Gods of the acoustic guitar

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

What are your favourite acoustic guitar players, when it comes to the combining of virtousity on the instrument and creativity?


To open up:
Doc Watson - Appalachian Folk

Love to listen to Doc Watson; if you are in for one of the best acoustic guitar players of the last century (and some smashing Banjo), check him out:

 :)

[Melooon]

Omg someone else is into classic folk 

Doc Watson is one of those incredibly charming people; Im sure you've seen some around but there's a filmmaker called David Hoffman who made a bunch of amazing recordings of Appalachian folk, including Doc during the early 70s.

Here's a whole playlist of them!

I particularly love this clip - Earl + Randy Scruggs and Joan Baez (Sorry I know I go about Joan Baez and David Hoffman clips on this forum way too often  ) - I think a lot of people these days write off Earl Scruggs as being either too novelty to be a great, and too conservative to be a hippy; but his story is actually really incredible and he's one of the few celebrates I really lookup to!

Maybe a more obscure yet really sweet one is Elizabeth Cotten - I think she used to play the guitar backwards because she learned on a right-handed instrament but was lefty.

Annndd maybe to pick a another unusual one this clip of Jack Elliott is really beautiful - he's so uncomfortable on camera but the song just has so much presence.

Ahhh I suppose all my picks are very vocal-heavy, but I love the mix of voice and instrument and the way they make each other become more!

[jjharley]

Although I agree with the aforementioned Doc Watson, my top pick would have to the little-known Nick Drake.

His story is pretty tragic, despite growing up amongst England's privileged middle class and attending Cambridge University, he was otherwise dealt a pretty band hand in life as I gather. He was reclusive at school, suffered from depression for most of his life and failed to find a job he enjoyed as much as being a musician.

When he was finally picked up by Island Records in 1969 (iirc) at the hands of folk and blues producer Joe Boyd, all three of his albums performed poorly. Why this happened is (arguably) a mystery.

Take 'River Man' for example, off his debut album:

If you're a guitarist you'll realise why this song it's so good: it's played in 5/4 (which for the uninitiated is an incredibly wacky time signature for most modern songs) with some particularly odd chords whilst being fingerpicked beautifully in English Folk style by the man singing. That takes some skill, plus, it sounds beautiful.

I also believe 'Pink Moon':

With it's dead, soft sounding strings and completely custom tuning by Nick (C-G-C-F-C-E) further proves my opinion.

As does 'Parasite', off the same album, with it's further use of complex fingerpicking and Nick's preferred custom alt. tuning:

Feel free to give your thoughts, sorry for the text wall... 

-- Joe

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

@Melooon: What a great performance in this video :). My father loves Baez, instantly mailed it to him.
Didn't knew the other two; but both are also damn good, will take a closer listen to their output in the days ahead.

@jjharley: Walls of text are welcome :). My roommate hinted me at Nick Drake a few months ago, and I agree that he is a great musician; for me (as a non-guitar player) I found him primarily to be a good songwriter - but I'm willing to believe that his guitar is also extraordinary.



Lets have some American Primitivism!
Leo Kottke covering the Birds. Arguably the best version of the song (and there are many strong contestants) I know of:

[purelyconstructive]

Excellent selections everyone!

In no particular order...

* Vieux Farka Touré+

[+ his dad Ali Farka Touré is also amazing]

* Django Reinhardt

* Ralf Illenberger+

[+ he also does a lot of stuff with several other fantastic guitarists like Peter Autschbach and Martin Kolbe]

* Phil Keaggy

* Kent Nishimura+

[+ only covers, but absolutely incredible arrangements and playing...in that regard, he kind of reminds me of Sungha Jung]

* Michael Hedges

* Rodrigo y Gabriela

* Trace Bundy+

[+ although, he is using a looper and accompanied by drums here]

...While it is a fairly eclectic mix, I tried to stick with live videos. Hopefully there is something there that others will also enjoy.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Davey Graham - She moved through the fair

Also, Robbie Basho belongs here, too. God, just look what this guy did with his guitar!