient; you need to 9 be. But what I love about old musicians is they’re coming from an entirely different place, where they’re able to express and tell their story. It’s technique, but it’s so expressive, so personal.” Ry Cooder, May 1998

Kaki King, December 2004

“Groove is everything. It doesn’t matter how many notes you can play, or what you can play . . . One thing I’ve noticed about drummers is that the ones with good time are the ones that, no matter what they do with their hands, it doesn’t affect them. The groove is always there. I try to take that principle and put it on the guitar.” 16

Tommy Emmanuel, December 2005

“Take a tuning you’ve had for years and tweak one string one whole tone, and all of a sudden it’s a different world. It’s endless what you can do.” 10

David Crosby, March 1999

“Some pretentious knucklehead once said, ‘You can’t force the hand of the muse.’ It didn’t read well, but it actually made sense.” 17

Dave Grohl, August 2006

“Playing live is the most intensified form of practice, and it will push you to grow faster than any amount of hours of rehearsal.”

“You have to practice with a metronome, really slowly; then you start getting into time, relaxing back into the time.”

Ben Harper, April 2000

Keb’ Mo’, May 2007

11

18


25 Tips

John Sebastian believes in magic.

“I’ve deliberately left certain things vague about the guitar, because I like the primitive aspect of the way I play and think about the guitar. I never think about what key I’m in. I just start to play and hope for the best.”

“I think the single most helpful thing [in writing lyrics] is just to train yourself to sit down with a notebook and fill up pages without stopping yourself. And then put stuff away and forget it. When you go back and read it months or years later, it sounds like it was written by a different hand.”

Elvis Costello, August 2009

Jeff Tweedy, March 2012

“Shake yourself loose from the pattern that your fingers are used to following. That’s how you come up with something that might have a unique quality . . . . Good things come out of throwing yourself off the cliff one way or another.” 19

John Sebastian, May 2008

20

“When you’re writing a song, let’s say you’ve got a good verse and the next move is the bridge or the second verse or whatever . . . That’s when you don’t settle for the first thing that occurs to you. You stick with it until it really fits. And then one day you’re riding along in the car, or you step into the parking lot in the mall, or maybe you’re brushing your teeth… and suddenly that thing that you’ve been thinking about for so long goes through your brain, and you go—of course!” 21

John Fogerty, January 2010

“When I am having trouble with a specific technique like a right-hand triplet or a fancy left-hand ornament, I like to slow it down and use it in context so that the rhythm is solid and it will work in the final composition. I gradually increase the tempo until I can play it at the proper speed.” 22

Al Petteway, May 2011

52 February 2015

23

“Very often, people feel like they’re blocked from writing when, in fact, they’re just blocked from enjoying what they write.” 24

Jason Isbell, November 2013

“First thing is—drop the pick. When I was young, somebody taught me a little fingerpicking pattern, and if you can get a fingerpicking pattern down, then you can mess with it. You can change up the rhythm of it, make it feel differently. A lot of people strum a guitar, which is a great way to use a guitar, but for me, the problem with that is that there’s no silence. And I’m all about that contrast between sound and no sound, light and dark. So I gave up the strumming early on for the fingerpicking.” 25

Ani DiFranco, Acoustic Guitar Sessions outtake, 2014

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25 Innovations

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES MILESTONES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR

To some, the acoustic guitar is steadfastly resistant to progress. As rocket scientist Ellis Seal, founder of Composite Acoustics, once noted, “Almost everything has changed to take advantage of new technology except the acoustic guitar, which still uses 1930s designs and 1800s


technology.” That might be a bit of an exaggeration, so we’ve compiled a list of 25 significant acoustic-guitar innovations. Some have become standard practice and some have gone by the wayside, but all had an effect on how acoustic guitars are built today.

A worker at the Selmer workshop in Paris, 1930s.


25 Innovations Below First ‘Size 1’

C.F. MARTIN BUILDS FIRST SIZE 1 1842 Hailing from a family of German cabinetmakers, Christian Friedrich Martin, at 15, was sent to Vienna to apprentice with celebrated luthier Johann Stauffer. After moving to the United States, in 1833, Martin developed his own guitar designs that fused elements of the Stauffer style with aspects of the more popular “Spanish” guitar. Inspired by Spanish virtuoso Dolores Nevares de Goni, Martin produced his first “Size 1” guitar, which boasted a narrower upper bout, a square, slotted headstock, and, most significant, an “X-braced” top—a diagonal pattern that served to enhance the balance and projection of flattop guitars. 1

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ANTONIO TORRES JURADO DEVELOPS THE MODERN CLASSICAL GUITAR 1850s

More of a synthesizer of 2 ideas than an inventor, Spain’s Torres is responsible, by and large, for the look, feel, and sound of the modern classical guitar. The basic Torres body design—a narrowed waist between two evenly sized bouts— made the guitar more playable and more aesthetically pleasing, and he also established a fixed 650 mm string length. To increase volume, Torres refined a symmetrical fan top-bracing system (to support a thinner soundboard) and enlarged the body depth. These ideas, combined with experiments in tonewood, neck angles, and nut widths, led to a richer-sounding, more dynamic instrument.

Right Top X-bracing

ORVILLE GIBSON PATENTS HIS ‘ONE-PIECE’ DESIGN 1898 3

An amateur instrument builder in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Orville Gibson devised a mandolin-construction technique that combined arched, hand-carved tops and backs along with sides that were built using a solid single piece of wood. The idea, which he soon transposed to guitar, was intended to improve the instrument’s resonance and overall durability— and, due to its overwhelming popularity, it led directly to the formation of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co. in 1902.

Right The sweet sound of the Dobro gave the blues and country more soul.

PHOTO COURTESY OF C.F. MARTIN & CO.

CHRIS J. KNUTSEN ADVANCES THE HAWAIIAN LAP-STEEL 1909

Known for building oddball, 4 cult-classic harp guitars, Chris J. Knutsen was also instrumental in the development and popularity of Hawaiian-style lapsteel guitars. His first “convertible” models featured a bracket that allowed the player to raise the height of the strings by adjusting the neck angle—to be played in either Spanish (fretted) or Hawaiian (lap) style. He eventually progressed to a square, hollowneck design with a raised nut and frets flush to the neck, ideas that were famously advanced by Hermann Weissenborn in the 1920s. The popularity of Hawaiian-style guitar exploded following the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Expo, creating high demand for both Knutsens and Weissenborns.

MARTIN INTRODUCES THE DREADNOUGHT 1916

Named for the mammoth 5 HMS Dreadnought battleship and its successors, Martin’s large-bodied, D-sized guitar first emerged as part of the Oliver Ditson instrument catalog (and did not even carry the Martin name until 1931). With its square shoulders, wider waist, and deeper body, the dreadnought emphasized the bass response of the guitar and also increased its volume, thereby making it an ideal accompaniment for vocalists and allowing it to shine through in any band of banjos, fiddles, and other stringed instruments.

LLOYD LOAR DEVELOPS THE L-5 ARCHTOP 1922 6

Lloyd Loar was not a luthier, but his work as an “acoustic engineer” at Gibson remains as noteworthy as those of any modern instrument builder. Among his most important achievements, Loar shepherded Gibson’s Master Model series of instruments, including the L-5 archtop guitar, a rhythm instrument designed for use in jazz orchestras. Using violin construction techniques as a model, Loar’s revolutionary creation featured f-shaped soundholes (or f-holes), an extended fretboard, metal tailpiece, and graduated, tap-toned top and back. In short order, the L-5 became the standard bearer for all archtops.

JOHN DOPYERA INVENTS THE RESONATOR GUITAR 1927 7

With the modern electric guitar still a few years away, many acoustic players searched for ways to increase their volume. Vaudevillian George Beauchamp turned to John Dopyera, who devised a structure in which the guitar’s bridge would sit on three aluminum cones that acted sort of like speaker diaphragms. The bodies of Dopyera’s original “tri-cone” resonator guitars were made of nickel-plated silver, and the design was so successful that Dopyera and Beauchamp created the National String Instrument Corporation. The pair split in 1929, and Dopyera and his brothers subsequently founded the Dobro brand.


25 Innovations GIBSON LAUNCHES FIRST SIGNATURE GUITAR LINE

MARTIN INTRODUCES THE 14-FRET NECK

1927

1929

In the 1920s, Nick Lucas 8 (aka the “Crooning Troubadour”) was not just a hugely popular singer, but he also was the guitar’s biggest star, creating the first solo jazz-guitar instrumental workouts. Gibson, perhaps inevitably, thought that getting a popular artist endorser would assist in marketing its products to a larger customer base. Hence, the Gibson Nick Lucas Special, based on the company’s concertsized L-1 and featuring a small but extra-deep (4.5 inches) body that made it, as Gibson said in its catalog, “an exceptional guitar for vocal accompaniment on the stage, radio, and records.”

Known mostly as a banjo 9 player, Perry Bechtel visited the Martin shop in 1929 and requested a flattop guitar that had 14 frets clear of the guitar body. Not only would it provide easier access to the upper frets, it would also have more of the “banjo” feel to which Bechtel had become accustomed. Martin accommodated his request by shortening the guitar body and moving the placement of the bridge closer to the soundhole. The result: the Martin OM (Orchestra Model), which added a pickguard and a solid (as opposed to slotted) headstock. Within a decade, the new designs came to dominate the flattop market.

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STELLA MAKES A 12-STRING 1920s 10

The origin of the modern 12-string guitar is murky at best. In the United States, doublecourse guitar-like instruments began appearing in the late 19th century, perhaps evolving from the harp guitar. In addition, this style of instrument was popular with Mexican musicians, who brought them across the Texas border, as well as a number of Italian luthiers who plied their trade in the States in the early 1900s. The Stella name was used by the Oscar Schmidt company as its “downscale” brand, and at some point in the 1920s, the company started mass-producing inexpensive, ladder-braced 12-string guitars, which caught the attention of blues players like Barbecue Bob, and, of course, Lead Belly.

RO-PAT-IN PRODUCES THE FIRST ‘ELECTRO’ GUITAR 1932 11

While at National, George Beauchamp had worked with Adolph Rickenbacker, who produced the metal bodies for National’s guitars. In 1931, the pair decided to create the Ro-PatIn Corporation to sell “Electro” Hawaiian guitars. Beauchamp had experimented with electric amplification while still at National, and he eventually settled on a design using horseshoe-shaped magnetic pickups in which the strings directly transferred its vibrations through the magnetic field. The pure “acoustic” tone was eliminated, but, oh, the sustain . . .


Selmer factory Paris 1933, Mario Maccaferri at the center.

Right Freddie Green Far Right Andres Segovia

SELMER MACCAFERRI GUITAR INTRODUCED 1932 Mario Maccaferri was a classical guitarist of some repute, as well as a master luthier, and he conceived of a totally original guitar design that caught the attention of Selmer, a Parisian company that specialized in wind instruments. Maccaferri’s innovations included an internal resonator inside the larger D-shaped soundhole, steel-reinforced neck, sealed tuners, wider (classical-style) fretboard, and a cutaway upper bout (which helped the guitar become a “lead” instrument). Maccaferri’s association with Selmer lasted only two years, but his influence is unmistakable—just ask Django. 12

GIBSON UNVEILS THE SUPER 400 1934

In a never-ending quest for 13 more volume, Gibson had already widened its existing line of archtops, but they really went to town with the creation of the Super 400—a massive, 18-inchwide, gloriously appointed archtop that remains one of the finest guitars ever made. Elmer Stromberg, for one, took notice of the developments, and quickly followed suit with his own Master 400, which grew to an enormous 19-inch body width and featured a unique top-bracing pattern using a single diagonal brace. Amazingly, Stromberg’s creation, popularized by Freddie Green in Count Basie’s jazz orchestra, was even louder than the Gibson.

NYLON STRINGS COME OF AGE 1944 14

Luthier Albert Augustine had been experimenting with synthetic guitar strings for about 20 years, without much success. However, with the onset of World War II, animal gut, the traditional string material, became in short supply—it was being used for surgical sutures—and gut strings were hard to come by. Encouraged by one of his customers, classical guitarist Andres Segovia, he started tooling around with nylon, a synthetic polymer that had recently been invented by DuPont. Starting at first with a nylon fishing line, Augustine eventually nailed the new design, resulting in a more affordable, more consistent string with a brighter sound. AcousticGuitar.com 59

25 Innovations MACCAFERRI MAKES PLASTIC GUITARS

GIBSON INTRODUCES THE J-160E

By the mid-1930s, Mario 15 Maccaferri had developed a successful business creating plastic reeds for wind instruments. Never one to be satisfied with the status quo, the trailblazing Maccaferri took plastic to the next level and hit the jackpot when, in 1949, he launched a popular line of plastic ukuleles (price tag: $5.95). Four years later, he developed two affordable, highly playable plastic guitars—the G-30 flattop and the G-40 archtop—that, alas, never captured the public’s imagination (or dollars). Still, Maccaferri’s use of plastic as an alternative to wood proved it was possible to make quality instruments without trees.

Gibson had been toying 16 with acoustic-electric guitars since the days of Lloyd Loar, but the company didn’t move forward with it until 1951, when it created the CF-100E. That model never took off, but it led to the creation of the J-160E, a slope-shouldered Jumbo that featured a ladder-braced plywood top (soon to be laminated spruce), 15 frets clear of the body (probably to make space for the pickup), an adjustable saddle, and a single-coil P-90 pickup just below the fingerboard. A decade later, a little group called the Beatles would popularize both the guitar and the acoustic-electric concept.

1953

Make Great

1954

PIEZO-STYLE PICKUPS INVENTED

1963 17

Magnetic pickups revolutionized the electric guitar, but because they don’t perform as well at higher frequencies, they are not ideal for acoustic guitars—especially instruments that use nylon or other non-magnetic strings. In 1963, violinist John Berry teamed with audio engineer Les Barcus to create a piezo-electric crystal transducer for violin amplification, and soon after, they translated this for the guitar. Piezo pickups sit underneath the guitar’s saddle and produce a pure, natural tone by sensing the vibrations of the wood and strings.

Music

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Right Josh White was the first Ovation spokesman. Far Right Josh White’s Ovation

OVATION DEBUTS 1966 Charles Kaman’s background was in helicopters, and when he set out to invent a new kind of guitar, he enlisted a range of engineers with similar aerospace training. Kaman thought they could improve the acoustic guitar’s sound by utilizing non-wood materials. The team arrived at a synthetic, parabolic-shaped back made of Lyrachord (a kind of fiberglass), which the engineers thought could boost volume while also eliminating feedback. The strange-looking guitar was a perfect fit for the space-age tastes of the times, and while folk-blues singer Josh White was the first notable musician to play one, Glen Campbell (and his TV show) ignited the Ovation craze. 18

KASHA BRACING 1973

After buying a classical guitar for his son, Michael Kasha, a molecular biophysicist, was astounded by the inefficiency of the instrument. (By most accounts, only about 5 percent of string vibration energy is converted into sound.) Using high-level acoustic theory, Kasha determined to improve those results, focusing on modifications to the neck, bridge, soundboard, and, most notably, the bracing. Working with luthier Richard Schneider, he devised and implemented an advanced, intricate top-bracing pattern (utilizing as many as 20 braces) that affected bass strings (heavier braces) and treble strings (lighter braces) differently. His back bracing “moved” in the manner of a speaker diaphragm.

YVONNE JUDE-HARGREAVES PHOTOS

19

Kasha/Schneider bracing design for nylon-string acoustic guitar. Soundboard by Richard Schneider, 1996.

Back by George Majkowski, 1996


25 Innovations PEAVEY USES CNC MACHINES Mid-1970s 20

SHUBB

Santa Cruz was an early boutique guitar shop.

CAPOS

The introduction of computer numerically controlled (CNC) machinery to guitar building is usually attributed to Hartley Peavey, and it remains one of the most controversial subjects in all of lutherie. When it comes to technical accuracy and consistency, using machines to cut precision parts certainly can be an advantage. It can also decrease production times, allowing companies to produce guitars more quickly, without a corresponding decline in quality. However, many players lament the absence of the “human touch.”

THE RISE OF THE ‘BOUTIQUE GUITAR’

1970s 21

After

years

M

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still the best!

AM

S LE R P H OTO

[email protected] • www.shubb.com 707-843-4068 Richard Hoover

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I

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40

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Martin and Gibson still had a stranglehold on the flattop market. Inspired in part by the “artisan” movement of the time, independent Canadian luthier Jean Larrivée began handbuilding guitars for sale in his own modest shops around Toronto. American builders Bob Taylor and Richard Hoover soon followed suit, and that pioneering threesome helped initiate the modern boutique acoustic guitar. In response, Martin opened its custom shop in 1979 to produce guitars that were not a part of the company’s regular catalog: special orders, limited editions, one-offs, etc. Today, almost all of the major acoustic builders have in-house custom shops.

HUMPHREY CONCEIVES THE ‘MILLENNIUM’ CLASSICAL 1985 Beginning as an apprentice to Michael Gurian in the 1970s, the late Thomas Humphrey was the classic tinkerer, constantly searching for ways to improve classical-guitar construction. In a 2008 issue of AG, guitarist Sharon Isbin wrote that “Humphrey’s landmark Millennium design came to him in a dream in 1985.” Perhaps the most famous innovation he made was the elevated fingerboard (to improve access to the higher frets), but he also devised a unique, complex lattice bracing system and experimented with various bridge designs, neck angles, and body shapes intended to increase the instrument’s projection in concert halls. 22

JOHN DECKER PRODUCES AN ALL-COMPOSITE GUITAR

Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin with Thomas Humphrey

1980s 23

An MIT-educated aerospace engineer and Maui resident, John Decker conceived of a no-wood guitar in 1985 as a way to combat Hawaii’s wood-crippling heat and humidity. Once he perfected it, Decker began selling the guitars under the name RainSong. Stronger, lighter, more weatherresistant, and more reliable than wood—and certainly more environmentally friendly—carbon fiber is now here to stay, and as a growing number of respected builders step into that space, players today have an ever-wider range of carbon-fiber options.

RainSong was the first carbon fiber guitar. AcousticGuitar.com 63

25 Innovations ‘BABY’ GUITARS TAKE OFF 1994 24

As far back as 1915, Martin was making a small-bodied guitar for the Ditson company (known today as a “Baby Ditson”), but the baby guitar’s popularity soared in the 1990s. Martin debuted its super-narrow, travel-friendly Backpacker in 1994, but to many, it barely resembled a guitar at all. Taylor’s 11.5-inch-wide Baby model, launched in 1996, looked and felt more like the real thing, and it was soon followed by the Collings Baby, Larrivée Cherub, and limited-edition Mini Martin.

Taylor NT bolt-on neck

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TAYLOR DEVELOPS THE NT BOLT-ON NECK

1999 25

Since he started his company 40 years ago, Bob Taylor has consistently looked to “modernize” the acoustic guitar while still respecting its accepted traditions. Taylor has always favored a bolt-on neck design to the traditional glued dovetail joint, primarily because it makes neck repairs and resets a whole lot easier. In 1999, he developed (and later patented) the NT (New Technology) bolt-on neck, which took the bolt-on concept to new heights. Previously, the neck wood would end at the heel, and the fingerboard extension would have to be glued to the top. The NT design features a neck that supports the entire length of the fretboard and fits precisely into a “pocket” on the guitar top.

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Chris Tomlin and his 1999 Collings OM 42 SB

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25 Moments Elvis action figure based on the 1968 Comeback Special, made by Kotobukiya.

UNPLUGGED ELVIS STEPS INTO ACTION ON HIS 1968 COMEBACK SPECIAL & OTHER GREAT MOMENTS IN ACOUSTICGUITAR CULTURE There have been many moments in acoustic-music history, but these 25 major signposts pointed the way from early field recordings to the Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons. For example, without the Lomaxes, Harry Smith wouldn’t have put Dock Boggs and Sleepy John Estes on his influential folk compilation; without Harry, young Bob Dylan wouldn’t have heard so much music to steal from; and without Dylan . . . well, you wouldn’t have had anybody else.


25 Moments THE LOMAXES RECORD LEAD BELLY 1934 1

Ethnomusicologist John Lomax and his 18-year-old son Alan entered one of the nation’s most feared prisons, Louisiana State Penitentiary, to meet a man with a big 12-string guitar and an even bigger voice. Lead Belly would become one of the most important folk musicians of all time, but only after the Lomaxes—known more casually as song catchers—recorded his music and encouraged him to share it with the world. Lead Belly was just one of hundreds of folk and blues musicians the Lomaxes would document in their highly influential field recordings.

Lead Belly and wife Martha

WOODY GUTHRIE LANDS LOS ANGELES RADIO SHOW 1937

After moving to Los Angeles, 2 Woody Guthrie got a job singing old-time music on KFVD radio, but he soon turned it into a pulpit for his leftist social commentary and growing stockpile of protest folk songs, including “I Ain’t Got No Home” and “Talking Dust Bowl Blues.” The show put Guthrie on the populist map, and when he rambled on to New York City in the 1940s, Guthrie eventually landed a program there, Pipe Smoking Time, that he soon quit when a sponsor sought to censor the folksinger.

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HANK WILLIAMS PLAYS THE GRAND OLE OPRY 1949 3

Hank Williams’ Opry debut on June 11, 1949, was nothing short of triumphant. The 25-year-old country singer had just released his first big hit, “Lovesick Blues,” and the song’s impact on the crowd at the Ryman Auditorium was beyond anything anyone could have imagined. Following his set, Williams was called out for six encores—a first for any Opry performer—for which he enthusiastically strummed his acoustic and played “Lovesick Blues” each time. The audience begged for more, but the show had to go on.

HARRY SMITH RELEASES ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC 1952 4

When the Anthology of American Folk Music was originally released on 78s, it presented roots music in a way never heard before—placing AfricanAmerican and white artists on one compilation without distinction, and treating Creole chants and political ballads as part of the same collective conscious. Remixed, remastered, and rereleased in 1997, this vision of folk archivist Harry Smith is now considered the definitive collection of early American music.

Anthology of American Folk Music Folkways

ODETTA MESMERIZES THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON 1963 Bob Dylan was only 22 when he stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. directly behind him, and performed for hundreds of thousands demanding civil and economic rights. Three of his songs—“Blowin’ in the Wind,” (sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary), “When the Ship Comes In” (with Joan Baez), and “Only a Pawn in Their Game”—comprised the rally’s soundtrack, but it was folksinger Odetta’s immense spiritual “I’m on My Way” that became the anthem for the turning point in the Civil Rights Movement.

JAC DE NIJS ANEFO PHOTO

7

BOB DYLAN PLAYS THE GASLIGHT 1962 5

Greenwich Village’s Gaslight Cafe is where the young Bobby Dylan transformed from a singer to a songwriter. In between his self-titled debut of 1962, which mostly consisted of covers, and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963, which yielded some of the most important songs of the 1960s, Dylan was working out pieces like “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” inside this basement coffeehouse on MacDougal Street. Some of those performances, recorded on reel-to-reel patched into the house PA, circulated on bootlegs for years until officially surfacing in 2005 on Live at the Gaslight 1962.

DYLAN PLUGS IN AT NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL 1965

If you believe the myth, Bob 6 Dylan’s 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival was an electric shock heard around the world—and booed by the audience of folk traditionalists. The footage has been captured in documentaries, including No Direction Home and The Other Side of the Mirror, but why this acoustic folksinger chose to plug in a Fender Stratocaster for his short Newport set remains a mystery. What matters is that he did it, shaking up the folk establishment and expanding the definition of folk music for future generations.

BUCK OWENS PICKS & GRINS ON HEE HAW 1969 8

Even after popularizing Bakersfield honky-tonk with a slew of No. 1 singles, Buck Owens’ portrayal of a country bumpkin on Hee Haw remains a major part of his legacy. As cohosts of the cornball variety show, Owens and Roy Clark charmed audiences with sketches such as “Pickin’ and Grinnin’,” featuring Clark on banjo and Owens on a custom-built red, white, and blue Mosrite acoustic guitar dueling on the Appalachian standard “Cripple Creek.” The long-running show kept country chugging along during the heydays of psychedelica, disco, and punk. AcousticGuitar.com 69

25 Moments

ELVIS RETURNS WITH A TELEVISED ACOUSTIC SET 1968

The Elvis 1968 Comeback 9 Special was a monumental event for the King and fans of his rockabilly roots. During one key segment, he performed on a Gibson J-200 in the round with guitar man Scotty Moore and three others, banging out fast and loose renditions of several hits including a version of “That’s All Right” that recalled all the grit and glory of his 1954 original. This informal jam session would later inspire similar concepts, most notably MTV’s Unplugged.

RICHIE HAVENS AND CSN SHRED AT WOODSTOCK 1969

NEAL PRESTON PHOTO

It’s anyone’s guess how 10 many would-be folkies picked up acoustic guitars after watching Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills & Nash steal the spotlight at Woodstock. Havens opened the festival with a raw, riveting performance that culminated in “Freedom,” driven by his aggressive, rhythmic strumming on a Guild D-40 flattop. Two days later, at 3 AM, CSN played their second-ever set, kicking off with the acoustic “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” crystallizing all the hope and sorrow of the 1960s, and spearheading the ’70s singersongwriter movement.

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JOHNNY CASH GOES TO PRISON 1969 11

It doesn’t get more badass than Johnny Cash singing “San Quentin, I hate every inch of you” to a crowd of rowdy inmates. At San Quentin, the follow-up to Cash’s At Folsom Prison, has a raw, world-weary quality—both in the recording and in the singer’s tired croon— and as a result feels utterly authentic. By 1969, Cash had been playing prison concerts for over a decade, including one attended by 20-year-old inmate Merle Haggard. Armed with subversive lyrics, an acoustic guitar, and a punk mentality, Cash inspired Haggard and countless other lives.

DIRT BAND RECORDS WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN 1972 12

After a decade of skeptical stares across the cultural and generational divide, a group of long-haired hippies from Long Beach, California, successfully bridged Appalachian folk and modern rock without compromising the purity of either. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken paired the boys with old-time country legends including Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Earl Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Roy Acuff, and “Mother” Maybelle Carter. The album reached No. 68 on Billboard’s album chart— astonishing for a double-disc set of traditionals. The musical summit forged a sound that brought together two generations and influenced many to follow.

JANIS IAN APPEARS ON SNL 1975 13

It seems fitting that the first episode of Saturday Night Live would feature a 24-year-old woman singing about being the kind of girl who would be home alone on a Saturday night. Performing her hit “At Seventeen” on her little Martin 00-18, singersongwriter Janis Ian revealed herself as an “ugly duckling” and an outsider in the glitz and glamour of the 1970s. Though the song is soft and sweet, the message is biting and nonconformist, inspiring many other young women to pick up guitars and tell their truths.

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BREAD AND ROSES RELEASES LIVE ALBUM 1977

Mimi Fariña founded Bread 14 and Roses in 1974 to bring live music to prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions. Like older sister Joan Baez, Fariña was a folk singer, but she gave up her career to focus on her nonprofit, which included an annual acoustic festival that’s attracted some of the biggest names in folk, blues, and rock. In 1977, an influential live album of the festival was released, featuring performances from Fariña, Baez, Hoyt Axton, Jesse Colin Young, Jackson Browne, Richie Havens, and many others.

ANTI-FOLK RISES FROM LOWER MANHATTAN 1983 15

In the early ’80s, an acousticplaying kid who called himself Lach (pronounced “latch”) and had an equal affinity for Phil Ochs, Jack Kerouac, comic books, and punk rock, couldn’t get arrested amid the aging folk establishment of New York’s Greenwich Village. So, he and a few likeminded friends—Roger Manning, Cindy Lee Berryhill, Kirk Kelly, and others—moved to an abandoned building in the East Village and started the Fort. They called their charged-up, acoustic-based music anti-folk. Within a decade, this ragtag DIY movement had moved to the Sidewalk Café, produced a few stars—Beck, Regina Spektor, and the Moldy Peaches—and continued to open its doors to misfit folkies the world over.

ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR NECCESSORIES. CAPOS. CARE KITS. STRAPS. STRINGS. www.kysermusical.com


25 Moments MERLEFEST FINDS HOPE IN TRAGEDY 1988

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB CUTS A RECORD

Lauryn Hill performs on MTV Unplugged.

1997

16

This North Carolina hoedown provided an outlet that would expand the audience for acoustic-music festivals in the 1990s and 2000s with its inclusiveness. Flatpicking legend Doc Watson launched the festival in 1988 in honor of his recently deceased son and picking partner, Merle, with the idea that roots fans were open-minded. Calling Merlefest “traditional plus,” Watson packed the lineups with purists like himself as well as more experimental artists such as Tony Rice and Béla Fleck. Merlefest has since served as a launching pad for successful acts including Nickel Creek, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Old Crow Medicine Show, and the Avett Brothers.

20

Ry Cooder’s distinctive fingerpicking and slide-playing has appeared on Rolling Stones records and numerous soundtracks, but he’ll be forever revered as the man who brought the Buena Vista Social Club to the English-speaking world. It was the culmination of Cooder’s lifelong obsession with traditional musical styles from around the globe. He’d visited Havana in 1996 to record with African guitarists, but when they didn’t arrive, stayed and brought together a group of elderly musicians who had pioneered the son cubano sound. The resulting acoustic recording won a Grammy, inspired a Wim Wenders documentary, and became the biggest-selling world music album ever.

MTV UNPLUGS 1989

Spanning 25 years and featuring some of the most interesting performances ever televised, the acoustic-only concept of MTV Unplugged was more successful than anyone imagined it would be. The late-’80s folk revival (Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, et al.) and early participation of rock royalty like Eric Clapton helped catapult the first few seasons. Playing a Martin 000-42 for much of his Unplugged appearance, Clapton reworked classics like “Layla” and earned six Grammys for the album version. Later years resulted in successful Unplugged performances by a slew of unlikely acts ranging from Nirvana to a pre-fame Shakira (singing in Spanish) to R&B singer Lauryn Hill to rapper Jay Z backed by the Roots.

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COLUMBIA RECORDS PHOTO

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RIGHTEOUS BABE DOES IT HERSELF 1990

Ani DiFranco founded Righ18 teous Babe Records when she self-released her first cassette of raw, punk-inspired, feminist folk songs, selling it DIY at shows and out of the trunk of her car. Today, Righteous Babe is one of the most successful artist-run record labels, selling millions of DiFranco’s releases, as well as the works of other acoustic folk singers, from legends like Utah Phillips to younger artists including Toshi Reagon, Hamell on Trial, and Andrew Bird.

JEWEL JOINS LILITH FAIR 1997 19

Frustrated by a musicindustry standard that assumed it was not good business to book two women in the same lineup, singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan launched the allfemale Lilith Fair festival. Her risk paid off immensely, thanks in no small part to the participation of an acoustic guitar-strumming pop singer named Jewel, whose Pieces of You was on its way to becoming one of the best-selling debut albums of all time. The alignment of Jewel with the Lilith Fair translated into the top-grossing touring festival of 1997, celebrating a defining moment when female singer-songwriters ruled mainstream music.

ELLIOTT SMITH PERFORMS AT THE OSCARS

1998 21

It’s fair to say Elliott Smith’s life changed after the 2 minutes, 14 seconds he spent onstage at the 1998 Oscars. The indie singer-songwriter had contributed six songs to the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, including “Miss Misery,” nominated for Best Original Song. He lost (to Celine Dion’s Titanic hit “My Heart Will Go On”), but Smith’s performance won over the 1 billion watching as he stepped into the spotlight with nothing but an acoustic guitar and sang “Miss Misery” with an intimacy and sincerity rarely seen at an awards show. His courage led to a new generation of Pitchfork-approved indie-folkies.

‘PINK MOON’ DRIVES VW AD 1999 22

A quarter-century after his death, English art-folk artist Nick Drake finally found an audience—courtesy of a Volkswagen commercial. A cult figure who’d been cited as an influence by many, including Peter Buck of R.E.M., Drake released his final album, Pink Moon, in 1972. It sold only a few thousand copies. That changed dramatically 27 years later, when millions heard Drake’s brooding voice and wistful acoustic guitar in VW’s TV spot for its new Cabrio; Pink Moon’s title track jumped to No. 5 on Amazon, and Drake now has legions of acousticloving followers.

O BROTHER SOUNDTRACK OVERSHADOWS FILM

DEVENDRA BANHART RELEASES FREAKFOLK CLASSIC

The O Brother, Where Art 23 Thou! soundtrack was so essential it was recorded before the Coen Brothers even began filming. To recreate the movie’s 1930s Appalachian-country and Delta-blues vibe, producer T Bone Burnett tapped some of the best acts in folk music: legends like Ralph Stanley and Emmylou Harris, and relative newcomers including Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, and Chris Thomas King. O Brother won a Grammy for Best Album, went eight-times platinum, and led to a spike in acoustic instrument sales among young wannabe folk, blues, and string-band musicians. It was Will the Circle Be Unbroken— on steroids.

Inspired by anti-folk’s lo-fi 24 aesthetic and fringe ’60s artists like Vashti Bunyan, Nick Drake, and American primitive guitarist John Fahey, a ragtag group of art-damaged indie rockers with acoustic instruments began blending folk, art rock, and psychedelia into diaphanous tapestries of alternate-tuned guitars and unconventional song structures fleshed out by swirling cello, harp, banjo, sitar, harmonium, and other instruments. Christened freak folk, the king of this scene was a long-haired, strikingly handsome Venezuelan named Devendra Banhart, whose fifth album, 2005’s Cripple Crow, with its Sgt. Pepper’s-spoofed cover, became the genre’s quintessential recording.

2000

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RAILROAD REVIVAL TOUR CHUGS FORTH 2011 25

Following the rise of string bands spurred on by the freak folk movement, acts like the Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons, and events like MerleFest in North Carolina and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco, nearly every up-and-coming band had a banjo picker by 2011, when the Mumfords hit the road in vintage rail cars with Old Crow Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. Each show closed with the bands joining to perform Woody Guthrie’s “This Train Is Bound for Glory,” keeping the legends that inspired them alive in popular culture.

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25 Albums

BORN TO STRUM BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S ‘NEBRASKA’ & OTHER GREAT ACOUSTIC-GUITAR RECORDINGS What’s an “acoustic album?” Is it a set of songs played entirely on acoustic instruments? Or is it a sound, a feel, a mindset? It’s both, and among AG’s most important acoustic albums of the modern era, you’ll find collections ranging from the haunting, purely acoustic blues of Robert Johnson to later folk- and rock-based sets including influential debuts from Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), Old & in the Way (1975), Tracy Chapman (1988), and the Milk Carton Kids (2013). You’ll also find important works performed entirely on acoustic guitars, from John Fahey’s sprawling America to Chet Atkins and Merle Travis’s legendary guitar summit, The Atkins-Travis Traveling Show.

FRANK STEFANKO PHOTO


25 Albums

JOAN BAEZ JOAN BAEZ 1960

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NICOLA VERLATO

Armed with just an acoustic guitar and that dazzling vibrato voice (accompanied on some songs by Weavers guitarist Fred Hellerman), Joan Baez was never better than on her debut, which eventually reached No. 15 on the pop charts. The LP introduced a new generation to “Wildwood Flower” and “House of the Rising Sun,” and exposed Baez’s young followers to different languages and traditions with protest songs from her own culture (“El Preso Numero Nueve,” a tease of her later allSpanish Gracias a la Vida) as well as a Yiddish classic (“Donna Donna,” sung in English).

ROBERT JOHNSON KING OF THE DELTA BLUES SINGERS 1961

The release of 16 Robert Johnson tracks in 1961, during the height of the folk revival, caused a seismic shift in popular culture. Nearly every guitarist or singer who heard “Me and the Devil Blues” or “Hellhound on My Trail” took something away from Johnson’s haunting, sultry acoustic blues. Clapton beefed up “Cross Road Blues,” the Stones slowed down “Love in Vain,” and Cassandra Wilson later transformed “Come on in My Kitchen.” New volumes followed, and in the CD era, complete box sets of cleaned-up recordings appeared. But this is the original compilation that changed music history. 2

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BOB DYLAN THE FREEWHEELIN’ BOB DYLAN 1963

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Picking an essential early Dylan album is like picking an essential child—they’re all special in their own way. (Isn’t that what you tell them?) But his second LP is particularly special given the head-spinning growth from his debut, which was mostly covers. Look at the sheer number of culturally momentous songs (“Blowing in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”), defining love songs and kiss-offs (“Girl from the North Country,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”), not to mention all the fluttery acoustic-guitar playing.

Simon & Garfunkel’s debut was all acoustic, but their breakthrough, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme mixed things up.

SIMON & GARFUNKEL PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY AND THYME

CROSBY, STILLS & NASH CROSBY, STILLS & NASH 1969

1966

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When a rock remix of “The Sound of Silence”—an allacoustic track from Simon & Garfunkel’s folk debut—shot to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100, Columbia hastily released a second S&G album containing the new version. But it was the duo’s third album that established Simon’s songwriting genius. Lushly recorded—all ringing acoustic guitars, harpsichord, swirling strings, pattering percussion, and gorgeous harmonies— Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme included more literary references than a freshman English course. It also rocketed to No. 4 on the strength of a pop arrangement of the traditional “Scarborough Fair” and the Simon classic “Homeward Bound.”

LEONARD COHEN SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN 1967

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This enigmatic Canadian was a well-established author when he recorded his first album of poetry set to nylon-string guitar. Songs of Leonard Cohen included one song that had a particularly profound impact— “Suzanne” would be studied by literature students and covered by artists ranging from Judy Collins to Nina Simone to Meshell Ndegeocello. Cohen’s early, minimalistacoustic vibe and existential angst also inspired later songwriters, including Suzanne Vega, Nick Cave, and Kurt Cobain. It’s been said that Cohen’s influence trails only Bob Dylan and Paul Simon.

LEO KOTTKE 6- AND 12-STRING GUITAR 1969

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Inspired by Mississippi John Hurt and supported early on by American-primitive guitarist John Fahey, Leo Kottke made adventurous instrumental acoustic-guitar music palatable for larger audiences. By 1974, he would take the all-instrumental Dreams and All That Stuff to No. 45 on the Billboard 200. But it was on 6- and 12-String Guitar— also known as the Armadillo album—that Kottke honed his sound, slicing into the blues with a slide and showcasing the polyphonic fingerpicking technique that would wow a young Michael Hedges.

Three months before their historic Woodstock performance of the sweeping acoustic-guitar opus “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” this vocal-harmony supergroup—David Crosby of the Byrds, Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash of Brit-pop band the Hollies— released their debut album, which included “Judy” alongside such other acoustic classics as “Helplessly Hoping” and “Guinnevere.” Though Crosby, Stills & Nash is often heralded as the album that kick-started the back-to-nature 1970s acoustic movement, it contains only a handful of truly acoustic songs—and lots of full-on rock and pop.


25 Albums JOHN FAHEY AMERICA

HOT TUNA HOT TUNA 1970

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After flying Jefferson Airplane for five years, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady switched to Delta for their “side project”— Delta blues, that is. Hot Tuna, of course, would become much more than a side project (the duo still performs under the name), and this blistering live set is easily

1971 as classic as the Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow. Kaukonen’s acoustic fingerpicking flutters about Casady’s signature prowling, gurgling electric bass on covers of “Hesitation Blues,” the Piedmont blues “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” and originals like “Mann’s Fate” for an LP that’s become an acoustic mainstay.

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Since his mid-1960s recordings as Blind Joe Death, American-primitive pioneer John Fahey had been highly regarded in underground-music circles for his solo acoustic-guitar instrumentals that mixed heart and soul with dazzling technique in ways that set him far apart from other virtuosos. He’d become

increasingly ambitious by the time of America, whose expanded 1998 reissue finds his legendary fingerpicking traversing the blues, gospel, Dvorák, and spine-tingling originals that ramble like instrumental hobos. As AG editorial director Greg Cahill once wrote, the album is “rapturous in its beauty—a majestic, spacious work as grand in its deceptive simplicity as the early American landscape from which it draws inspiration.”

Vibrant

JONI MITCHELL BLUE 1971

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Escape the expected. Experience graphite.

Mitchell comes out of the gate on this emotionally raw masterpiece playing a dulcimer in a way that sounds nothing like Appalachian folk. From there, she moves from dulcimer to piano to acoustic guitar for a set of confessional songs that devastate and delight all at the same time. She tunes to open G with a capo at the fourth fret for “Little Green,” about the daughter she gave up for adoption. She wrote “California” while traveling in Europe, and “Carey” about a guy she met in Greece. Mitchell’s powerful poetry and attention to detail in each arrangement make Blue not just one of the greatest acoustic albums, but one of the greatest albums, period.

NEIL YOUNG HARVEST 1972

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In the early decades of Neil Young’s career, he was either collaborating with CSN, cranking out jittery, nervous electric leads and proto-grunge riffs with his garage-rock band Crazy Horse, or performing solo acoustic shows packed with songs from albums like Harvest, one of his most enduring releases. “Old Man,” “Heart of Gold,” and the ubiquitous “Needle and the Damage Done” became acoustic staples, but from beginning-toend, all of Harvest is essential.

CHET ATKINS & MERLE TRAVIS THE ATKINSTRAVIS TRAVELING SHOW 1974

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This collaboration among two guitar giants makes virtuosity sound like a whole lotta fun. Atkins and Travis duel, trade licks, and run their fingers over their fretboards with mind-boggling speed and dexterity on songs like Travis’s “Cannonball Rag.” They turn in a sublime version of jazz standard “If I had You.” And over many of the tracks, they chat and joke with each other. They even sing on a pair of Shel Silverstein novelties. One of the most delightful guitar albums of all time.

GRAM PARSONS GRIEVOUS ANGEL

OLD & IN THE WAY OLD & IN THE WAY

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1974

Gram Parsons’ second and final solo album, released a year after his death from a drug overdose, captures two pioneering country-rockers at the height of their talent. Though Emmylou Harris had not yet released her official debut, Pieces of the Sky, you could hear where her angelic voice was headed in her transcendent harmonies with Parsons on acoustic-based songs like “Hickory Wind” (which she later covered on Blue Kentucky Girl) and the Everlys’ classic “Love Hurts.” By the ’90s, this album would spawn a thousand alt-country bands.

Tony Rice revitalized bluegrass.

1975

After the success of CSN’s debut, the Grateful Dead cut a pair of acoustic albums in 1970, including American Beauty, featuring mandolinist David Grisman. He and Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia were soon jamming around the Bay Area with former Bill Monroe guitarist Peter Rowan, bluegrass fiddler Vassar Clements, and others. Their 1973 performances led to this live recording that was released two years later, becoming a calling card for the progressive bluegrass movement. By then, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken was already an established classic, having blown open the doors for old-time music among young post-hippies, and Old & in the Way was warmly embraced.

THE TONY RICE UNIT MANZANITA 1979

For buttery-smooth flatpicking and fingerpicking, heady brush strokes of jazz, and some of the sweetest vocals in bluegrass, there’s no better starting point than Tony Rice’s Manzanita. It was a breakthrough for the guitarist and his all-star band (Ricky Skaggs and Sam Bush on mandolin and fiddle, mandolin player David Grisman, fiddle player Darol Anger, and bassist Todd Phillips), showcasing Rice’s natural ease on both guitar and vocals. From his own adventurous title track to the Merle Travis standard “Nine Pound Hammer” to Norman Blake’s “Ginseng Sullivan,” progressive bluegrass doesn’t get any better. 15


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25 Albums

FRETTING HAND TIPS FROM PETE HUTTLINGER AND ELIXIR ® STRINGS

Emmy-nominated and National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion, Pete Huttlinger has a terrific exercise to develop ‘fret hand control.” Turn on your favorite T V s h o w, g e t c o m f o r t a b l e a n d practice! Question: What do the Emmys, the Grammys, Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival, Carnegie Hall, John Denver and LeAnn Rimes all have in common? Answer: Pete Huttlinger. This Nashville-based, National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion has toured the world as a solo artist and sideman, written and recorded music for television, and released eight solo albums. Pete Huttlinger is truly an American guitar treasure.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN NEBRASKA 1982

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With a string of high-energy concerts and classics like Born to Run and The River behind him, Springsteen—much to the shock of his devoted rock following— decided to release an album of Woody Guthrie-inspired, stripped-down acoustic demos. The dark themes and brooding sound of songs like the fingerpicked “Highway Patrolman” and heavily reverbed “State Trooper” polarized his fans, some calling the album genius and others left scratching their heads. In retrospect, it was a brilliant move that inspired the lo-fi indiefolk movement—Sebadoh, the Mountain Goats, et al.—a decade later. 16

Above A pre-Nebraska Springsteen ponders his acoustic future.

TRACY CHAPMAN TRACY CHAPMAN 1988

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Whitney Houston, U2, and a string of hair-metal bands were ruling MTV while the postpunk squall of Sonic Youth and hip-hop of Public Enemy presided over the underground. Amid all the noise, a shy 24-year-old with an acoustic guitar drove her “Fast Car” into the Top 10. Tracy Chapman’s smoldering, politically charged folk songs echoed forebears from Odetta to Joan Armatrading, and was a breath of fresh air in the late 1980s. Her example made it safe for acoustic guitars in a post-punk world to come out of hiding. Talk about a revolution!

MICHAEL HEDGES AERIAL BOUNDARIES 1985

This landmark album 17 inspired generations of acolytes drawn to Michael Hedges’ slapping and tapping techniques, and the music’s reverb-heavy ambient sonics. Aerial Boundaries was recorded in the living room of the 1800s Vermont farmhouse that serves as headquarters of the Windham Hill Inn, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album. In a 1997 AG interview, Hedges cited John Martyn as a major influence: “He does all that frailing and anticipating the beat . . . I am trying to pay more attention to melody and song and less attention to how fast I can play or what weird tuning I can devise.”

BEN HARPER WELCOME TO THE CRUEL WORLD 1994

Growing up in a progressive 20 music community in Southern California—his family ran the Claremont Folk Music Center— Ben Harper was well-schooled on the importance of solid songwriting and great playing. And though he would soon be channeling Hendrix, Harper’s debut finds him fingerpicking his acoustic guitar or playing Dobro on tracks like opening instrumental “The Three of Us,” sizzling protest songs such as the percussive “Don’t Take That Attitude to Your Grave” and “Like a King,” and the spare acoustic ballad that breaks hearts every time, “Forever.”

STEVE EARLE THE MOUNTAIN 1999

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When Steve Earle put the drugs down in the mid-’90s, he discovered his authentic voice and began issuing a steady stream of raging acoustic and electric sets for the common man—sort of a Bruce Springsteen with a farleft slant. But on The Mountain, Earle teamed with the Del McCoury Band for some scorching original bluegrass. Guests included Dobro man Jerry Douglas, mandolinist Sam Bush, fiddler Stuart Duncan, and a chorus of famous singers on the closing track, “Pilgrim.”

NIRVANA MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK 1994

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After radically changing mainstream rock with Nevermind and In Utero, where was Nirvana to go next? Well . . . acoustic. MTV’s Unplugged series had already proved to be a successful way for rock bands to show off their gentle side, but Nirvana—as the trio was wont to do—subverted the idea of “gentle” acoustic music. Unplugged was as harsh and prickly as the hardest grunge, and when Kurt Cobain wailed out “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?,” he channeled every drop of the blues that Lead Belly had put into the song 50 years earlier.


25 Albums

CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS GENUINE NEGRO JIG 2010

Granted, this groundbreaking album is more fiddle-and-banjo than acoustic guitar. But what’s special about the Carolina Chocolate Drops for fans of acoustic guitar is their talent and enthusiasm for reintroducing often-ignored black string-band traditions with an occasional modern flair (their fiddle-based cover of Blu Cantrell’s R&B single “Hit ‘Em Up Style” is a brilliant novelty). And there’s enough guitar amid all the fiddle and banjo to satisfy. 24

NICKEL CREEK NICKEL CREEK 2000

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It’s fitting that former teengrass star Alison Krauss would produce this breakthrough album by bluegrass-pop band Nickel Creek. Like Krauss, mandolinist Chris Thile and multi-instrumentalists Sean and Sara Watkins helped bring stringband music to larger audiences in songs that blasted bluegrass stereotypes. They were young Californians who sang sweetly of butterflies and lighthouses. They also picked mandolins and guitars and sawed on fiddles as well as any traditionalist.

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MILK CARTON KIDS THE ASH & CLAY

GILLIAN WELCH TIME (THE REVELATOR)

2013

2001

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Despite the criticism she got early on for growing up in Hollywood and not Appalachia, Gillian Welch writes and plays with an honesty, emotion, and expertise that few possess. Her first two albums were stellar, and on this disc—her third release— Welch and fellow guitarist David Rawlings get everything perfect: the songs, the voices, and those gorgeous acoustic-guitar solos.

Milk Carton Kids brought back the spirit of Simon & Garfunkel.

When Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan released their breakthrough album in 2013, it played like an instant classic. You could hear the Everlys and Simon & Garfunkel in the Kids’ Greenwich Village coffeehouse sound. But even as the music sometimes came off as a bit too derivative, the lovely fingerpicking and solos on tracks like “Hope of a Lifetime” made up for the nostalgia. And nostalgic it is, right down to the ’50s-vintage Gibson and Martin guitars they play.

PRS Acoustics A Culture of Quality

© 2014 PRS Guitars / Photos by Marc Quigley

Born in our Maryland shop, PRS acoustics are heirloom instruments with remarkable tone and exquisite playability. A small team of experienced luthiers handcraft all of our Maryland-made acoustic instruments with passion and attention to detail.

The PRS Guitars’ Acoustic Team.

25 Films

CELLULOID HEROES JOAQUIN PHOENIX CAPTURES THE BEAST IN JOHNNY CASH— SPOTLIGHTING THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR ON THE SILVER SCREEN From The Graduate, in 1967, to Paris, Texas, in 1989, straight up to Once, in 2007, and 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, Hollywood has used the beauty and emotional resonance of the acoustic guitar to tell stories or just set the mood for classic feature films and documentaries. These 25 movies contain some of the best acoustic performances in celluloid history.


25 Films

A FACE IN THE CROWD 1957 1

If you only know Andy Griffith from his role as the mild-mannered sheriff of Mayberry, you owe it to yourself to watch him as the fast-talking, guitar-wielding con man in this Elia Kazan masterpiece. One of the best cinematic statements about the corruptive nature of fame and power.

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT 1964 2

The Fab Four portray themselves, or at least a cute, madcap version of themselves, at the height of Beatlemania. The soundtrack is packed with such acoustic-guitar-oriented songs as “If I Fell,” “I Should Have Known Better,” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Newly restored and available in hi-def Blu-ray.

THE GRADUATE 1967 3

Andy Griffith was no mild-mannered lawman in A Face in the Crowd.

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“Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson . . .” Just one catch: that song, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” never appears in its entirety on the soundtrack to the late Mike Nichols’ classic comingof-age tale. You do hear an instrumental version and an abridged rendition that sputters to an early conclusion, though. S&G’s “The Sound of Silence” makes itself heard three times and “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” appears twice, as do a pair of other songs from the folk-pop duo. Of course, the song everyone associates with this flick is “Mrs. Robinson,” and you can find the full version on Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends album.

DON’T LOOK BACK 1967 This candid documentary captures Bob Dylan, in all his Carnaby Streetclad, mod-fashion glory during a 1965 tour of the United Kingdom. Filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker used the freewheeling cinéma vérité technique to show Dylan ignoring his touring companion Joan Baez while he taps on a typewriter, belittling Donovan, skewering a Time magazine reporter, reducing his talented songwriter sidekick Bob Neuwirth to a flunky, flipping out when a party guest tosses a wine glass out a hotel-room window, and brilliantly performing onstage. The opening sequence is the famous “Subterranean Homesick Blues” cue-card scene spoofed in Bob Roberts. 4

ALICE’S RESTAURANT

LITTLE BIG MAN

Folksinger Arlo Guthrie co5 wrote the screenplay to this lighthearted Vietnam War-era spoof on draft resistance and civil disobedience based on his acoustic talking-blues classic of the same title. Arthur Penn directed. Who knew defiance could be this much fun?

A year after he directed 7 Alice’s Restaurant, Arthur Penn shot this Western epic, starring Dustin Hoffman as an aging Indian fighter. The film produced the woefully underrated solo acoustic slide-guitar score by John Hammond Jr., now available on iTunes.

EASY RIDER

HAROLD AND MAUDE

1969

1969 6

This landmark road movie features Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as bikers traveling through the American Southwest celebrating a lucrative drug deal and searching their souls. The soundtrack—which includes tracks by the Byrds, the Band, the Fraternity of Man, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, among others—was the first ever to include all-original versions of rock songs. Easy Rider is included on the The A List: National Society of Film Critics 100 Essential Films.

WOODSTOCK 1970

1970

1970 8

Cat Stevens penned nine of the songs heard in this lifeaffirming black comedy about mortality, introducing his folksy music to a wider audience. Two of those songs, “Don’t Be Shy” and the popular “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out” remained unreleased until the mid-’80s.

Country Joe offers a spelling lesson at Woodstock: “Gimme an F . . . ”

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This quintessential counterculture documentary features acoustic-guitar segments galore, from Richie Havens’s driving rendition of “Freedom” to Crosby, Stills and Nash’s sonic calling card to Country Joe’s famous “Fish Cheer.” Pick up the newly restored 40th anniversary edition for additional footage of Joan Baez and a defiant set by the usually timid Melanie, who set the tone for the Lilith generation.

DELIVERANCE 1972 10

John Boorman’s savage thriller based on James Dickey’s classic novel works on many levels: it’s the ultimate buddy movie, a deft commentary on the human spirit, an exploration of man’s battle with nature, and an allegory about America’s role in foreign lands. And it spawned a classic guitarand-banjo duel that captivated audiences. “Dueling Banjos,” as heard in the film, was recorded by acoustic guitarist Steve Mandell and banjo player Eric Weissberg. Film fact: The song itself was written a decade earlier by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith and first appeared on television in an episode of The Andy Griffith Show as performed by the Dillards.

PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID 1973 11

Bob Dylan appeared as a grocery clerk counting cans of beans aloud in this low-budget Sam Peckinpah film about America’s most notorious outlaw. Dylan’s film score included the weary “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” as well as acoustic-guitar instrumentals that, in some cases, were recorded with unrehearsed mariachi musicians and caught the dusty, broken spirit of the film’s characters. One of Dylan’s best mid-career albums. AcousticGuitar.com 87

25 Films NASHVILLE 1975 12

Four years after directing the war satire M.A.S.H., Robert Altman turned his satirical eye toward Music City. Here’s what film critic Roger Ebert wrote of this sweeping musical drama: “It is a political parable, written and directed in the immediate aftermath of Watergate (the scenes in the Grand Ole Opry were shot on the day Richard M. Nixon resigned). It tells interlocking stories of love and sex, of hearts broken and mended. And it is a wicked satire of American smarminess. But more than anything else, it is a tender poem to the wounded and the sad.” More than one failed country songwriter can relate to that.

Ry Cooder set the mood for Paris, Texas.

BOUND FOR GLORY 1976 13

SUSAN TITELMAN PHOTO

Hal Ashby’s adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s autobiography of the same name starred David Carradine, who the year before had ended his career-defining role as TV’s most famous king-fu master. The script focuses on Guthrie’s journey from the Dust Bowl-plagued Texas panhandle to Los Angeles, where he became a radio performer and helped shape his legend. Carradine recorded the soundtrack’s vocals; Haskell Wexler picked up an Oscar for Best Cinematography (the film marked the first use of a Steadicam).

PARIS, TEXAS 1989 Ry Cooder casts a haunting spell over this existential film by director Wim Wenders, in which Harry Dean Stanton’s character wanders on foot across the hardscrabble landscape of the Texas desert. The film features Stanton’s beautiful Spanishlanguage rendition of the acoustic-guitar ballad “A Cancion Mixteca.” But it is Cooder’s ambient plucked and slide-driven guitar work, in which time seems to stop, that makes this score so special. 14

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Harry Dean Stanton traverses the world in a swirl of Ry Cooder acoustic guitar ambiance in Paris, Texas.

BOB ROBERTS 1992

Tim Robbins wrote and 15 directed this sharp political satire in which he also stars as an ultra-conservative folksingerturned-US-Senate-candidate. The film is based on a short Saturday Night Live skit that Robbins created in 1986. The score includes the Dylan parody “The Times Are Changing Back” and “Wall Street Rap,” a spoof of Bobby D’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” video in which Robbins, dressed in a blue Oxford shirt and dark tie, holds up hand-lettered signs that read “Get Tough, Get Right,” “Love to Win,” and “Make Millions.”

SWEET AND LOWDOWN 1999 16

This Woody Allen flick cast Sean Penn as a hapless swing-jazz guitarist named Emmet Ray (jazzman Howard Alden played Penn’s guitar parts in the movie and coached the actor on his performance), who rues Django Reinhardt’s fame. Penn pulled it off so well that Internet forums lit up with music buffs who thought the director had discovered a lost jazz-guitar master.

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? 2000 17

The Coen brothers reinterpreted Homer’s “Odyssey” (with a nod to Preston Sturgis) as a hillbilly romp set in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. T Bone Burnett served as music supervisor for this two-time Oscar-winning film. The main characters appear as the Soggy Bottom Boys, an homage to Flatt and Scruggs, recording a hit version of “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” (guitarist Dan Tyminski of Union Station contributed vocals). Chris Thomas King portrays bluesman Tommy Johnson, delivering a haunting fingerstyle blues rendition of “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.”

SONGCATCHER 2000 18

Nobody ever shot a biopic about Alan Lomax, who used to schlep a 500-pound tape recorder around the countryside to document traditional musicians, but Maggie Greenwald directed this topical movie about a fictional musicologist collecting Appalachian folk songs in the backwoods of North Carolina. The soundtrack features performances by Hazel Dickens, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Gillian Welch, Iris DeMent, Allison Moorer, Maria McKee, and others.

A MIGHTY WIND 2003 19

Three legendary folk groups reunite after decades in this clever mockumentary (think Spinal Tap goes to Gerdes Folk City), co-written and with an original score composed by Christopher Guest (of Spinal Tap). A brilliant parody of the ’60s folk revival, which was known to take itself, uh, a little too seriously.

Spinal Tap gang tackles folk music in A Mighty Wind.


25 Films PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE 2011 23

This documentary chronicles the life and times of protest singer Phil Ochs—his poignant 1964 song lends its name to the title. The film traces not only Ochs’ career and troubled life, but also the history of the anti-Vietnam War era to which he devoted so much of his effort. Tragically, he committed suicide a year after the war’s conclusion. (At a 1975 post-war rally in New York City, Ochs sang a duet of the title song with Joan Baez, who’d earned a Grammy nomination with her cover.)

SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN 2012 24

I WALK THE LINE 2005 20

Joaquin Phoenix earned an Oscar as Best Actor for his portrayal of Johnny Cash, performing nine of the film’s Cash songs (with coaching from T Bone Burnett) and even attending (with Shooter Jennings) a screening of the film at Folsom State Prison. Rosanne Cash was no fan of the film, calling the experience of watching a rough edit “like having a root canal without an anesthetic.”

ONCE 2007 21

A sweet tale of platonic love and a musical score that launched a Broadway stage show helped propel this Irish film about the relationship between a flower girl and an ambitious guitar-slinging busker who meet on the streets of Dublin’s shopping district. That couple, played by guitarist Glen Hansard and keyboardist Marketa Irglova, perform as the Swell Season. Their song “Falling Slowly,” from the Once score, won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

90 February 2015

CRAZY HEART 2009 Jeff Bridges won an Oscar as Best Actor for his compelling portrayal of the broken-down country singer Otis “Bad” Blake (based on Hank Thompson, Merle Haggard, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and others). Music supervisor T Bone Burnett co-wrote the Oscar-winning song “The Weary Kind.” Bridges continues to record and tour as a country artist. 22

Two South African music fans—Steven “Sugar” Segerman and Bartholomew Strydom—search for an American recording artist, guitarist Sixto Rodriguez, long rumored to be dead. “A hugely appealing documentary about fans, faith, and an enigmatic Age of Aquarius musician who burned bright and hopeful before disappearing,” the New York Times opined. Director Malik Bendjelloul won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, among other major awards. Bendjelloul committed suicide in 2014.

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS 2014 25

Loosely based on folk legend Dave Van Ronk’s posthumous autobiography The Mayor of MacDougal Street, the Coen brothers’ paean to the 1961 Greenwich Village folk scene has its detractors (depends on whether you think the lost cat subplot was overblown, or if co-star Justin Timberlake makes for a credible folkie), but the soundtrack nails that pre-Dylan folk sound. The film’s marketing spawned a great Town Hall NYC tribute concert featuring Mumford & Sons, the Milk Carton Kids, Dave Rawlings, Chris Thile, and many others (the concert was filmed for Showtime).

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25TH

ACOUSTIC GUITAR’S ANNIVERSARY SONGBOOK

YOU’LL LEARN THESE CLASSIC ACOUSTIC SONGS* AVETT BROTHERS “Ballad of Love and Hate” THE BEATLES “Blackbird” MAYBELLE CARTER “Wildwood Flower” ELIZABETH COTTON “Freight Train” ANI DIFRANCO “Angry Anymore” NICK DRAKE “Pink Moon” BOB DYLAN “Don’t Think Twice” WOODY GUTHRIE “Do-Re-Mi” GRATEFUL DEAD “Ripple”

BEN HARPER “She’s Only Happy in the Sun” MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT “Corrina Corrina” IRON AND WINE “Naked As We Came” CHRIS THOMAS KING “Hard Time Killing Floor” LEAD BELLY “ Black Girl” LED ZEPPELIN, “Bron-Y-Aur” MAGNETIC FIELDS “Acoustic Guitar” BOB MARLEY “Redemption Song” MILK CARTON KIDS “Hope of a Lifetime”

The Acoustic Guitar 25TH Anniversary Songbook will be available soon. Visit us online at AcousticGuitar.com/25Songbook for more information.

JONI MITCHELL “Urge for Going” GRAM PARSONS “Hickory Wind” ROLLING STONES “ Sweet Virginia” DAVE VAN RONK “Sportin’ Life” TOWNES VAN ZANDT “Pancho and Lefty” DOC WATSON “Tennessee Stud” GILLIAN WELCH “Orphan Girl” *Contents subject to change.

25 Books

DIGGING THE ROOTS FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA TO THE HILLS OF APPALACHIA & BEYOND— GOOD READS THAT CHRONICLE THE ARTISTS AND THE INSTRUMENTS

There are enough books about great acoustic music and musicians to fill your average public library, but the 25 books here are among the best, covering acoustic blues, folk, country, rock, Gypsy jazz, and Latino styles. And for a little extra, AG has also included Talking Heads frontman David Byrne’s 2012 big-picture look at how the music industry works. Happy reading.

HUGH O’CONNOR PHOTO


25 Books

1

2

THE COUNTRY BLUES Sam Charters,1959

Much has been written about folk, 1 country, and the blues in the past half-century, but before then, few writers explored the lone black musician who sang deeply confessional songs to the sole accompaniment of an acoustic guitar. Country-blues musicians, not Bob Dylan, were the original singer-songwriters, and their influence runs from Dylan to Joni Mitchell up to Valerie June. This pioneering volume explores the lives and songs of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, and more. These aren’t retreads you’ve read a million times—they’re original stories, told with passion and intent.

94 February 2015

WOODY GUTHRIE: A LIFE Joe Klein, 1980

2

Woody Guthrie’s own semifictionalized autobiography Bound for Glory is a fun read and it made for a great film (see “25 Movies” list), but this narrative nonfiction approach to the populist Dust Bowl balladeer’s life and death gets to the heart of who Guthrie really was. Klein was handpicked to write the book by Guthrie’s widow, Marjorie, who gave the Rolling Stone contributing editor unconditional access to all of Guthrie’s papers. Those documents, as well as Marjorie’s tales of Woody’s strengths and weaknesses, make for the best account of Guthrie’s remarkable life.

DEEP BLUES: A MUSICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA Robert Palmer, 1982

3

The late New York Times music writer, born in Arkansas, penned this tribute to the music that helped to shape rock ’n’ roll and, in effect, much of the world’s pop culture. It’s a lively read that captures the spirit of the living blues. A good companion to director Robert Mugge’s 1992 documentary Deep Blues.

YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART: A BIOGRAPHY OF HANK WILLIAMS Chet Flippo, 1985

Levon Helm, 2000

6

This insider account of the Band, written by drummer Levon Helm, contains nary a reference to the seminal Americana band’s leader, Robbie Robertson, since Helm charged that Robertson had tricked his bandmates out of publishing royalties. Suffice to say, Helm settles a few scores. The other band members had middle-class suburban upbringings, but drew on Southern rural traditions. Helm, who died in 2012, was the real deal— raised on a Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, cotton farm, he grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and King Biscuit Flour Hour on the radio, watched Elvis Presley on stage, and saw the traveling medicine shows that populated the Band’s songs.

Levon Helm dishes the dirt in This Wheel’s on Fire.

RUSSELL LEE PHOTO

His body was wracked with 4 pain, from undiagnosed spina bifida, leading to a life of alcohol and drug abuse. If that’s all there was to say about Hank Williams, he wouldn’t still be idolized more than 60 years after his death. He was one of America’s greatest songwriters. Hollywood is making its second biopic about this titan of country music, and former CMT Editorial Director Chet Flippo’s book hits all the highs and lows to give a cleareyed account of the music giant.

THIS WHEEL’S ON FIRE: THE STORY OF THE BAND

Lonnie Johnson, left, gets wicked on a Martin nylonstring guitar, with Andrew Harris on string bass, and Dan Dixon on rhythm guitar, 1941.

Fong-Torres

HICKORY WIND: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GRAM PARSONS Ben Fong-Torres, 1998

A gripping account of the fast5 living, poor little rich kid who helped transform country rock, may or may not have inspired the Rolling Stones’ song “Wild Horses,” and eventually overdosed in a cheap motel in the high desert outside of Joshua Tree, California. It’s the stuff that cults are made of.

THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA: THE WORLD OF BOB DYLAN’S BASEMENT TAPES Greil Marcus, 2001

7

One of the most thoughtful literary explorations into the mythology of American folk music, from the man who once waxed philosophical about the significance of the pause before the rimshot that opens Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Marcus

SHAKEY: NEIL YOUNG’S BIOGRAPHY

Jimmy McDonough, 2002

8

This authorized biography almost didn’t see the light of day after Young sued for $1.8 million alleging that the book disclosed too many details about his life. Cranky and fiercely protective of his private life, yet desiring to offer fans a peek behind the curtain, Young proved a complex subject. Shakey reveals a man who is something of a walking contradiction, but ardently dedicated to his music, his children, and his friends. You might not want to get on Neil’s bad side, but if this book is evidence, you couldn’t ask for a better friend.


25 Books WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I’M GONE? THE CARTER FAMILY & THEIR LEGACY IN AMERICAN MUSIC Mark Zwonitzer & Charles Hirshberg, 2002

9

To comprehend how mindblowing Maybelle Carter’s intuitive acoustic lead-guitar style and Sara Carter’s stiff-upper-lip vocals were, it’s important to understand their world. It was a tough, harrowing place of little money, great tragedy, and unlimited faith in the remote hills of Virginia. That setting is what made songs from “Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow” to “Keep on the Sunny Side” so emotionally resonant in 1927. “A thing that especially pleased country folk was that the Carters were a family,” songwriter Tom T. Hall tells the authors. Today, many try to recreate the Carters’ “haunting” sound, but what this book successfully communicates is that, to the Carters, it wasn’t haunting—it was real.

TURN, TURN, TURN: THE 1960s FOLK-ROCK REVOLUTION Richie Unterberger, 2002

11

Journalist, author, and lecturer Richie Unterberger specializes in coverage of the 1960s rock era (he’s the author of the wonderfully weird Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators and Eccentric Visionaries of ’60s Rock). In this authoritative book, he set his sights on the Byrds and other key players of the folk-rock scene. This is the predecessor to 2003’s Eight Miles High: Folk-Rock’s Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock.

THE LAND WHERE THE BLUES BEGAN Alan Lomax, 2002

10

At 560 pages, this authoritative book spans the history of roots and blues music from the 1930s, when Lomax worked as a researcher for the Library of Congress, to the 1980s, when he was working as a PBS-TV documentarian. In his early years, Lomax lugged a 500pound tape machine through the Deep South, looking for those who knew Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, and Muddy Waters. This book recalls the work of a man whose mission was to document the humble origins of this country’s greatest music. 96 February 2015

PHOTO BY WILLIAM FERRIS, WILLIAM R. FERRIS COLLECTION, SOUTHERN FOLKLIFE COLLECTION, WILSON LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL.

Maybelle Carter became country music’s matriarch.

NARCOCORRIDO: A JOURNEY INTO THE MUSIC OF DRUGS, GUNS, AND GUERRILLAS Elijah Wald, 2002

In this book by one-time AG contributor Elijah Wald, the guitarist and award-winning author of Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues grabbed his acoustic and boldly traveled to the dangerous heart of the Mexican drug trade. His mission: to research the roots of an acoustic folkballad form known as the narcocorrido, an outlaw outgrowth of the more conventional Mexican corrido that vies only with gangsta rap in its depiction of crime and violence. It’s a fascinating ethnomusicological journey inside a style known for its bright, ringing 12-string guitars (bajo sextos), buoyant accordions, and dark, gripping tales of vicious drug lords.

ELIJAH WALD PHOTO

12

CASH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY Johnny Cash, 2003

13

“Hey, I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I’m certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I’ve read books like The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Love in the Time of Cholera, and I think I’ve understood them,” said Rob, the fast-talking, love-struck record store owner in the movie High Fidelity. “They’re about girls, right? Just kidding. But I have to say my all-time favorite book is Johnny Cash’s autobiography Cash by Johnny Cash.” Good choice, Rob.

DJANGO: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF A GYPSY LEGEND Michael Dregni, 2004

This well-written account 14 of the Gypsy jazz guitar master Django Reinhardt goes beyond the image of the dashing young man with maimed fingers flying over the fretboard. Vintage Guitar columnist Michael Dregni has created a vivid portrait of perhaps the most copied guitarist of the past 100 years, who launched a thousand hot clubs, and still inspires copy cats and annual festivals devoted to his playing style.

Opposite Alan Lomax was one of the chief documenters of American folk music.

Left Los Pajaritos del Sur, with Gabriel Villanueva, play narcocorridos on buses for tips.

THE MAYOR OF MACDOUGAL STREET: A MEMOIR Dave Van Ronk & Elijah Wald, 2005

Folk legend Dave Van Ronk, 15 known as the mayor of Greenwich Village’s MacDougal Street, lends his sardonic wit and endless charm to one of the most readable accounts of the period. If you really want to know what Greenwich Village was like in the 1960s, well, Van Ronk put one wry spin on it.

LEAD BELLY: A LIFE IN PICTURES

Edited by Tiny Robinson & John Reynolds, 2008

16

“Songs just like being around some folks more than others,” Tom Waits wrote in the introduction to this striking pictorial history of singer and songwriter Huddie William Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly. The large-format book is packed with rare, mostly blackand-white photographs, illustrations, letters, lyrics, and essays.

Dave Van Ronk held court in the ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene.


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25 Books

DELTA BLUES: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE MISSISSIPPI MASTERS WHO REVOLUTIONIZED AMERICAN MUSIC Ted Gioia, 2009

17

Fellow jazz historian Gary Giddens called this tome an “expertly researched, elegantly written, dispassionate, yet thoughtful, history.” And in Rolling Stone, AG’s editor Mark Segal Kemp wrote that it “demythologizes the blues and its makers without squeezing the blood out of the subject.” After a string of critically acclaimed books about jazz history, Ted Gioia—the brother of former national poet laureate Dana Gioia—created an authoritative book that ranges from the field hollers in delta plantations of the mid-19th century to the acoustic bluesmen who laid the foundation of modern blues. 98 February 2015

POSITIVELY 4TH STREET: THE LIVES AND TIMES OF JOAN BAEZ, BOB DYLAN, MIMI BAEZ FARIÑA, AND RICHARD FARIÑA David Hajdu, 2011

18

This acclaimed book dwells not so much on the highprofile, contentious relationship between Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, but rather on the burning, and ultimately tragic, love between Baez’s sister Mimi and the hipster folkie Richard Fariña, who David Hajdu credits with inventing folk rock. Not your typically sanitized account of the 1960s folk revival.

HOW MUSIC WORKS David Byrne, 2012

19

Sometimes you need to look at the big picture to know where you’re at, and Talking Heads chief-of-intellect David Byrne is all about the big picture. This thought-provoking collection of essays, which arrived with a cool white naugahyde cover, takes the reader on a global trek from CBGBs to a Vienna opera house, an African village to the streets of New Orleans. Along the way, Byrne explains how such inventions as the Shure Brothers 55S microphone helped to shape modern pop culture.

David Byrne puts the music industry in perspective.

ROLL ME UP AND SMOKE ME WHEN I DIE: MUSINGS FROM THE ROAD Willie Nelson with Kinky Friedman, 2013

20

In this book—part biography, part buddy saga—the Red-Headed Stranger reflects on Texas, picking cotton as a kid, progressive politics, his wives, marijuana, the government, country music, teaching his granddaughter to play guitar while touring with the Highwaymen, and much more. The perfect companion to The Tao of Willie.

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25 Books

I NEVER MET A STORY I DIDN’T LIKE: MOSTLY TRUE TALL TALES Todd Snider, 2014

Early in his career, singer-songwriter, John Prine acolyte, and now author Todd Snider was cursed with the Next Bob Dylan tag. Nonetheless, he’s brought his often self-deprecating wit to stage and studio while gathering devoted fans along the way. In his first book, Snider moves way past the typical road saga to create a work that is part memoir, part stand-up comedy. Sort of a poor man’s Garrison Keillor. His anecdote about finding himself face-to-face with a sawed-off shotgun while using the pay phone at a Nashville bar (that’s the price of bumming around with Billy Joe Shaver) is worth the price of admission. 23

Left Todd Snider spins entertaining tales.

INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR: THE PRE-CIVIL WAR INNOVATIONS OF C.F. MARTIN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Edited by Peter Szego and Robert Shaw, 2013

21

A comprehensive look at the history of Martin—and, by extension, of the great American acoustic guitar—with beautiful photographs and illuminating essays. The book uncovers the missing link in the evolution of Martin guitars from their earliest years as European-style instruments inspired by Viennese luthier Johann Stauffer to the modern flattops we know and love today. That link: The Cadizstyle Spanish guitars Christian Friedrich Martin would see on New York stages during his first years in the U.S. An essential visual and intellectual journey for anyone who loves guitars. 100 February 2015

THE DYLANOLOGISTS: ADVENTURES IN THE LAND OF BOB David Kinney, 2014

22

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Kinney digs deeply into those scholars, fans, and outright lunatics who, in some cases, have devoted their entire adult lives to the search for meaning in the songs of Bob Dylan. Engaging and informative, this book helps to reveal not only the driving forces behind their obsessions, but ultimately the multi-dimensional phenomenon that is Bob Dylan. Kinney offers a clear argument against the notion that Dylan is a plagiarist, suggesting instead that the world’s most famous singer-songwriter is a sort of post-modern performanceart-work-in-progress.

DANCE OF DEATH: THE LIFE OF JOHN FAHEY, AMERICAN GUITARIST Steve Lowenthal, 2014

24

It doesn’t reveal every minute detail of John Fahey’s life, but Dance of Death scratches well beneath the surface of his twisted psyche, thus offering one more glimpse, aside from the guitarist’s own writings, of an insanely adventurous spirit. That someone finally sat down and wrote a linear account of Fahey’s life is an accomplishment in itself, making Dance of Death an essential read for anyone interested in the unlikely places an inventive instrumentalist can take the acoustic guitar. Fahey’s American primitive sound had a huge impact on anyone who picks up an acoustic guitar today, whether or not he or she knows it.

JONI MITCHELL: IN HER OWN WORDS Malka Marom, 2014

25

To grasp this book’s importance, just read from the author’s introduction about a “girl on the stage” who “seemed to be in no hurry to do anything but tune and retune her guitar, tune and retune. My cappuccino cup stood empty and still she kept turning the knob of one string, then another, this way and that way, a bit higher and just a bit lower—but with such intensity that, like a magnet, it drew you out of yourself . . . [S]he strummed a progression of chords with a surprisingly assertive hand. They were unlike any chords I’d heard before.”

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25 Trivia Questions

WHO IS THIS? Make your guess and find out on p. 108

TEST YOUR AG IQ THE OFFICIAL ACOUSTIC GUITAR TRIVIA QUIZ! Acoustic Guitar magazine is blessed with a dedicated, loyal, and astute readership. You know AG… but do you really know AG? There’s only one way to find out! Take this 25-question quiz, covering all things Acoustic Guitar through the years— it’ll definitely separate the men and women from the boys and girls (or, the casual reader from the longtime subscriber). Answers on page 108.

MARK SELGER PHOTO


25 Trivia Questions The premiere issue of Acoustic Guitar came out in July 1990. Its first cover featured who/what?

In May 1993, Chet Atkins told AG the reason he’s never been “real famous” and never will be, was why?

A Hank Williams’ Martin D-28 B Sharon Isbin C Steve Earle D The guitar featured in the hit movie, The Forbidden Dance Is Lambada

A Because he’d never worn a cowboy outfit B He’d never had a No. 1 record C People confuse him with Chet Atkins, Pro Bowl linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams D He was too much of a gentleman to be a celebrity

1

In issue No. 2, guitarist David Bromberg revealed his second career choice was . . . what? 2

A Flautist B Professional wrestler in the WWF C Luthier D Magician

The first installment of AG’s popular 3 “Great Acoustics” department featured the “Eddie Lang Model” Gibson L-5, which is renowned for what? A Being the only instrument to survive the Titanic B Establishing the guitar as a jazz instrument C Using f-holes, and not having frets, like a stand-up bass D As the conceptual basis for the world’s first air guitar

?

4

5

In November 1993, Richard Thompson told AG his epitaph should be:

A “Lights out” B “I told you I was ill” C “Eat my dust” D “He died with his boots on”

AG’s 1992 coverage of the MTV Unplugged phenomenon featured who on the cover? 6

A Eric Clapton B Nirvana C 10,000 Maniacs D Paul McCartney

According to a 1995 AG interview with Jorma Kaukonen, the origins of the name “Hot Tuna” came from…? 7

A An ill-fated visit to a delicatessen in San Francisco’s North Beach in 1965 B It’s cockney slang for “fish ’n’ chips” C The works of cartoonist R. Crumb D Upon learning of Kaukonen and Jack Casady’s Jefferson Airplane spin-off group, Airplane frontman Paul Kantner sneered, “It’ll go over like hot tuna!”

DJANGO CROSBY PHOTO

?

104 February 2015

AG featured an in-depth interview with this legendary guitarist just months before his unexpected death. 8

A Michael Hedges B Jerry Garcia C Stevie Ray Vaughn D Jeff Buckley

In a 1996 cover story, this artist boasted of having a “profound ignorance” of music theory. 9

A Dave Matthews B Floyd Pepper, house band guitarist on The Muppet Show C Peter Tork D David Crosby

AG covered this 1990s phenomenon nearly a year before the Oscarnominated film based on the subject was released. 10

A Spice World B Macarena: The Movie C Pump Up the Volume: The History of House Music D Buena Vista Social Club

In 1996, this notable lap-steel guitarist told AG that “folk music has become too clever for its own good.” 11

A David Lindley B Kaki King C Ben Harper D Jerry Douglas

This folk singer lamented to AG in 1997 just how “terribly, terribly uncool” folk music was in the eyes of Generation X. 12

?

?

A John Denver B Joan Baez C Ani DiFranco D Elliott Smith

This band, which formed in the 1960s, has been on the cover of AG more than any of its rock ’n’ roll contemporaries

?

?

TOM RADCLIFFE PHOTO

?

A The Archies B The Beatles C Crosby Stills & Nash D The Grateful Dead


ANDY CAMBRIA PHOTO

13


25 Trivia Questions In 2000, AG’s biannual Players’ Choice Awards began naming the “most popular guitar model” (known today as Guitar of the Year). The first recipient was . . .

AG has featured on its cover many of the greatest figures in acoustic-guitar music of the past quarter century. Which of these artists has not been on the cover (yet)?

A Martin 000-18 B Taylor 810 C Gibson J-200 D Martin D-28

A Bob Dylan B Joni Mitchell C Paul Simon D Neil Young

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?

15

In 2001, AG dedicated major coverage to the acclaimed soundtrack to this hit movie. 16

A Moulin Rouge B O Brother, Where Art Thou? C Chicago D From Justin to Kelly

In 2004, Acoustic Guitar magazine hosted its first what? 17

The Capo Company

A Wine tour B Boot-scootin’ hootenanny C Music cruise D All-you-can-eat pancake breakfast

In 2006, AG asked: What makes a song great? And this gritty country legend replied, “If I knew that, I’d rule the world.” 18

A Steve Earle B Merle Haggard C Kris Kristofferson D Willie Nelson

AG’s helped guitarists learn countless songs over the years through its monthly “Acoustic Classics” and “Songbook” transcriptions. Which artist or band leads the pack, with songs appearing a whopping 15 times over the years? 19

A Bob Dylan B Joni Mitchell C Richard Thompson D The Beatles

Performance 2 Smaller, lighter, faster

A Leo Kottke B Norman Blake C Tony Rice D Tommy Emmanuel

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106 February 2015

According to a 2005 Acoustic Guitar poll, AG readers’ favorite guitarist of all time was . . . ? 20

?

RONALD RIETMAN PHOTO

?

?

?

? This child of a legendary singersongwriter has been AG’s most-often featured celebrity offspring. 23

A Martha Wainwright B Rosanne Cash C Jakob Dylan D Carlene Carter

In 2008, AG was covering the rise of “freak folk,” which had been pushed to the mainstream by the film Juno, which featured the music of who? 24

According to that same 2005 poll, AG readers’ all-time favorite acoustic song was . . . ? 21

A “Aerial Boundaries” by Michael Hedges B “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” by Richard Thompson C “Blackbird” by the Beatles D “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor

In that 2005 poll, AG readers’ all-time 22 favorite acoustic album was . . . ? A Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan B Pink Moon by Nick Drake C O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack from the film D Unplugged by Eric Clapton

A Devendra Banhart B Kimya Dawson C CocoRosie D Animal Collective

In August 2006, AG featured on its cover this multi-instrumentalist known more for his electric rock. 25

A Yngwie Malmsteen B Nigel Tufnel C Dave Grohl D Jimi Hendrix AcousticGuitar.com 107

25 Trivia Questions

ALISSA ANDERSON PHOTO

?

Guitar Week, July 26-Aug. 1, with

Clive Carroll, Dakota Dave Hull, David Jacobs-Strain, Al Petteway, Sean McGowan, Jonathan Brown, Steve Baughman, Allen Shadd, Mike Dowling, Folk Arts Workshops at Robin Bullock, Warren Wilson College Vicki Genfan, PO Box 9000 Toby Walker, Asheville NC 28815 Gerald Ross, 828.298.3434 www.swangathering.com Ed Dodson, Greg Ruby, Rolly Brown, Bill Cooley & more. • Trad. Song Week, July 5-11 • Celtic Week, July 12-18 • Old-Time Week, July 19-25 • Contemporary Folk Week, July 26- Aug. 1 • Mando & Banjo Week, August 2-8 • Fiddle Week, August 2-8 108 February 2015

Answers 1. b; 2. d; 3. b; 4. a; 5. d; 6. a; 7. c; 8. a or b; 9. a; 10. d; 11. c; 12. c; 13. b; 14. d; 15. d; 16. b; 17. c; 18. b; 19. d; 20. a; 21. c; 22. d; 23. b; 24. b; 25. c

Photos Pg. 103 Sheryl Crow Pg. 104, left to right Chet Atkins, David Crosby Pg. 105, clockwise from top left Courtney Hartman, Kris Kristofferson, John Cephas, David Grisman, Kaki King Pg. 106 Michael Kiwanuka Pg. 107, clockwise from top left Peter Rowan, Emmylou Harris, Tom Waits, Gabriela Quintero, Odetta Above Devendra Banhart

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112

Acoustic Classic Joni Mitchell has an ‘Urge for Going’

122

Acoustic Classic Play Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’

128

Basics Get harmonic with compact chord progressions

130

Weekly Workout Add some spice to your leads

PLAY

126

Seth Avett: Show us your Martin.

JOEY O’CONNOR PHOTO


ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Primal ‘Urge’

Joni Mitchell gets back to basics with a classic in standard tuning BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

ery few singer-songwriters are as intensely creative on the guitar as Joni Mitchell, with her penchant for using uncommon harmonies picked in a complex, idiosyncratic way. To get these sounds, Mitchell exploits creative tunings like C G D F C E (as heard on “Sisotowbell Lane”) and B F# B E A E (“The Magdalene Laundries”). Standard is something of an alternate tuning for Mitchell, and “Urge for Going” is one of the rare instances in which she uses it. Despite the standard tuning, there are still some harmonically compelling elements at work here. In the intro and most of the verse, Mitchell slides simple two- and three-note chord shapes against the ringing open first string, creating a handful of colorful chords: Dm(add9), Bb(#4), A, and G6/A. While the A is the plainest of these chords, this voicing (shown in measures 3–4, 7–9, etc.) contains a pleasing timbral contrast between the unison E notes on the first and second strings. Although not shown in the notation, Mitchell plays root-

V

URGE FOR GOING

WORDS AND MUSIC BY JONI MITCHELL

Capo III Intro

D m(add9) B b( # 4) # # # 4 œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ. & 4 let ring throughout 0 0 6 6 7 7

in the fifth measure by a second guitar playing basically the same patterns. This arrangement is a handy composite of both parts. Don’t be overly concerned with playing the transcription notefor-note, but in the verse be sure to hit bass notes on the first beat of each measure, the and of two, and beat 4, for the proper quasi-Latin lilt. Strive for evenness in your picking hand, letting every note ring as long as possible to enhance the beauty of the chords. AG

position chords throughout the second and third verses, substituting an Em7 voicing rooted on the sixth string for the G6/A and G/A chords. This works neatly, because an Em7 (E G B D) is basically a reordering of the notes in G6 (G B D E). Mitchell recorded “Urge for Going” with a capo on the third fret, so the music shown here will sound a minor-third higher than written. On the recording, a single steel-string guitar is joined

7

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6 8

0 7

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A Em7 A 2. I had me a man in summertime, he had summer-colored skin Em7 A Em7 A And not another girl in town my darling’s heart could win D C But when the leaves fell on the ground

D C I’d like to call back summertime D C E E7 And have her stay for just another month or so A G Asus2 But she’s got the urge for going so I guess she’ll have to go

D E E7 D C EC E7 Andand bullya-racin’ winds came around Flapping on before the pushed snow them face down in the snow

Repeat Chorus (She gets . . . )

A A G G Asus2 Asus2 He got the urge for going and I hadthe to let himsogothey can go They got the urge for going and they got wings

Outro Chorus

Repeat Chorus Repeat Chorus (They (He get .got . . ). . . ) A Em7 A b # 3.Interlude: Now the warriors of winter, they give a cold triumphant shout Dm(add9) B ( 4) A Em7 A Em7 A LISTEN And all that stays is dying, all that lives is gettin’ out TO A G6/A A C now, I’ll pull the blankets up to my chin 4. I’ll THIS plyDthe fire with kindling See the geese in chevron flight Joni Mitchell G6/A A G6/A A of vagrant a Prairie Girl out and I’ll hold my wandering in I’llSongs lock the winter Asylum / Reprise Nonesuch / Rhino D C

I’d like to call back summertime D C E E7 And have her stay for just another month or so A G Asus2 But she’s got the urge for going so I guess she’ll have to go 116 February 2015

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ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Call of the ‘Wildwood’

The seeds of this Carter Family ‘flower’ continue to spread BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

n 1928, the Carter Family of Poor Valley, Virginia, traveled up north, to Pennsylvania, to record a handful of songs. The family could have scarcely imagined that the fruits of that session, including “Wildwood Flower,” would essentially lay the bedrock for country music. “Wildwood Flower” began life many years before the Carter Family recorded it. It was originally published in 1860 as “I’ll Twin ’Mid the Ringlets,” with music by Joseph Philbrick Webster and words by Maud Irving. The song was transmitted orally, and other versions, like “The Pale Amaranthus,” were heard in the South in the early 1900s. Woody Guthrie also appropriated it for the verses of his song “The Sinking of the Reuben James.” “Wildwood Flower” would be performed and recorded many times by the Carter Family

I

118 February 2015

and other country and folk singers. And listening to the original 1928 version, it’s easy to understand why the song became an instrumental guitar standard, the yardstick by which a country picker’s prowess is measured. Maybelle Carter was only 19 when she recorded her guitar part, but she already had an advanced approach to the instrument, weaving together low-register melodies and higher chord fragments, as seen in this arrangement. On the original recording, Carter, with her Gibson L-5 in hand, played the song in the key of C major, but since her guitar was tuned down a step and a half, the music sounded in A. If you choose to do the same, keep in mind that this arrangement will sound a minor third lower than written.

The story of the Carter Family hit the big screen last spring in the documentary The Winding Storm. That’s Maybelle at far right.

In learning the song, start with the verse— it’s simpler than the instrumental intro. To play like Carter, try fingerpicking the first few four bars of that section with your thumb (either with or without a thumb pick) articulating the down-stemmed notes and your other fingers strumming the up-stemmed notes. (To see how this should look, look for a video clip of Mother Maybelle playing the piece on YouTube.) Alternatively, you could try flatpicking the song, as Tony Rice did with the mandolinist David Grisman on their 1994 album, Tone Poems. Whatever pick-hand approach you choose, if you find yourself getting tripped up, isolate the bass notes and then add the chords. A similarly methodical approach will guide you in learning the intro. Once you’ve mastered both sections, try playing and singing the song at the same time. AG

WILDWOOD FLOWER

WORDS AND MUSIC BY A.P. CARTER

Tune down 1 1/2 steps Intro Bright country

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ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Song of Freedom Bob Marley emancipates himself on final track, ‘Redemption Song’

‘We forward in this generation triumphantly.’ Bob Marley

BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

he final track on Bob Marley’s final album, Uprising, “Redemption Song” is one of the reggae singer-songwriter’s most powerful pieces, with its themes of physical and psychological slavery and freedom. Musically speaking, this great folk anthem of 1980 is also one of Marley’s least characteristic numbers, stripped of his customary reggae rhythms and distilled to the spare sound of the singer and his acoustic guitar. To put it another way: “Redemption Song” has more in common with the work of a young Bob Dylan than with Jamaican roots reggae. Marley kicks off the song in the bright key of G major, with a single-note guitar figure in the open position (notated here to the right of

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the chord frames). While the part is simple, it’s full of grace notes, indicated by the tiny notes G with slashes through them. In case you’re21unfa00 34 miliar with these ornaments, they’re quick little slurs, in this case all hammer-ons, directly preceding certain notes. It’s important not to let the grace notes trip up the overall rhythmicAfeel, m x0 2310 so you might want to first learn the riff without them. Also key to playing the intro riff is being mindful of the staccato markings—the dots on select noteheads that call for their durations to be truncated. releasing pressure on G 34 0 E mDo this C by G /B x 32 0 1causing 21 00 23 000finger, 0 x 2 00 4 x the note to stop your fret-hand sounding. Also try applying light palm-muting

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to the riff—rest your pick-hand palm on the strings as you play, causing them to sound E 000 m C 1 0 xG /B x 32 0dampened. 2 00 4 x 0 23slightly The chords here are basic, likely grips you already know. Note that the second verse’s fourth line swaps out a D chord for the A minor. AsDfor the A pick m6hand, Marley likely strummed x x0 132 x0 2314 the song using fingerpicking. To do the same, use a constant eighth-note pattern, strumming with a downstroke with your thumb on each0 2 3 on beat and an upstroke with your index finger the ands of the beats. m this If you’re used G to strumming with aEpick, jtheysubtler 1.willOld pirates yes and rob I feel to approach lend a lighter j œ your accompaniment. œ AG C G/B Am

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2. Emancipate yourselves Chorusfrom mental slavery Repeat Choru None but ourselves can free our minds G C G/B Am 2. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery help to sing By the hand of the Almighty Have no fear for Won’t atomicyou energy None but ourselves can free our minds ’Cause themDcan stop the G time G Em none of C Have no fear for atomic energy Interlude These of freedom We forward in this generation How long shall they kill songs our prophets ’Cause none of them can stop the time Em C While we stand aside and C look D ooh Em C D How long shall they kill our prophets Triumphantly Some say it’s just’Cause a part all of Iitever have While we stand aside and look ooh C the D book G We’ve got to fulfill Some say it’s just a part of it Repeat Verse Redemption songs Chorus We’ve got to fulfill the book G C D GRepeat Chorus C D Redemption songs Won’t you help to sing Chorus Repeat Chorus

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©1980 FIFTY-SIX HOPE ROAD MUSIC LTD. AND ODNIL MUSIC LTD. ALL RIGHTS IN NORTH AMERICA ADMINISTERED BY BLUE MOUNTAIN MUSIC LTD./IRISH TOWN SONGS (ASCAP) AND THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD BY BLUE MOUNTAIN MUSIC LTD. (PRS). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD CORPORATION

0 3 Chorus

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Won’t you help to sing 2. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery

Chorus

None but ourselves can free our minds These songs of freedom Have no fear for atomic energy

Won't you help to sing

C

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’Cause none of them can stop the time ’Cause all I ever have How long shall they kill our prophets

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Redemption songsWhile we stand aside and look ooh Some say it’s just a part of it

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Redemption songs C

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LISTEN TO THIS!

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Redemption songs

Interlude C D (play four times)

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These songs of freedom C D

Bob Marley & The Wailers Uprising Tuff Gong / Island

G

Songs of freedom

Repeat Verse 2

Outro C

Chorus

G/B

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D

Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamps

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Songs of freedom Outro C

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ACOUSTIC CLASSIC “Orphan Girl,” from her 1996 debut, Revival, finds the singer-songwriter in a stripped-down duet with her musical partner, David Rawlings, playing with such depth and correctness that her place of origin is irrelevant. Welch recorded “Orphan Girl” in the key of G major with a capo at the first fret, causing the song to sound in the key of Ab. Accordingly, the notation here is in G, but if you use the capo it will sound a half step higher than written. The song has only three basic chords—the I, the V, and the IV (G, D, and C)—which you no doubt already know. In the intro, a sort of Carter-strumming pattern is heard—one that continues into the verses and interludes. This approach pits a melodic bass line against chord strums, mostly on beats 2 and 4, with downstrokes on the beats and upstrokes on the ands. Be sure to pick the bass notes with definition, so they’re not drowned out by the chords. Two guitars are heard in loose unison on the original recording. In the intro, one guitar sneaks in a Gadd9 chord (shown here to the left of the notation), which adds a subtle harmonic color. In this arrangement, though, I’ve streamlined the song to only one guitar part. The music shown after the intro pattern is the engine that drives the song. Learn those six measures, and you should have no trouble playing the entire tune. AG

Down Home ‘Girl’

Gillian Welch may be from L.A., but ‘Orphan Girl’ shows her rural chops BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

hen Gillian Welch emerged on the folk scene of the 1990s, some critics accused her of being inauthentic, appropriating early 20th century Appalachian sounds while hailing from West Los Angeles. But her music has always revealed that Welch is more than just casually acquainted with these rural idioms.

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L.A. woman: Gillian Welch

ORPHAN GIRL

WORDS AND MUSIC BY GILLIAN WELCH

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124 February 2015

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©1994 IRVING MUSIC, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED USED BY PERMISSION REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD CORPORATION

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But when He calls me I will be able To meet my family at God’s table I’ll meet my mother my father My sister my brother No more an orphan girl

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ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Thin Line Between ‘Love and Hate’ Avett Brothers’ ballad is a showstopper for the ages BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

n the mid-2000s the Avett Brothers—two North Carolina siblings and some of their friends—made a name for themselves by incorporating pop and rock into the traditional music of their home state through tight vocal harmonies and string-band instrumentation. But one of the Avetts’ signature songs, “The Ballad of Love and Hate,” from the band’s 2007 album Emotionalism, does away with the ensemble, spotlighting Seth Avett and his

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Seth Avett strums his custom McConnell. Note the wooden skull inlay on the top.

126 February 2015

guitar in a gentle waltz that’s known to bring a hush over the most boisterous audiences. On the original recording, “The Ballad of Love and Hate” is played in the key of C major, but due to a third-fret capo, it sounds a minor-third higher, in the key of Eb .This gives the music a more delicate feel while suiting Avett’s vocal range. The song is played with only five chords— make sure you’ve got these under your fingers before working through the piece. Then tackle the eight-bar intro, the first four measures of which we’ve notated here. In this section, a C chord is embellished with hammer-ons and pull-offs on the third and fourth strings. Use

your second finger for all of these slurs, and execute them as evenly as possible. The C chord is decorated in the same way throughout the ten verses that follow. The other chords tend to be played more simply: the root note on beat 1, followed by eighth-note down-up strums on 2 and 3, as shown here in notation on the G chord. Try plugging the same rhythmic pattern into the F and A minor chords. Also notated is the measure with the C/B— the only new chord in the song that doesn’t come in squarely on beat 1. Once you’ve learned this and the other strumming pattern, it should be easy to play the whole song. AG

WORDS AND MUSIC BY SCOTT AVETT, SETH AVETT & ROBERT CRAWFORD

THE BALLAD OF LOVE AND HATE

Intro Intro Intro Chords, CapoIIIIII Chords, Capo Chords, Capo III

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THE BASICS

Turn That Thing Around How to add harmonic interest to your music with a range of compact chord progressions BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

s its name suggests, a turnaround is a progression of chords, usually a short one, that takes music back to where it started. Turnarounds are an essential component of many different styles. Jazz and blues progressions, for example, are packed with them, and the Baroque piece “Pachelbel’s Canon,” by the German composer Johann Pachelbel, is essentially one big turnaround. While a turnaround is often placed at the end of a piece, it can also occur within a composition as a transition between sections, for example, ending the music of a first verse and leading a song to the second verse.

Here are a handful of different two-measure turnarounds, all of which can be plugged into the final two bars of a 12-bar blues progression, or appropriated for use in your own songs.

A

also in the key of G. After refreshing yourself on the blues structure, see Ex. 2a, the most basic kind of turnaround. Here, the V chord (D7) is added to the last measure of the 12-bar form, resolving to the I chord (G7) when the form is repeated. A variation on this turnaround is shown in Ex. 2b, where the bVI chord (Eb7) falls on the “and” of beat 2. The turnaround depicted in Ex. 3a is one that sets up a ii–V–I, the most common progression in jazz (Am7–D7–Gmaj7) in the key of G major. This sort of turnaround is often encountered in a jazz version of the blues, or within a popular standard. The variation in Ex. 3b adds

COMMON BLUES & JAZZ MOVES You may already be familiar with the 12-bar blues. If not, check out Ex. 1, which demonstrates the structure in its most basic form in the key of G, with the I, IV, and V chords (G7, C7, and D7), those built on the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the G major scale (G A B C D E F#). Play through the example a few times before moving forward to the other examples,

Play through this example a few times before moving forward.

Ex. 1

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128 February 2015

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Now let’s kick things up a notch with a turnaround G 7that involves what’s known in jazz as 3 x000 1 tritone substitution. The music in Ex. 5a swaps out the expected KICK IT UP A NOTCH V chord (D7) for the bII, Ab7, whose root is a The diminished seventh chord, a stack of tritone (three whole steps, or an augmented minor thirds, is another great tool for use in fourth/diminished fifth) away. building turnarounds. In the iii–vi–ii–V (Bm7– In Ex. 5b, a tritone substitution occurs in Em7–Am7–D7) progression shown in Ex. 4a, the first bar—there’s a Bb7 chord sitting in for the Bm7 and Am7 chords are a whole step the Em7. apart. Replacing the Em7 chord with a Bdim7 One of the more colorful turnarounds in 2 the2 Bm72 and2Am7 to0be smoothly 0 0 0 jazz is1 known 1 1 the1 Tadd Dameron turnchord allows as 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 connected2via half step, as notated in Ex. 4b. around, after the who used it in his 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 0 0 0composer 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Step it up a few notches in examples 2 through 6.

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Adam Perlmutter is an Acoustic Guitar 1 2 2 2 2 1 editor 1 1who transcribes, contributing engraves, 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 and0 arranges music for numerous publications. 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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Ex. 2a work. As played in Ex. 6a, this move involves another Gb 7 tritone substitution, D 7 with the bVI chord x xx 3 1 000 0213 (E 7) sitting in for the ii (Am7). In a very pretty variation (Ex. 6b), all of the chords include the major rather than the flatted seventh. But these progressions needn’t just be used for jazz pieces. Regardless of your style, try appropriating the turnarounds for use in your own compositions. AG

the vi chord (Em7) to form a I–vi–ii–V turnaround, one D 7of the most essentialCprogressions 7 xx0213 in general in popular music. x 3241 0

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4


WEEKLY WORKOUT

Solo Picoso

Add spice to your lead lines with symmetrical scales BY SEAN McGOWAN

ne great way to add new and interesting sounds to your lead breaks and solo lines is to incorporate less-common scales alongside familiar pentatonic and diatonic vocabulary. Here are some tips on adding new dimensions to your soloing with three symmetrical scales—whole tone, diminished, and dominant diminished—with their repeating interval patterns. While these pitch collections are most commonly encountered in jazz improvisation,

O

Week 11 Week Ex. 1

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Ex. 2

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WEEK ONE The first symmetrical scale (Ex. 1) is the whole tone. It features six notes, built entirely on whole steps, or major second intervals. There are only two different whole-tone scales, spelled C D E F# G# Bb and Db Eb F G A B. These scales work well over dominant seventh chords, particularly those with an altered fifth (b5 or #5). For example, the chords C7#5, D7b5, and E7 #5 will all take the same whole-tone

they also can be heard in contemporary stringband music. Flatpicking phenoms Grant Gordy and David Grier use the scales to great effect within the context of traditional tunes. Work on getting some of these scale patterns under your fingers, as well as applying them to lead lines and solo breaks. Then, you’ll see how to add some melodic spice to a standard 12-bar blues progression—caliente!

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Ex. 4 G7 #5

Ex. 5 130 February 2015

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scale. Incidentally, the whole tone scale also triplet-based line over a C7 chord. The notes in works well as a technical exercise, as it brings this particular whole tone scale are 1, 2, 3, #4/ b5, #5, and b7. That’s why whole tone scales your fingers and ears together in new ways. The first example illustrates a movable scale work well over dominant seventh chords with pattern with the root starting on the low E b5 and #5 alterations. string; Ex. 2 illustrates a more extended pattern, spanning three octaves. The fingering WEEK TWO pattern shifts between three and two notes per Expand your workout to another popular string, which makes symmetrical scale. The diminished scale, some11 13 15 for 13a challenging 11 9 7 flatpick10 8 6times called the whole-half scale, is made of ing exercise in addition to a fret-hand workout. 8 6 whole and half steps. It works beautiEx. 3 shows a common fingering for an repeating 9 7 5 8 6chords, which extended whole-tone scale, in this case starting fully over diminished seventh 9 7 5 3 on a low E and using a three-note-per-string are are also symmetrical, their shapes repeating pattern. All of these patterns and fingerings up and down the neck every three frets as you’ll Ex. 4 will work in any key. see in Ex. 1. And they are all equal according to # 5 Edim7 chord has the same G 7an Ex. 4 is an interesting lick over a G7 #5 the root, i.e., 4 1 2 4 etc. chord. You can think of it as a G whole-tone notes as G dim7, B bdim7, and D bdim7. Ex. 2 line, but of course the same line will work just shows a fingering that stays in position, while as well over F7, A7, B7, Db7, and Eb7 chords Ex. 3 incorporates an extended pattern. Note due to its symmetrical nature. Ex. 5 offers a how the fingering is consistent from the A movable whole-tone pattern with the root on string all the way up to the high E. A symmetthe A string. Finally, Ex. 6 shows a twisty, rical pattern like this really helps you quickly 6 8 10 12 5 7 9 5 5 7 9 8 6 8 4 3 5 7 6 4 6

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With the three-note-perstring patterns, try to stick with the same fingering, 1–2–4, to maintain consistency on each string.

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TIP 2

for context. Also start on Bb, Db, and E, and notice how they all sound the same.

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Week 33 Week Ex. 1

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b œ œ # œ n œ b # œœœ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ n œ b œ #œ nœ #œ œ œ #œ & œ bœ œ bœ œ œ A 13 b 9

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BEGINNERS’

TIP 3

Try to see and hear the dominant-seventh arpeggio (1–3–5–b7) within the dominant diminished scale, as you did using the basic A7 arpeggio in Ex. 4.

and efficiently move across the fretboard to higher registers. Ex. 4 shows a movable pattern with the root on the fifth string, and Ex. 5 lays down a cool, symmetrical sounding line utilizing the C diminished scale over a Cdim7 chord. When playing this, it may feel like you’re in A, which makes sense as Adim7 is the same as Cdim7, just a different root. Ex. 6 illustrates a common chord move of Bdim7 and Ddim7 (both implying a G7b9), resolving to Cm. Since Bdim7 and Ddim7 are the same chords, you can use one scale over both of them.

WEEK THREE This week, work on the dominant diminished, or half-whole scale. This pitch population is constructed of symmetrical half and whole steps, essentially the opposite of a diminished scale. As the name implies, a dominant diminished scale can be used to excellent effect over dominant seventh chords, specifically with the extensions b9, #9, #11, and 13. How does this work? Take the notes of an A7b9 chord—A, C#, E, G, and Bb. Notice that the top four notes create a C#dim7 (C#–E–G–Bb). Ex. 1 shows a typical pattern for this scale, in which a G dominant diminished pattern resolves to a G13(b9) chord. This scale works because the b9 and 13 are part of the scale. You can also apply the scale over a basic G7 chord for some interesting colors. A typical pattern in C is shown in Ex. 2, followed by two examples of lines created from this scale. Ex. 3 illustrates a blues-influenced line over a G13 chord; it starts in a familiar box pattern, but then moves to some interesting color notes from this scale. A common blues box in A is used to kick off Ex. 4, but then arpeggios of A and Eb arpeggios are superimposed to create tension leading up to the final A13 chord. WEEK FOUR In the late 19th century, classical composers such as Tchaikovsky frequently explored the tonalities of the diminished scale and chords. They also discovered that diminished scales contain not only diminished seventh chords repeating in minor thirds, but also major triads. For example, within the F diminished scale are the triads G, Bb, Db, and E. We can use these over dominant seventh chords for some wild colors and sounds. For example, a G dominant diminished scale has the major triads G, Bb, Db, and E (Ex. 1 and 2). Ex. 3 offers one possible pattern to move these triads around the fretboard. It can be a little challenging at first to organize the layout of these four triads, so it helps to use repeating or symmetrical patterns to help remember the shapes.

TIP 4 BEGINNERS’

In the late 19th century, classical composers such as Tchaikovsky frequently explored the tonalities of the diminished scale and chords.

Spend some time mapping out and practicing basic major triad arpeggios all over the neck in different keys, to acquaint yourself with the sound before trying diminished substitutions.


WEEKLY WORKOUT

before moving to a G whole-tone scale in bar 4, EXTRA CREDIT which sets up a nice G7#5 sound that resolves to Apply the scales and concepts you’ve learned to Week 4 the C7 in bar 5. a basic 12-bar blues in the key of G. You’ll Ex. 1the I–IV–V pattern, with an added 2 chord is recognize In measure 6, the C#dim7Ex. passing # # 3 C diminished C dim7G chord inBthe sixth move with Dbar, a common E G negotiated E D the G scale B (whichD in R&B- and jazz-flavored blues. Since the is a reordering of the notes in the G diminished progression contains all dominant seventh scale). Jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery loved chords with one diminished 3seventh chord, you this sound and used it quite often in the context 3 3 can easily experiment with the whole-tone and 3 of blues3 tunes. 3 diminished scales as solo vocabulary. Measures 7–8 feature mixed major triads 4 with 4 a7 basic 3 The first three measures start (G, E, D b) from the G dominant diminished 3 3 6 6 5 3 5 0 3 6 riff moving the6 G7 and C7 chords, scale over a 6G7 chord, creating 4 between 3 4 4 0 a beautiful 3 6 5 6 6 3 5 0 3 6

b b b n œ b œ # œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ nœ nœ œ œ bœ bœ & œ œ bœ #œ œ nœ

sound when blended with more common blues and pentatonic lines. The turnaround starts in measures 9–10 with D and C dominant diminished lines over D7 and C7 chords, respectively, before E resolving G to G7,B and then D moving E to a D whole-tone lick over the D7#5, taking us back to a final G13#9 chord. AG

b b #œ œ œœ b n œœœ b b œœ n œœ nœ

b b b œ # n œœ œ œ b œœ b œ œ

n n œœœ

Sean McGowan (seanmcgowanguitar.com) is a jazz guitarist based in Denver, where he directs the guitar program at the University 9 3 6 9 12 of Colorado. 9 4 7 10 13 9 5 8 11 14

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Extra Ex. 3Credit

G7#9

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HERE’S HOW

notes for the second half of the song. Play eighth note triplets as you go around again, then switch to 16th notes for the remaining section. Don’t worry about the sound of the E note against the chords. In fact, you’ll notice that it sounds quite good if you’re using the C-Am-Dm-G7.

It will put you in control of your solo, and you’ll have more fun playing with the band. STOP MAKING SENSE Next, learn what I like to call a nonsense line. Set your fretting hand up in seventh-fret position, so that you’re covering frets 7, 8, 9, and 10. On the first string (high E), play fingers 4 and 2. On the second string, play fingers 3 and 1. Go back to the first string and play fingers 3 and 1. That’s the six-note fingering pattern you’ll work with. Don’t worry about what the notes are, or their relationship to the chords. Continue to the second string and play 4 and 2, go to the third string and play 3-1, then back to the second string and play 3 and 1. Work your way to the low E string this way.

3

And the Beat Goes On

Rhythm awareness is the key to staying in time with the band

t’s your turn to take a solo on the instrumental break. You know just what you want to play because you’ve been practicing that scale fragment followed by the arpeggio over the dominant-seven chord that creates just the right tension to pull it back to the I chord. It’s brilliant! So how did you beat the rhythm section to the finish line? Or, maybe it’s the opposite: you’re still soloing when the rest of the folks have moved on to the next verse. It could be that your attention has been on finding and fingering the notes on the fretboard, without paying heed to the rhythm of the melodic line in the context of the overall groove. By tuning into the many possible rhythmic variations of a line, your playing will begin to develop a solid, dependable feel. You will make conscious choices about the rhythm of your line, rather than defaulting to, say, eighth notes all the time. Practicing rhythmic awareness will show you the importance of the groove and the

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136 February 2015

TRY A DIFFERENT NOTE Hit play again and work your nonsense line using quarter notes until they feel comfortable. Switch to eighth notes and feel what that does to the quirky, angular line. Eighth note triplets come next, and they should feel right at home with a six-note phrase. Finally, play 16th notes (count “1-ee-and-uh” per click). The natural accents of the rise and fall of the line will sometimes occur on off-beats. Once the one-note solo and the nonsense line begin to feel steady and comfortable, try it at different tempos. Instead of starting with quarter notes and progressing to 16th notes, mix up the rhythms randomly. Choose a different note to repeat, perhaps an open string. Start the nonsense line in a different position. You can just use the click alone without the backing track to experiment, but eventually play in the context of chords in time again. This will create a good habit of making time and your selection of rhythm a top priority.

4

BY JANE MILLER

division of the beats. It will put you in control of your solo, and you’ll have more fun playing with the band. Practice these four steps: BE YOUR OWN BAND Make a quick and easy backing track to play along with. A phone voice memo, or any simple recording device, will be fine for this. Set a metronome at 60 to get started. Play the chords to a song you’ve been practicing lately, or just use a typical chord progression like C-Am-Dm-G7, one chord per measure. Make the recording long enough to use for your practice: twice through a song, or 16 or so times through the four-bar phrase.

1

PICK A NOTE, ANY NOTE On playback, choose one note to play. Let’s say it’s E on the 5th fret of the 2nd (B) string. Play quarter notes right along with the click for half of the song. Then switch to eighth

2

Jane Miller is an associate professor of guitar at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

140

Makers & Shakers Travis Atz revives Loar and Recording King brands

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Guitar Guru Dana Bourgeois demystifies the art of French polishing

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Great Acoustics In 1937, Jack Hall made a guitar from matchsticks

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New Gear D-35 Brazilian marks Martin’s 50th anniversary

AG TRADE

SHOPTALK

The Boom Years

Acoustic guitar sales continue to thrive— and so do the theories about what’s fueling this explosion BY MARC GREILSAMER

s the great thinker Homer J. Simpson once said, “People can come up with statistics to prove anything—14 percent of all people know that.” What, then, to make of the “acoustic explosion” that seems to be taking place? According to a recent article in Music Trades, acoustic guitars accounted for 55 percent of the overall guitar market in 2013 (the most recent figures)—its highest share in decades and a steady trend over the past three years. Sales of acoustic guitars are still off the pace they set a decade ago, before the Great Recession wreaked its havoc, but they’ve bounced back with gusto since 2009. Electric guitars, not so much. It’s easy to look at popular bands like Mumford & Sons, the Avett Brothers, and the Lumineers, and claim that the industry is in the midst of a folk boom. Yet, the reality is much more complicated. “To me, the ‘boom’ in fretted

A

acoustic instruments is the result of many streams flowing into one river,” notes Dan Vedda, columnist for the Music and Sound Retailer and owner of Ohio’s Skyline Music store. “One stream is the products themselves. In my store, I tell people you can’t afford not to be a guitarist. Never has such good quality been available at such reasonable prices. We can sell a solid-top instrument for just under $200.” Vedda cites a combination of factors that have helped keep costs low for builders and customers alike: cheap labor, availability of quality farmed tonewoods, and computer technology among them. Phil Rich, senior VP of marketing at megaretailer Sweetwater Music, also points to the high quality of product as a contributing factor. “I think we have to give some credit to our North American acoustic-guitar manufacturing,” he says. “Both Taylor and Martin have

done a fabulous job building their best guitars ever, and along with that they’re doing the best marketing job they’ve ever done.” Others point to sociological aspects driving the trend. “It’s also happening for reasons of personal expression, satisfaction, and community—it isn’t star-driven,” Vedda says. “When the Beatles hit Ed Sullivan, every kid wanted to play. Today, the influencer is a friend, neighbor, or coworker as much as anything. I think we’ve reached a point where the interest is self-sustaining, for all the right reasons.” Dr. Gillian Mitchell, professor at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews and author of The North American Folk Music Revival: Nation and Identity in the United States and Canada, 19451980, also notices a sociological component. “For many people in the ’30s and, indeed, in the ’60s, folk, with its gentler instrumentation and AcousticGuitar.com 137

its deceptive simplicity, represented something of substance, sincerity, and significance,” she says. “The same could arguably be said of acoustic and folk music enthusiasts today.” Notes Keith Brawley, VP of sales at Taylor Guitars, “This is a time of social, economic, and political unrest, and guitars are the accompaniment instrument of choice for ‘the people’ once again.” And let’s not forget the economic part of the equation. If booze, as the old adage goes, is recession-proof, so, too, perhaps, are acoustic guitars.

‘Never has such good quality been available at such reasonable prices.’ DAN VEDDA

“In my tenure with Guitar Center as VP of guitars and accessories, which was during the economic downturn, we saw our acoustic-guitar sales outperform nearly every other category, and everyone thought the sky was falling in electric guitars,” Rich says. “The fact is that when times got tough, customers were far more willing to trade in their electric guitars—or sell them to a local store—than their acoustics. The perception in the market is that a $299 acoustic guitar is pretty good, and a lot of people don’t see the value in spending more, so why trade it in? When it comes to electric guitars, the market believes that a $999 electric guitar truly is a lot better than a $299 electric, and a lot of customers make several jumps over time to get that elusive USA-made electric guitar. So the market was flooded with used electric guitars, which made the sales numbers on new electrics look horrific. “Now that the economy is bouncing back, and with not a lot of used acoustic inventory out there, the manufacturers making new acoustic guitars are really feeling the uptick, while the primarily electric-guitar makers are not feeling it as much. There’s still a ton of used electric guitars in the market.” Adds Dr. Mitchell, “It could be argued, as scholars of the ’30s suggested, that uncertainty and hardship encourage people to simplify, and to look back towards their roots for spiritual and cultural sustenance.” f course, cultural changes have played a role as well—and not simply due to the rise of popular string bands and singer-songwriters. Acoustic guitars have entered the classroom, Vedda explains, carving out space among the more traditional band and orchestra instruments. In addition, they’ve become handy signifiers in the worlds of television and marketing (thanks in part to American Idol)—as subliminal set dressing or even as a front-and-center prop.

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“Music dudes throwing the guitar case in their cool car, playing guitar at a party where brandspecific beer is the star,” he says. Along with the cultural changes, demographics are shifting, too. “It is encouraging to see a number of 20 to 40 year olds expressing interest in musical instruments, despite the many distractions their phones and other electronics provide for them these days,” says Stan Werbin, proprietor of Elderly Instruments in Michigan. Werbin’s business has seen about a 10 percent increase in acoustic sales in just the past five years. And he sees no reason for the trend to end. “Fueled by much renewed interest in the ukulele, acoustic instruments may well increase in popularity in the next few years.” Taylor’s Brawley says, “We’re really pleased to see more women and girls shopping for guitars and playing them. It has the potential to be half of the business, and a much bigger pie than it is today.” According to Vedda, “Twenty years ago, I’d see 14 year olds drag their parents into the store, and reluctantly, with obvious misgivings, they’d buy a first guitar. Those teens are adults now. They had a great time with that guitar, and they’re ecstatic that their six year old wants to play. We’ve seen a real surge in under-age-10 guitar students.” Taken as a whole, it appears that all of these complementary influences have worked to foster a period of relative prosperity for acoustic-guitar manufacturers and retailers. However, some caution that this oasis might be nothing more than a mirage. “We have friends who have been selling acoustic guitars for more than 40 years,” says Steve McCreary, general manager of Collings Guitars. “Interestingly, they have repeatedly told me that they have never been able to predict or really make sense of the ups and downs in the guitar market. Acoustic guitars are such emotional instruments—factors that might affect sales of other consumer items don’t necessarily seem to apply to them.” McCreary is skeptical that “trendiness” plays a role in acoustic sales, though he does agree that the recent success of “acoustic style” bands has certainly helped. “There will be cycles—as there have always been,” he says. In fact, if you ask Phil Rich of Sweetwater, he’ll tell you that the surge in acoustic sales has actually been going on for decades. “The acoustic boom started with Eric Clapton’s Unplugged appearance in 1992, and it hasn’t stopped since. We’ve had two major economic events since then—the internet and housing bubbles both burst—but the acoustic business has not just survived but thrived. Electric guitars may go in and out of style, but a great acoustic, or even a good acoustic guitar, is passed around and passed on. “Why? From 30 feet away, they pretty much all look the same—and everyone wants one.” AG

STUDY DISCREDITS ‘VIBRATION TREATMENTS’ A recent study by a journal specializing in studies of stringed instruments throws doubt on the belief that devices used to “break in” or “open up” musical instruments can improve an instrument’s sound. The study, published on the website of the open-source Savart Journal, used three pairs of guitars, where each pair used in the study was the same make, model, and year. One guitar from each pair was treated with a commercial device designed to vibrate an instrument, a process that some believe improves the sound of a new instrument. The study, titled “Effect of Vibration Treatment on Guitar Tone: A Comparative Study,” used double-blind player evaluations and physical property measurements, including a Fourier analysis of hammer tests before and after treatment of the test and control groups of guitars. The analysis concluded that the treatment—which was run for 348 hours, or five times the device manufacturer’s minimum treatment time—did not significantly affect the frequency response of the instruments. Ten experienced guitar players were also unable to distinguish treated from un-treated guitars on a greater than random chance. —Greg Olwell

MAKERS & SHAKERS

Above Recording King’s 12-fret, 0-sized RP1-16C features a torrefied Adirondack spruce top. Left Travis Atz combines an instinct for innovation with respect for tradition.

History Repeats Itself

Travis Atz relies on classic designs for his Loar and Recording King instruments BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

n 2000, after spending four years studying the double bass at Indiana University, Travis Atz found himself a little disillusioned about his professional pathway. “I didn’t want to be one of the thousands of performance majors clamoring for a small handful of orchestral positions,” he says. “I just didn’t have the drive.” Perhaps Atz is fortunate, then, that his circuitous career route eventually brought him to the world of instrument building. As director of product development at the Music Link, Atz’s influence has helped define and distinguish the company’s Recording King and Loar brands. Before his undergraduate years, Atz, now 36, flourished in noncompetitive musical environments. Reared in Indianapolis, he learned how to fingerpick from his father, a guitarist and drummer. In sixth grade, he began formal studies on upright and electric bass, and in high school, he had the benefit of learning under a particularly inspiring music teacher. “I had an unbelievable orchestra director, Richard Dennis, who was once Henry Mancini’s first violinist. He showed me just how fun music could be,” says Atz. “And Indianapolis was just a really good environment in general, with just enough interesting musical things in

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140 February 2015

all styles. I got to play in so many great jazz, rock, and orchestral settings.” At 15, Atz got into instrument making, working in local violinmaker Christopher Walsh’s basement shop. Though he only worked with Walsh for a short time—the luthier died young— Atz credits the apprenticeship as formative. “He really set me on the path to discover how to create good sound,” Atz says. The young instrument maker soon attempted to build his own bizarre creations, like an electric bass with an extended cello neck, for playing arco. After graduating from Indiana University, Atz decamped to San Francisco and tried something totally different. For four years, he worked at the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, a non-profit within the National Park Service, giving students tours of 120-year-old ships and working with local teens to build simple boats. Then came an opportunity to work as quality-control specialist for the Music Link, a San Francisco Bay Area company with an emphasis on smartly made imported instruments. “It was so cool to start working with a company making a fair amount of studentgrade stuff,” Atz says, “coming in with the goal

of making a $65 guitar sound as good and play as well as possible.” NEW DEVELOPMENTS Around 2006, Atz began heading up development for two of the Music Link’s brands, Recording King and the Loar—new instrument lines inspired by, respectively, the budget offerings of Montgomery Ward beginning in the 1930s and the innovations pioneered by Gibson sound engineer Lloyd Loar in the previous decade. “My work in designing the first Loar instruments, mandolins, came naturally, given my work as a teenager, graduating violin tops and bending sides,” Atz says. Lloyd Loar designed a family of mandolin instruments before introducing Gibson’s flagship archtop guitar in 1924: the 16-inch, noncutaway L-5. The 16-inch archtop had generally fallen out of favor before it was supplanted by larger guitars in the 1930s. But modern instruments like the Loar’s LH-500, based loosely on the original L-5, helped spark a renewed interest in the form. “So much of what we’ve made is based on something historical,” Atz says. “For our 16-inch

JORDAN PARK PHOTO

archtops, we started out with a particularly good-sounding old Gibson L-4 and modeled the basic design after it. The biggest challenge was to figure out how we could consistently make the design sound like an old archtop in a production instrument. Not being a boutique maker, we’ve never had the luxury of, say, creating the bracing that works the best for each individual soundboard.” Another big challenge for Atz was getting the Recording King line of banjos off the ground, an experience he describes as trial by fire—he didn’t have much experience with the instrument, other than taking a few lessons while an undergraduate. “From my previous violin experience, I had at least an initial working knowledge of some of the physics involved in the archtops and mandolins,” he says. “The banjos were quite difficult because I had to first learn how to truly hear the banjo and its great variation of tones not discernable to the casual ear.”

‘The biggest challenge was to figure out how we could consistently make the design sound like an old archtop in a production instrument.’

SOUND PARTNERSHIPS Atz has learned a lot of what he knows by working alongside Greg Rich, who formerly headed Gibson’s Custom Shop. “He’s a total banjo expert, not to mention an unbelievable engraver, both of wood and metal, like you see on our banjos and resonator guitars,” Atz says of Rich. “For a period of several years, I just sat at the table with him trying to absorb as much as I could. I still work with him daily, in the process continuing to gain insights.” In translating their work to flattops for Recording King and the Loar, Atz and Rich have arrived at an equal division of labor. Atz does much of the structural design, such as determining the thicknesses of the soundboards and the styles of bracing, while Rich, with his experience designing Gibson’s series of art guitars, works out the smaller details, like inlay patterns. They work more closely together when it comes to selecting tonewoods and making overall aesthetic decisions. “The most inspiring thing about Greg,” Atz says, “is his combination of knowledge and reverence for history combined with a lack of fear in trying something outside of that history.” Rich has been equally impressed by Atz. “He’s by far the most dedicated production designer I’ve worked with in my 40 years in the business,” Rich says. “He sincerely cares about what guitarists think of the product. Anytime he hears about an issue or concern from our players, he tweaks and revises until we get things right.”

Above Designing the Adirondack spruce top Left The first instrument Travis Atz built at around 8 years old, a soup can and a string.

Atz also has a close working relationship with his brother, Ashley Atz, who’s in charge of PR and artist relations at the Music Link. “I plucked Travis to be in a band for the first time when he was only 11 or 12,” says Ashley, who is three years older than Travis. “Though it can sometimes be weird to have a sibling in the workplace, we do have an unbreakable connection that allows us to finish each other’s sentences, and which allows our work together to dovetail nicely.” “We have very similar musical ideas,” Travis adds. “Often in designing a guitar, I have a specific style in mind, like creating a great guitar for fingerpicking, and Ashley automatically understands my references.” FROM THE EAST BAY TO THE FAR EAST Travis Atz does much of his work at the Music Link’s offices in Hayward, near San Francisco, where the instruments are designed and distributed, and where select high-end models are built. The company has used different factories in Asia, but now has a workshop in Shanghai, China, where the bulk of the Recording King and Loar instruments are crafted. In the Shanghai shop, Atz evaluates instruments at various stages of completion and shares the building techniques that he and Rich have devised for new models. He also tests out all of the jigs and troubleshoots any that have become problematic. “Sorting wood, sharing details of new projects, and [discussing] exactly how the design should be produced are two big aspects also,” Atz says. “My non-English language skills are only enough to either raise a ruckus or tell a joke, depending on which the situation calls for. I’m fortunate to work with some really talented translators that are some killer guitarists, too, so that is a huge help.” Getting to know the workers and their families over time has also been beneficial, he adds. CHILDLIKE WONDER On the side, Atz gigs and records at home, often with his brother and usually in rock. Mostly, he plays acoustic and electric guitar, though he sometimes dusts off his upright bass to record on a friend’s project—activities that, naturally, inform his work with the Music Link. “There’s no question that constantly playing music—and knowing what techniques work best on a given fretted instrument—has helped guide my design work in a big way,” he says. Atz’s gigging has slowed down recently, the result of having a two-year-old daughter at home. But parenthood has renewed his passion for music, not distracted him from it. “I brought home a resonator guitar and a bunch of ukes—instruments that my daughter and her friends can play without any fear of damaging them,” he says. “I’m blown away by how the kids gravitate to the instruments, especially the shiny metal guitar. It’s revitalized my work to see how much sheer enjoyment musicmaking can create.” AG AcousticGuitar.com 141

GUITAR GURU

BECCA YAGER PHOTO

The French Convection

A complete multi-layer refinishing could polish off your bank account BY DANA BOURGEOIS

Q

My understanding is that a type of finish known as “French polishing” gives not only a hand-built look to an instrument, but also a better quality of tone and a fuller sound. How does this process work, and is it worth having it done to my moderately priced Samick Greg Bennett Design D5? Ken Jarabek Victoria, B.C., Canada

GOT A QUESTION? Uncertain about guitar care and maintenance? The insand-outs of guitar building? Or a topic related to your gear?

142 February 2015

A

French polishing is a technique of applying many separate layers of varnish to an instrument or article of furniture, using a cloth pad to spread and buff liquid finish until it forms a dry, polished surface. Production of an even finish requires considerable skill, elbow grease, and time. The finish material typically used in French polishing is either oil or spirit varnish. The sonic benefit of varnish comes from the material itself rather than method of application. Most specifically, the sonic benefit of any finish depends on matching its properties of hardness and density with a specific instrument’s voicing requirements and on achieving appropriate finish thickness. One advantage of French polishing is that the technique allows finish to be applied more thinly than can easily be achieved through other methods of application. And the thinner the finish, the less sonically important the finish material. Think of finish as the final step in voicing. As with other elements of voicing, there is no right or wrong here, only what’s appropriate. While a soft, relatively thick oil varnish will roll off high-end harshness in certain guitars, the same finish will cause high-end damping in others; some violin makers string and play a violin between finish coatings to determine optimum finish thickness for an individual

Ask Acoustic Guitar’s resident Guitar Guru. Send an email titled “Guitar Guru” to editor Marc Greilsamer at [email protected], and he’ll forward it to the expert luthier.

violin, for example, nicely illustrating the role finish can play in instrument voicing. I assume you are dissatisfied with the sound of your guitars. It’s likely that excessive finish thickness and density is a contributing factor. A thinner finish may, as you suggest, allow better quality tone and fuller sound. If, however, excessive finish density is a problem, French polishing over existing finish will not solve it. Complete refinishing with a French polished varnish is an option that will likely improve the sound of your guitars and additionally give them a more handmade look. I’d be surprised, though, if a competently executed French polished refinish costs less than $1,500 to $2,000 per guitar. Neck and bridge must be disassembled, finish stripped, new finish painstakingly applied, then the guitar must be reassembled and set up. All steps must be expertly executed, otherwise the final product will look like a hack job. Refinishing just the top is an option, though still expensive. If the cost of refinishing your guitars is not enough of a deterrent, consider that the original finishes may not be their only sonic liabilities. Instead of refinishing, I recommend investing in guitars that will make you smile without requiring modification. AG Dana Bourgeois is a master luthier and the founder of Bourgeois Guitars in Lewiston, Maine.

If AG selects your question for publication, you’ll receive a complimentary copy of AG’s The Acoustic Guitar Owner’s Manual.

DANA BOURGEOIS

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START WRITING SONGS

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By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

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GREAT ACOUSTICS FROM THE ARCHIVES

Perfect Match

Strike a chord with the matchstick guitar! BY SIMONE SOLONDZ

his one-of-a-kind 1937 guitar was made entirely with used matchsticks—14,000 of them painstakingly glued together by the late Jack Hall, a seaman in the Merchant Navy who spent the better part of the 1930s aboard the steamship Eastwick. Hall began building his matchstick instruments—the first was a fiddle, followed by two mandolins, the guitar (pictured), and a banjo— in response to a challenge made by one of his shipmates. His designs were based on pawnshop instruments he checked out while his ship was in port. The burnt matches were cut and shaped with a knife, a file, and a straight-edge razor so that they could be carefully glued together (with approximately three pounds of carpenter’s glue) with the burnt ends forming decorative diamond-shaped patterns. Matches used for curved portions of the guitar were presoaked and bent, and the glued-together sections were weighted into shape with the aid of flat irons, fire bricks, pans of water, and other improvised tools. The case (pictured at left) was made from 1,000 used matchbooks, which Hall’s friends and relatives sent along with the burnt matchsticks they contributed to his hobby. Hall’s instruments were not played until some 40 years after he built them when a reporter from Brighton, England, came to see the rumored collection. The tone of the aged matchstick instruments was surprisingly sweet, and they were played for the first time in public on BBC television in 1991, two years before Hall died. Since then the matchstick guitar has been played by Albert Lee, and the entire set was tuned up again for a performance of “Billy in the Low Ground” on BBC television. AG

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This article was first published in the October 1996 issue. 144 February 2015

25TH ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY FROM ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAGAZINE AND BOURGEOIS GUITARS

ENTER TO WIN A BOURGEOIS

SOLOIST GUITAR To celebrate our 25th anniversary, Acoustic Guitar teamed up with Bourgeois Guitars for an extra-special giveaway. One lucky winner will receive a Bourgeois Soloist guitar (retail value $8,195).

DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO WIN THIS INCREDIBLE GUITAR. We will be accepting entries until February 28, 2015.

GET TO KNOW THE

BOURGEOIS SOLOIST Dana Bourgeois introduced a cutaway to the traditional OM body in the early ‘80s, and the feature was soon adopted as a standard option by many makers. The Bourgeois Soloist model is Dana’s modern take on his original design. This particular custom version boasts Bourgeois’ Aged ToneTM Package which includes a torrefied Adirondack spruce

top and Bourgeois’ proprietary Aged Tone finish, combined here with back and sides made of beautiful Macassar ebony with its visually distinctive light/ dark figure. The winner will also have the option of custom inlay work to be created by David Nichols of Custom Pearl Inlay.

AT A GLANCE AGED TONE ADIRONDACK SPRUCE TOP

MACASSAR EBONY BACK AND SIDES

EBONY FINGERBOARD AND BRIDGE

ENTER TODAY TO WIN THE BOURGEOIS SOLOIST

ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM/WIN/BOURGEOIS-GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY RULES: No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Entrants must be 18 years or older. Each entry must be individually submitted using the Official Entry Form at AcousticGuitar.com/Win/Bourgeois-Giveaway and received by February 28, 2015; facsimiles may not be substituted. Prize drawing will be made on or around March 15, 2015. The prize will be fulfilled by Bourgeois within 60 days of receipt of winner’s written acceptance. Employees of Acoustic Guitar and Bourgeois are not eligible to win. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received. Limit one entry per person. Acoustic Guitar magazine reserves the right to notify the winner by mail or by e-mail and to identify the winner in the magazine as well as the Acoustic Guitar website and Facebook page. International entrants, please note: If the winner is resident outside the United States and Canada, he or she is responsible for all shipping, customs, and tax costs. In the event that an international winner is unwilling or unable to cover these costs, he or she will forfeit the prize and a new winner will be selected at random. Giveaway entrants may receive information from Acoustic Guitar and Bourgeois. For the name of the prize winner, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Bourgeois Giveaway, c/o Acoustic Guitar Magazine, 510 Canal Blvd, Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804. This offer ends on February 28, 2015. Taxes are the responsibility of the winner. No prize substitutions are permitted.

VIDEO REVIEW ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM/GEAR

NEW GEAR

Solid European spruce top

Golden Jubilee

Martin celebrates the D-35’s 50th anniversary with a triumphant new model BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

146 February 2015

t takes only the meekest strum of an open-E chord to realize that Martin has created a juggernaut of a guitar in the D-35 Brazilian 50th Anniversary model. Boasting a deep and immediate bass, sturdy, singing treble, and the smoothest modern playability, it’s one of Martin’s finest D-35s to date.

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DESIGN AND DETAILS The D-35 is a relative youngster in Martin’s line, having been introduced in 1965, roughly 50 years after the earliest dreadnoughts were made (under the Ditson label). Its design represented a clever solution to a supply problem. Martin had been using Brazilian rosewood on its guitars for 130 years, but by the mid1960s, the availability of that fine tonewood was diminishing. So, in using a three-piece back with a triangular central wedge on the D-35, Martin was able to use pieces of Brazilian

rosewood that otherwise would have been too small for guitar making. Customers responded favorably to the new guitar, and by the mid-1970s, the D-35 was Martin’s best-selling instrument. That’s no longer the case, but the D-35 has always been a mainstay in Martin’s catalog, enjoying notable proponents like Johnny Cash, who for 20 years played a custom-ordered black version in concert. The name D-35 Brazilian 50th Anniversary might be a little misleading. Only the back’s wedge and headstock cap are made from Brazilian rosewood, not the entire back and sides, as on D-35s made before the fall of 1969 (when the company all but discontinued the use of that species). The guitar has a European spruce top, in lieu of the original Sitka, but it does maintain the mahogany neck and black ebony fretboard and bridge. All of the woods used on the review model are gorgeous. On the back, the quarter-sawn centerpiece has a deep purplish coloring that contrasts

Solid black ebony fingerboard

1 3/4-inch nut width

BODY Dreadnought 14-fret size

Grover Rotomatic tuners

ELECTRONICS Martin SP Lifespan Phosphor Bronze Medium Gauge (MSP7200) strings NECK Solid genuine mahogany neck

Solid European spruce top

AT A GLANCE

MARTIN D-35 BRAZILIAN 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Solid back with Madagascar rosewood wings and Brazilian rosewood wedge Solid Madagascar rosewood sides Polished gloss finish with aging toner on soundboard

nicely with the lighter and impressively figured Madagascar rosewood wings. The spruce is finely grained, free from imperfections, and has a warm glow, thanks to the use of aging toner. The anniversary-model D-35 preserves many of the details that were relatively new when the guitar was introduced. There’s no volute on the neck, and the headstock is equipped not with open-geared tuners but Grover Rotomatics. It also replicates the original’s top bracing— 1/4-inch wide, compared to the 5/16-inch bracing found on dreadnoughts like the D-28 and the D-42—a design intended to enhance the instrument’s frequency response. Craftsmanship on this D-35 is unimpeachable, with 20 medium frets perfectly crowned and polished, completely smooth at the edges, and the bone nut and compensated saddle precisely slotted. On the soundboard, the gloss finish has been faultlessly polished to a smooth luster, and the neck’s satin finish is also very

Solid black ebony fingerboard and bridge 25.4-inch scale length 1 3/4-inch nut width

Limited lifetime warranty

2 3/16-inch string spacing at saddle Grover Rotomatic tuners

clean. No shortcuts were taken on the inside of the guitar, either. The kerfing and bracing have been sanded to perfection, and there’s not a trace of excess glue to be found. SOUND AND FEEL This D-35 is a serious player’s guitar, thanks to its modern neck profile, a Modified Low Oval with Performing Artist Taper, which many will find to be an improvement over the original neck style. It’s a full, but not cumbersome profile, and together with its sleek low action, the instrument feels as easy to play in the open position as it does past the 12th fret. Also, while the original D-35 had a 1 11/16-inch nut, this one has a 1 3/4-inch nut—a fashionable nut width these days, which gives both the fretting and picking fingers a little extra room to maneuver. The guitar truly shines when strummed with a pick. Whether you play basic cowboy chords or cluster-based voicings high up on the

50th Anniversary Label signed by Christian Frederick Martin IV. 545E Geib Style hardshell case

PRICE $6,999 list Made in the United States martinguitar.com

neck, this D-35 responds with great power and clarity. It’s easy to hear the individual notes of any type of harmony you throw at the guitar, and it takes quite a bit of pick-hand force for the instrument to distort. Although fingerstyle players generally prefer smaller instruments, this D-35 has a warm, robust voice, and it feels dynamic and responsive to pick-hand nuances, whether in standard tuning or an alternate tuning like open-G or DADGAD. At $6,999, Martin’s limited-edition D-35 Brazilian 50th Anniversary is not a cheap guitar. Some players will find that the Standard Series model, much less expensive at $2,599 street, will deliver the goods. But those looking for a little something extra will appreciate the guitar’s incorporation of Brazilian rosewood and its high-performance modern neck. Plus, since it’s limited to a production run of 100, it’s an instant collectible. AG AcousticGuitar.com 147

NEW GEAR

Built for Speed Plugged or unplugged, Taylor’s new T5z is a righteous tone machine BY ADAM LEVY

en years after Taylor released its first “electracoustic” T5 model—which featured a streamlined body shape and pioneering onboard electronics—the company has introduced its latest update, the T5z. One glance leaves no doubt that this instrument is meant to appeal to electric guitarists—with svelte contours, jazzy S-curve cutouts, and a slimline humbucking pickup near the bridge. (A second humbucker is concealed under the top, near the neck, and an acoustic body-sensor pickup sits under the top as well.) The look is more cocktail bar than coffeehouse. The T5z’s neck will feel familiar to any hand that has cradled a Gibson Les Paul, thanks to its 111/16-inch nut width and 12-inch fretboard radius. These dimensions make string bending a breeze, aided by the well-dressed jumbo frets. Both versions of Eric Clapton’s “Layla”—the amped-up original and his MTV Unplugged arrangement—would be right at home on this guitar.

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A CONVINCING VOICE Acoustically, the T5z comes across clear and punchy, with a predominance of midrange frequencies. It speaks more like a classic jazz guitar than your typical flattop. This is not a surprise, as its parallel bracing pattern is similar to the bracing used in many archtop models. Chords ring warmly, with a slow decay. And the guitar responds dynamically to picking attack, so melodic lines can sing, shout, or sigh. Though the T5z projects a fair bit of volume unplugged, it probably isn’t the right tool for a loud acoustic jam session. It could, however, make a perfect around-the-house acoustic for practicing or songwriting, and would be great for recording on any nice mic. (Though hugesounding dreadnoughts can be wonderful instruments, guitars with more focused voices—such as the T5z—are often more useful in the studio, as they’re easier to capture and easier to place in the final mix.) 148 February 2015

The look is more cocktail bar than coffeehouse.


AT A GLANCE

TAYLOR T5Z BODY Slender hollow-body with Venetian cutaway Sitka spruce top PLUG & PLAY Of course, the T5z is meant to be plugged in, offering a wide array of tones at the flick of its side-mounted five-way switch. Position 1 presents the neck humbucker along with the bodysensor system for natural acoustic sounds. (This is the only position susceptible to feedback at extreme volumes.) Positions 2 and 3 solo the neck and bridge humbuckers, respectively. Position 4 features both ’buckers in parallel mode (clearer tones), while 5 puts them in series (meatier tones). These settings can be tweaked to taste by adjusting the volume, treble, and bass control knobs on the guitar’s upper bout. Whatever your sonic proclivities may be, the T5z can likely offer at least a couple of sounds that will speak to you. Its tones translate well through acoustic-oriented amps, electric guitar amps, PA systems, and direct recording. It plays

nicely with effects as well, so you can run it through your favorite pedals. Besides the Standard model I tested, the T5z is available in four other variations— Custom (with gold hardware and a flamed koa top), Pro (curly maple top), Pro Special Edition (“two-tone” quilted maple top), and Classic (mahogany top, satin finish). Cosmetic variants aside, the T5z is a versatile instrument that seems destined to become a modern classic. Whether you’re a folk balladeer, goateed jazzbo, or actual rock star, it just may be the do-all guitar you’ve been seeking. AG Adam Levy is an itinerant guitarist and songwriter based in Los Angeles. His guitar work has appeared on recordings by Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Amos Lee, and Ani DiFranco, among others. Read more of Levy’s writing and hear his music at adamlevy.com.

Sapele back and sides UV-cured polyester gloss finish NECK Sapele neck and heel, affixed with Taylor’s T-Lock neck joint Ebony fretboard 247/8-inch scale length 111/16-inch nut width Nickel Taylor tuners ELECTRONICS Body-sensor acoustic pickup and two humbuckers Five-way selector switch EXTRAS Elixir Nanoweb electricguitar strings (.011–.049) Taylor T5z hard-shell case Limited lifetime warranty PRICE: $2,998 list/$2,299 street Left-handed model (strung left- or righthanded) available at no extra charge Made in the USA taylorguitars.com


NEW GEAR

AT A GLANCE

KALA KA-GTR TENOR GUITAR BODY Small tenor size Solid spruce top Rosewood back and sides Rosewood bridge Satin finish NECK Mahogany neck Rosewood fretboard 21.5-inch scale length 1 1/8-inch nut width

Tenor Madness

Kala’s KA-GTR tenor guitar helps bring the old four-string back in vogue BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

his neat little four-stringed instrument, tuned entirely in perfect fifths, is at first disorienting for a longtime guitarist, but with a bit of exploration, Kala’s new KA-GTR reveals its many charms. It delivers everything from a straightforward traditional folk sound to uncanny effects that wouldn’t be out of place in a contemporary art-music setting—all for well under $500.

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Grover open-gear tuners EXTRAS D’Addario strings: PB032 Phosphor Bronze 81mm (C) PB022 Phosphor Bronze 56mm (G) PL014 Plain Steel 36mm (D) PL010 High Carbon Steel 10mm (A) Limited lifetime warranty PRICE $469.99 list/$329.99 street Made in China kalabrand.com 150 February 2015

BACK IN STYLE Martin, Gibson, and other makers began offering tenor guitars in the 1920s, but in the following decades, the instrument fell out of fashion in favor of the six-string guitar, which was a more popular ensemble instrument. There were some exceptions: The plectrist Tiny Grimes exploited the tenor as a lead voice in his work with jazz pioneers like Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. And the instrument enjoyed a resurgence during the folk boom of the 1950s and ’60s, in no small part due to its use by Nick Reynolds of the Kingston Trio. More recently, Elvis Costello, Neko Case, Ani DiFranco, and Josh Rouse have taken up the unique-sounding instrument. Meanwhile, midsized companies and independent luthiers alike have added the tenor to their catalogs, making old-school tenors along with fresh new interpretations. With its KA-GTR, Kala, primarily a manufacturer of affordable but high-quality ukuleles, has successfully joined in on the revival.

SMALL BUT MIGHTY Most tenor guitars are smaller than their sixstring counterparts. Kala’s tenor is even smaller than the standard-sized tenor, with an overall length of 32 inches—compared to, say, a typical dreadnought, which is 40.5 inches long. It feels closer to a baritone ukulele than a guitar. The Kala is built from a nice selection of tonewoods. The solid spruce top boasts a fine and even grain pattern and a warm reddish coloring; the laminated rosewood back and sides have a beautiful deep brown complexion, as does the rosewood used for the fretboard, bridge, and headstock overlay. At certain angles, the mahogany neck has a subtle flamed figuring. The tenor’s design is handsome, too, with minimal ornamentation—ivoroid body binding and heel cap, along with a simple black-andivory rosette—and a classy, spare look that allows the wood to speak for itself. The slotted headstock lends an old-fashioned effect to the instrument, and so do the open-geared Grover tuners, with their butterbean buttons. The Kala is put together very well. Its 17 frets are cleanly polished, and the Graph Tech NuBone nut and saddle (a marked improvement over the typical plastic components) appear to have been carefully notched. All of the binding sits flush with the body, and the interior aspects evidently have been shaped and glued with care.


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GET A GRIP With its 11/8-inch nut width and 21.5-inch scale length (compared to 22.75 or 23 on most tenors), the Kala has a small neck. Surprisingly, however, the Kala doesn’t feel at all awkward to play, even though I’m accustomed to standard guitar necks. And while the factory-set action could be just a tad lower, at least to my liking, it’s easy to fret barred shapes and single notes in all positions. I was only casually familiar with the tenor guitar before I auditioned the Kala, so at first I played some one-finger chord shapes (a nod to Richie Havens and his idiosyncratic approach to the six-string). The tenor’s most common tuning—CGDA, lowest note to highest—makes it satisfying to play Aaron Copland-inspired quintal harmonies (like those used by Robert Fripp) that would be difficult or impossible on a six-string guitar. And when these chords are strummed with enthusiasm, the tenor has an impressive chop. Obviously, all of the standard guitar grips go out the window on a tenor, but it was easy enough to Google chord fingerings and quickly absorb moveable shapes for basic triads and seventh chords. When these shapes are played with Carter-style strumming, the tenor has a lively, old-timey sound; when fingerpicked, it has a dulcet tone, almost like a music box at the uppermost end of the fretboard. Most guitarists’ needs are met by a standard six-string, but for those who get satisfaction from adding other fretted instruments to their stable, Kala’s KA-GTR tenor is a compelling option. This well-designed and nicely executed instrument makes it fun and easy to evoke a bygone era, but it will also help the contemporary player discover a few novel sonorities. AG

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Contributing editor Adam Perlmutter transcribes, arranges, and engraves music for numerous publications. AcousticGuitar.com 151

NEW GEAR

Bang, Zoom!

Here’s to the versatile, user-friendly, feature-rich Zoom H6 digital recorder BY DOUG YOUNG

or some time, Zoom has been building electronic devices for guitarists, from effects to portable audio and video recorders. The company recently added two new products to its line of audio recorders, the H5 and H6, which raise the stakes considerably. The H6, in particular, is a big upgrade over the previous recorders in Zoom’s lineup. It’s speedy, versatile, and includes convenient controls and metering. You can record six inputs simultaneously to six separate tracks, which might well be all the inputs you’ll need. And it has a color screen with easily visible level meters. The best thing is that the H6 is fast and easy to use. Even though it has a rich array of features, the unit acts like a “point and shoot” device, with most of the required controls easily accessible on the top. You’ll likely want to explore the options buried in the menu system,

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152 February 2015

but you also can be recording just seconds after opening the box. The H6 comes with detachable mic modules, including an X/Y pair, a mid-side arrangement, a shotgun mic, and an input module for external sources. The recorder also has four inputs on the side that support XLR cables, with up to 48-volt phantom power for condenser mics, or TRS ¼-inch cables for line inputs. Each input has an associated physical volume knob for easy adjustment. In addition, there’s a headphone out, a line out, a USB port that allows the device to be used as a six-channel computer audio interface, and even a built-in speaker that can be used for basic playback monitoring. The unit records audio as .wav or .mp3 files, and supports up to 96Khz/24 bits. Also included are several useful features for live recording: It is constantly pre-recording, so

when you hit record, you automatically get the two seconds prior to starting. And it has a backup recording feature that records to an extra track at a 12db-lower level—great for those times when the band gets a little louder than expected. The sound quality is excellent, especially when taking advantage of the extra inputs to use external mics. I found the X/Y mic module to be convenient and usable for all but the most critical recording. Unfortunately, the mid-side mic module’s self-noise level is far too high to be usable for quiet acoustic recordings, although it may be fine for recording a band on location. Zoom’s H5 offers similar features, but with a black-and-white screen and only two extra inputs in addition to the detachable modules. AG Zoom H6: $499 list; $399 street. Zoom H5: $337 list; $269 street. www.zoom.co.jp

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Whistlin’ Dixie

Gretsch’s guitar-banjo hybrid will delight guitarists looking to expand their sonic palette BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

laying Gretsch’s G9460 “Dixie 6” guitarbanjo for the first time is a strange and wonderful experience. For one thing, the instrument’s U-shaped neck feels like that of an old Fender Telecaster. Yet, when strummed with basic seventh chords, this neat hybrid instrument emits sounds that wouldn’t be out of place in the earliest jazz bands, long before the advent of amplification. To have access to that sound world without having to learn a new instrument is an excellent thing.

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WARM AND FUZZY The Dixie 6 is comfortable to cradle and fairly lightweight for a closed-back model—six pounds, four ounces on a digital postal scale. From the open position to the highest frets, the neck plays smoothly and is equally accommodating for single-note excursions and barreAT A GLANCE

GRETSCH G9460 ‘DIXIE 6’ GUITARBANJO

chord-heavy passages. Though the neck has the feel of an electric guitar, it’s not so friendly for string bending, equipped as it is with phosphor bronze, gauges .012–.053. The instrument’s voice is warm and mellow, without the jarring shrillness alluded to in all those banjo jokes, but with an unmistakable banjo sound nonetheless. It responds particularly well when fingerpicked, whether using basic Travis patterns or adaptations of threefinger banjo rolls, with the notes cascading together in a reverberant wash. As cool as the Dixie 6 is, it’s not without its shortcomings. The sound decay could be longer, and the volume of the lowest strings seems a little overshadowed by the higher ones. That’s even more noticeable when you put the instrument in a tuning with lowered strings, like open G. Plus, the Dixie 6 sounds a tad murky

when you play complex chords on it. On the other hand, this isn’t exactly a jazz box, so a slight adjustment in technique can help to compensate for any deficiency in the low end. DEEP ROOTS The Dixie 6 is part of Gretsch’s Roots Series— modern versions of the company’s guitars, banjos, resonators, ukuleles, and mandolins from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. Gretsch’s first instruments were banjos, and some, like this guitar-banjo, were quite innovative in their day. This newly improved version of the Dixie 6, which made its debut a few years ago, boasts a rolled brass tone ring and a Remo Renaissance head. Other features include a laminated maple rim, a maple-and-ebony bridge, a nickel-plated armrest, and no-knot tailpiece. The resonator is also made from laminated maple, as is the

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Armrest Grover Sta-Tite die-cast tuners Maple-and-ebony bridge No-knot tailpiece 154 February 2015

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neck, which has the 1.6875-inch nut width and 25-inch scale length familiar to electric guitarists. The Dixie 6 is a smart-looking instrument. The maple components are rubbed with an attractive butterscotch-colored stain that highlights some subtle flame on the resonator and the neck. The 1950s-style headstock has a snazzy white pearloid cap and matching trussrod cover, offset nicely by the black buttons on the Grover Sta-Tite tuners. My only complaint is that when viewed at certain angles, the fretboard’s aged pearloid dot markers become camouflaged. Overall, the craftsmanship on the review model is solid. Its 21 medium-jumbo frets are perfectly crowned and polished, their edges smooth. The head came stretched appropriately tight, and all of the hardware was adjusted correctly at the factory (save for the bridge, which comes uninstalled and must be placed at the appropriate location by the owner). On the resonator, there’s a hint of roughness about the finish, a minor imperfection that can easily be overlooked.

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158

Playlist Robert Earl Keen drops a bluegrass album

159

Playlist New Peter Paul & Mary show uncovered

162

Events What’s goin’ on in February

PLAYLIST

MIXED MEDIA

159 Jessica Pratt

gains maturity on her sophomore album

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PLAYLIST

Murder by Numbers

Singer-songwriter goes bluegrass to pay homage to country music’s great murder ballads BY GREG CAHILL

obert Earl Keen is an elite member of the Texas singer-songwriter contingent, hailing from the Lone Star state’s central hill country. A 2012 inductee into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame, his original songs have been covered by everybody from the Dixie Chicks to the Highwaymen, Joe Ely to George Strait. He has a real knack for blending a wry wit with the rustic trappings of Americana: 1988’s sentimental “The Front Porch Song,” co-written with fellow Texan and longtime collaborator Lyle Lovett, is one of his best—and best-known—examples. So, it’s interesting, after a 30-year career as a singer-songwriter, to hear Keen saddle up to his hillbilly side. Happy Prisoner is the followup to 2011’s critically acclaimed Ready for Confetti (Lost Highway), which was hailed as a return to form for the big-hat poet, and that makes these bluegrass sessions all the more surprising. Still, Keen’s connection to bluegrass goes way back. In the tongue-in-cheek song

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158 February 2015

“The Bluegrass Widow,” from 1988’s The Live Album, he describes in a spoken-word section that he used to “skip second-period chemistry” to listen to an eight-track tape of Bill Monroe’s Greatest Hits in “Bryan Duckworth’s rust-red 1970 Ford Maverick.” It makes sense that sooner or later, after recording “The Bluegrass Widow,” which he describes in song as “the worst bluegrass song ever written,” he’d get around to paying tribute to the genre. This earnest ode to his early influences finds Keen—who recently told Texas Monthly that he’s drawn to these “beautiful, sad songs”—covering the late–19th-century murder ballad “Poor Ellen Smith” and other powerful narrative songs. Keen and his bandmates shine a light on Lefty Frizzell’s 1959 hit “Long Black Veil,” one of the greatest murder ballads in the country canon, and transform Richard Thompson’s dark lament “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” a big hit for the Del McCoury Band, into a speedy,

Robert Earl Keen Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions Dualtone

bluegrass hoedown, replete with loping rhythm guitar, sparkling fiddles, and percussive mandolin chops. Lovett joins in on a spry rendition of Jimmie Rodgers’ 1927 classic “T for Texas.” Happy Prisoner finds Keen backed by his regular band, but producer Lloyd Maines has brought in such special guests as Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Danny Barnes of the Bad Livers, and Kym Warner of the Greencards. The album is scheduled for a February 10 release. AG

Jessica Pratt

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The lo-fi folkie gains maturity, but doesn’t lose her wide-eyed worldview “Can’t go back, baby,” Jessica Pratt concludes on “Back, Baby,” shedding some of the childlike fragility that distinguishes her creaky vocals. Though Pratt is mourning a lover she calls “a myth,” the line could also describe this muchanticipated recording, the follow-up to an album she recorded in obscurity at 19 and released five years later. Pratt, now 27, never expected the songs on her 2012 self-titled debut to see the light of day, but psych-rocker Tim Presley discovered them through mutual friends in San Francisco and created a label just to release her album. Pratt’s intimate lyrics and raw girl-and-a-guitar style— which draws comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Karen Dalton—coupled with the album’s homespun, analog sound, had some wondering if this was a reissue from the late ’60s or early ’70s. Profiles in media outlets such as Pitchfork set the record straight, leaving Pratt to approach her sophomore album without the benefit of mystery or naiveté. Fortunately, she doesn’t abandon any of the elements that made her debut so fascinating, but also embraces a darker, more self-assured style. The second track, “Game That I Play,” is the first indication that Pratt’s mood has shifted— her soft fingerpicking churns out a strained, melancholy melody as she sings with no trace of longing, “I see that you’re leaving, what can I say, it’s the game that I play.” “Strange Melody” lives up to its title as Pratt pairs an ominous doom-folk sound with a circular chorus (“run around, run around, run around”) and layered vocal harmonies. The only track that falls short, literally, is the 1:34 closer and title track, a mournful reflection on a failed relationship that doesn’t feel fully realized. —Whitney Phaneuf

Newly uncovered PP&M concert does not reflect the trio’s importance Although Peter, Paul & Mary’s 50th anniversary came and went back in 2011, surviving members Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey are celebrating that milestone this year with the recent release of a PBS documentary, a coffeetable book, and this live collection from their 1980s concerts. To be sure, the 1980s were not exactly PP&M’s heyday, and this show is a far cry from the gritty and exuberant performances of their early-1960s concerts and appearances at civil rights rallies. Kicking off with their signature forcefully strummed acoustic guitars and rousing vocals, the three launch into a version of Bob Gibson’s early-’60s gospel-folk song “You Can Tell the World.” But aside from that track and the closer, “Midnight Special,” this performance represents the much-softer side of PP&M. A few tracks recall some of the passion and intensity of their earlier years, including a gently fingerpicked Spanish-language protest song (“Mi Caballo Blanco”) and a cover of singer-songwriter Sarah Elizabeth Campbell’s ode to two homeless women (“Geraldine and Ruthie Mae”). But the majority of the songs here are acoustic covers of country-tinged songs (Nashville songwriter Allen Shamblin’s (“Cactus in a Coffee Can”) and cutesy ditties (“Space Suits”). Of all the folk groups to rise from the late1950s and early-’60s urban folk revival and become crossover pop stars, PP&M were perhaps the most important, as they brought songs of social consciousness into mainstream America’s living rooms. This recently uncovered concert is not an album that gets across the trio’s significance, although it is enjoyable in places. Depending on your interest in laterperiod PP&M, you may want to forego this in favor of the two-disc Live in Japan, 1967, released in 2012. —Mark Segal Kemp

This country boy is getting a well-deserved second look In the past few years, there’s been a resurgence of interest in singer-songwriter John Denver (1943-97), starting with the indie revisionist T h e M u s i c I s Yo u : A Tr i b u t e t o J o h n Denver (2013), continuing with Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute to John Denver (2014), and peaking with this four-CD retrospective box set, which covers all his major work along with a half-dozen previously unreleased tracks. The reason for this interest is clear: these songs soar, and whether he’s duetting with Placido Domingo or Miss Piggy, there’s an essential sweetness that comes through his performances. You can hear it in the unreleased “The Road” (1964) and an early version of “For Bobbi” (1965) with the Mitchell Trio, just as Denver was getting his first taste of success. There’s a sweet simplicity in his voice, even when he’s singing with a string section, and the same singalong blend of earnestness and sentimentality he’d perfect years later as one of the most popular singer-songwriters of the 1970s. Listening again to the best of them, like “Babe, I Hate to Go” (which became “Leaving on a Jet Plane”), “Back Home Again,” “Rocky Mountain High,” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” it’s easy to hear why people will still be singing these songs a hundred years from now. And “All of My Memories” (1971), “Prisoners” (1972), and “This Old Guitar” (1974) are powerful reminders of everything many have forgotten about the other John Denver, with all the lonely, restless solitude that didn’t fit his image as an entertainer or an eco-activist. This 90-song set provides both sides, and everywhere in between there’s the sound of Denver fingerpicking guitar, perfectly matching his voice in all its gentle, buoyant hopefulness. —Kenny Berkowitz AcousticGuitar.com 159

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Breezy Ridge Instruments, Ltd., jpstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . 155

Huss & Dalton Guitar Company, hussanddalton.com . . . . . . 29

Shubb Capos, shubb.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Collings Guitars, collingsguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

JamPlay, LLC., jamplay.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Stewart-MacDonald’s Guitar Supply,

Cordoba Guitars, cordobamusicgroup.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Journey Instruments, journeyinstruments.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

D’Addario & Company, daddario.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12, 44, 45

Steven Kaufman Enterprises, Inc., flatpik.com . . . . . . . 73, 123

D.L. Noble Guitars, dlnobleguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Kyser Musical Products, kysermusical.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Eastman Strings, Inc., eastmanstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Luthier Music Corp., luthiermusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Elixir Strings, elixirstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 80

C.F. Martin & Co., Inc., martinguitar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Elliott Capos, elliottcapos.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Masecraft Supply Co., masecraftsupply.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Epiphone Guitars, epiphone.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Memphis Acoustic Guitar Festival,

stewmac.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 The Swannanoa Gathering, swangathering.com . . . . . . . . . 108 Sweetwater Sound, sweetwater.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Take a Stand, Inc., takeastandinc.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Tanglewood Guitar Company UK, tanglewoodguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Ernie Ball Music Man, ernieball.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

memphisguitarfest.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Taylor, taylorguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Fishman Transducers, fishman.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

The Music Emporium, themusicemporium.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Yamaha Corporation of America, yamaha.com . . . . . . . . . . . 18


EVENTS

Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands will shake it this month at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival.

February Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

University of Chicago Folk Fest

Orlando Folk Festival

Palatka Bluegrass Festival

Framingham, Massachusetts February 13 – 15 bbu.org

Chicago, Illinois February 13 – 15 uofcfolk.org

Orlando, Florida February 14 – 15 orlandofolkfestival.wordpress.com

Palatka, Florida February 19 - 21 bluegrassfestivalguide.com

Celebrate the legacy of mandolin pioneer Joe Val with three days of wall-to-wall bluegrass, indoors at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel. The main stage that weekend will reverberate with the sounds of the Del McCoury Band, the Seldom Scene, Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, the Kathy Kallick Band, and Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen. In addition to the round-theclock jamming, don’t miss the plethora of bluegrass workshops, and the ever-popular Kid’s Academy (which culminates with a performance on the main stage)!

This annual folk-stravaganza hosted by the University of Chicago Folklore Society has been taking place every winter since 1961— when its inaugural event featured a lineup of the Stanley Brothers, Elizabeth Cotten, Willie Dixon, and the New lost City Ramblers. Over the years, the festival has welcomed such guests as Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, the Staples Singers, and Muddy Waters, among other legends. The 2015 lineup hadn’t been announced at presstime, but expect more of the same—an incredible weekend of music, workshops, and jamming at U. of C.

OFF has been “on” for the second weekend in February for 13 years straight—bringing central Florida its biggest taste of folk music of the season. Taking place at the Mennello Museum of American Art on the scenic grounds of Loch Haven Park, the free festival draws crowds that number into the thousands—who come for the incredible music, and stay to check out the fantastic folk art.

The Palatka Bluegrass Festival, a benefit for the Rodeheaver Boys’ Ranch, draws the curtain on its 11th year with the help of such pickers as Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, the Gibson Brothers, Jimmy Fortune, the Grascals, the Boxcars, and more. Taking place under the stars at Rodeheaver Boys’ Ranch, camping is available for those staying the whole weekend—and be sure to sign up for the Wernick Method Bluegrass Jamming classes hosted by Gilbert Nelson.

Acoustic Guitar (ISSN 1049-9261) is published monthly by String Letter Publishing, Inc., 501 Canal Blvd., Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804. Periodical postage paid at Richmond, CA 94804 and additional mailing offices. Printed in USA. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Pitney Bowes International Mail Services, P.O. Box 32229, Hartford, CT 06150-2229. Postmaster: Please make changes online at AcousticGuitar.com or send to Acoustic Guitar, String Letter Publishing, Inc., PO Box 3500, Big Sandy, TX 75755.

162 February 2015

MIKE MELNYK PHOTO

Ovation Celebrity ® Elite Plus Trans Blue Quilt Maple

DIFFERENT. THAT’S HOW WE MAKE ÉM. Playing an Ovation is a unique experience. It doesn’t look, sound or feel like any guitar you’ve ever played before. That’s how we planned it. Play an Ovation. Be different.

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MARTIN D-35 TURNS 50

D-35 Brazilian 50th Anniversary Limited Edition

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