59901710 finger style guitar new dimensions vol i

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We whose musical bent inclines toward fingerstyle acoustic

guitar are sometimes characterized as antediluvians with a

horror , both innate and ideological, of technology. Of course,

the video which this text accompanies exists thanks to technol-

ogy, as does the guitar, acoustic or otherwise. Those of us whohave hungered to see a favorite guitarist p lay a beguiling passage

over and over till we ‘get it’ can now, with the push of a but ton

or two, have just that. Suddenly, we are in control of our

masters.

There are several levels on which this video, and others of

its kind, can be helpful. The performances here are perfor-

mances, not lessons, but th e pause and rewind bu ttons create a

tutorial subtext. Closer scrutiny becomes an option. And while

most viewers of this video are probably guitar players, there’s a

good chance you aren ’t on ly a guitar player. Even if you are one

of the few of us whose career is that of guitar player, your lifeisn’t on ly about guitar. O ther levels of experience engage you.

And the same is true of the remarkable guitarists in this video.

Neither they nor their mu sic exist in a vacuum. The personali-

ties of the mu sicians is conveyed via a complex dan ce of flesh,

wire, and wood. What we hear is expressive not only of an

instrumental medium (fingerstyle guitar) but of a myriad of

extra-musical elements and of the milieus where the musicians

shaped their music.

The clips of Bert Jansch, for example, convey the ambience

of the English folk pubs in which his introspective music wasforged. Jorma Kaukonen, who, with bassist Jack Casady, be-

came Hot Tuna in 1970, seemingly turned away from Jefferson

Airplane stardom for something more elemental: ‘Unplugged’

before rockers-gone-acoustic was cliche. Leo Kottke shows us

why he became a 1970s ‘guitar h ero’ withou t executing a single

right arm pinwheel, while John Fahey offers the roots of Kottke

(and a whole ‘American primitive guitar’ school) in his own

decept ively simple synthesis of American b lues and everyth ing

from hymns to ragas. Preston Reed’s ‘acoustic funk’ suggests a

response to influences beyond the oft-times insular realm of

acoustic guitar instrumentalists. Each of the ten performers inthis video is engaging in an active dialogue with us, the audi-

ence, and with a host of influences. Each is taking a step beyond

the footfalls of those influences. As much as anything, the theme

of these New Dimensions and Explorations is evolution.

The evolution we witness is both stylistic and technologi-

cal. Is Adrian Legg’s fiberglass instrument with Scruggs-style



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tuners the same guitar as John Fahey’s vintage Bacon & Day?

Technology rises to serve stylistic changes, and style meets th e

available technology. On th e Big Screen of guitar evolution , the

roughly 30 years represented by this video signals a brilliant bu t

brief blip. “In th e beginning,” sarodist Buddadev Das Gupta to lda UCLA audience in 1993, “there was the hunter’s bow.” Das

Gupta was explaining the evolut ion of North India’s sarod, but

his starting point would app ly to any member of the family of

stringed instru ments (chord ophon es). The hunter’s bow’s close

kin, the mouth bow, can still be heard making music in some

part s of the world. (In Centr al Africa, it can be heard charming

genies whose job it is to guard animals from hunters.) “Apollo

the god of archers is also Apollo the god of music,” writes

Frederic V. Grunfeld in The Art and Times of the Guitar , “a

circumstance th at might r easonably be explained by the dualism

of the bow.” Fingerstyle guitarists are thus Apollon ian, as theyreplicate the primal pluck of the hunter’s bow each time they

play. (Tradition ally, Dionysians favor wind instru ments, thou gh

rumor has it they traded th eir panpipes for a Strat and a stack of

Marshalls twenty-some years ago.)

Looking a few run gs up the evolutionary ladder from the

mouth bow, we see sexy courtesans on Egyptian tomb walls

playing a long-necked lute called a nefer. It more closely re-

sembles the sentir still played by Moroccan Gnawa musicians

than the guitar, but the 3400 year-old images tell us the Pha-

raohs were entertained by something distantly akin to theguitar. So, too, were the Christian crusaders who sought to

reclaim Jerusalem bu t were seduced by Arabic cultu re and later

transformed the oud into the lute of medieval courts.

During the late renaissance, the egalitarian guitar began

edging out the cour tly lute. “It has n one of the inconveniences

to which the lute is subject,” wrote Luis de Briceno in 1626.

“Neither smoke nor heat nor cold nor dampness can incommode

it...And as fur ther proof of the value of my guitar, ask yourself

whether k ings, princes and gentlemen lay aside the guitar for

the lute as they now leave the lute for the guitar?”

Along with “kings, pr inces and gentlemen,” the volup tuar-ies of Charles II’s cour t took to th e guitar. “You were as sure to

see a guitar on a lady’s toilet, “ wrote Count Grammont, “as

rouge and patches.” In America, Ben Franklin championed it,

and there was some populist enthusiasm for the guitar in the

early decades of the American republic. Stephen Foster wrote

for guitar, and his more sentimental side reflected the literature



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for guitar when it was primarily a lady’s parlor inst rument . The

more boisterous banjo and fiddle, however, were the frontier

folk instruments of 19th century America.

But mass produ ction and mail order changed all that. By the

last decades of the 19th cen tury, cheap guitars flooded Americavia Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and similar commerce-

minded friends of folk music. The genteel parlor instrument

became a roughly-banged ‘second’ (rhythm accompanimen t) to

fiddlers across America, and a host of new, unorthodox ap-

proaches to guitar sprang up among musicians who lacked

formal training bu t n ot imagination. Some tried to replicate the

syncopation and clear register separation of ragtime piano on

the guitar; oth ers discovered th ey could imitate train whistles

and h uman cries by sliding some smooth ob ject up the strings.

African-Americans were in the vanguard of those who liberated

the guitar from the parlor. In the late 19th century, with sudd enaccess to a remarkable instrumen t, th ey planted th e seeds for

much of the music seen/heard on t his video.

In 1626, Luis de Briceno had argued that the guitar was easy

to play, easy to maintain, and an egalitarian delight: “Two

thousand people now entertain themselves and express their

thou ghts and troubles through the guitar.” Three hund red years

later in America, guitar ists as diverse as Nick Lucas and Blind

Lemon Jefferson were further popularizing the instrument via

record ings. A few years later still millions of Americans tun ed in

radios to hear the young Bing Crosby croon to the dulcetaccompaniment of Eddie Lang. And the movies spawned a

generation of future guitarists in the 1930s, thanks to the

inspiration of singing (and strumming) cowboy, Gene Autry.

(The mail order comp anies helped again, selling kid-sized Gene

Autry guitars.) Many of the guitarists on this video felt the

impact of Elvis’s 1950s television app earances. His guitar may

have been mainly a prop, but it was a potent one. And Scotty

Moore, h e wasn’t k idd ing. The guitar has been ‘user friend ly’ in

the ways its renaissance champion said, and it has also proven

‘media friendly’ in ou r century. This video is further evidence.

Looking at it, there are at least three major traditions inevidence, and considerable exchange among them. John Fahey

is the father of a school of ‘American primitive’ (his term)

guitarists, self-taught artists who borrowed from folk roots and

blended them with varied influences. Leo Kottke may be the

quintessential graduate of Fahey’s school: He is as quirky as

Fahey but more accessible, sunny where John is dark. Fahey’s



5

J oh nF ah e y an d S t ef an Gr o s s m an ( ph o t o b y J oA y r e s )

introspection, more than his folk/blues roots, likewise inspired

Will Ackerman and other guitarists identified with the ‘New

Age’ music of the 1980 s. For Fahey, whose introspection t ends

towards expressionist angularity rather than impressionistic

pastels, this is not a happy legacy.At about the same time Fahey was discovering blues and

coun try guitarists in America, Davey Graham was absorbing the

lessons Big Bill Broonzy left h is European fans, an d mixed them

with music reflecting Britain. Bert Jansch is one of several

remarkable guitarists who came up in the 1960s and advanced

British ap proaches to fingerstyle guitar . All point to Graham as

the fount ainhead of their movement and t o Broonzy as its initial

catalyst.

Brad Jones and Adr ian Legg reflect very d ifferent respon ses

to the inspiration of American country guitar styles. Merle

Travis brought a blues-and-jazz influenced style from westernKentucky to nationwide attention, and such d isciples as Chet

Atkins, Doc Watson, Jerry Reed, and Scotty Moore further

refined and popularized it. The roots of ‘Travis picking’ bear

resemblance to the ragtime-inspired ‘Piedmont style’ guitar best

exemplified by Rev. Gary Davis and Blind Boy Fuller . Similarly,

fingerstyle blues is at the base of the ‘family tree’ of Fahey’s

school and, for that matter, t he English and European players.

Each of these ten artists is an original, and each, t oo, is part

of a larger cultural continuum. Unalloyed originality is either

mythic or infantile. These artists are neither, and their examplemay inspire you to find your own New Dimensions and Explo-

rations on fingerstyle guitar.



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P e t e r F in g erPeter Finger brings a fusion jazz sensibility to an instrument an d

style seldom associated with it and brilliantly demonstrates the

dynamic range of fingerstyle guitar. Finger grew up in a musical

household (his father is a symphony conductor) in Weimar,Germany, where his

early studies of the

violin were rewarded

with prizes in th e na-

tional music compe-

t i t ion , “Jugend

musiz-er t . ” The

wunder-kind took up

the guitar at 13, and

made his first album,

apt ly t i t led Finger

Picking (ALP 190), at

age 19. Two albums

for Stefan Grossman’s

Kicking Mule label in

the early 1970s, Gui-

tar Instrumentals (SNKF 104) and Bottleneck Guitar Solos (SNKF

105), quickly followed, as did extensive Europ ean tou rs. Finger’s

range of influences and abilities is evident in such albums as

Acoustic Rock Guitar (SNKF 144) and Neue Wege (SF 8015) with

saxophonist Char lie Mariano. (One critic likened Finger to “anacoustic Jimi Hendrix.”) Though litt le known in America, Finger’s

gifts as guitarist and composer for radio, film, and television

keep h im busy in Europ e. You never know were those early

violin lessons will lead. Niemandsland (AM 1001)

Live (EC 418/10)

Neue Wege (SF 8015)

Im Labyrinth (SF 5013)

Windspiele (SF 8006)

Finger’s recordings are available via his label,

Acoustic Music Records, Postfach 1945, 49009 Osnabruck, Germany.

Le o K o t t k eIt’s tribute to the incredible impact of this artist that, when

someone calls a player’s style ‘neo-Leo,’ we know exactly what

they mean. Kottke’s Takoma label album, 6 & 12 String Guitar ,

appeared with little fanfare in 1969 but developed such a

P e t er F i n g er ( ph o t o b y M anf r e d P ol l er t )



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L e oK o t t k e ( ph o t o b y T omB er t h i a um e )

legendary reput ation that

it would eventually sell

around 500,000 Lp copes

(Rhino has reissued it on

CD). Readers of GuitarPlayer magazine voted

Kottke “Best Folk Guitar-

ist” for five consecutive

years from 1974 th rough

1978. Critics hailed him

as a “Pop virtu oso,” and a

flurry of albums on a suc-

cession of labels ensued.

Kottke has recently modi-

f ied the fu l l - thro t t le

torque of his early play-ing and elevated h is song-writing and the deadpan basso vocals

he once likened to “geese farts on a muggy day.” His two

performances here illustrate both the bluesy bounce of early

Kottke and the more classical inclination of some of his later

work. (Try the challenging 6-5-4/6-5-4/5-6 -string bass line of

the second piece against a melodic counterpoint for an exer-

cise.) To his credit , Kottke has continually push ed h imself as an

artist and r isen to new challenges while retaining the humor and

boyish excitement of his early explosions.

Great Big Boy (Private Music) My Father’s Face (Private Music)

That's What (Private Music)

A Shout Toward Noon (Private Music)

Dreams & All That Stuff (Capitol)

Time Step (Capitol)

6 & 12-String Guitar (Rhino)

Leo Kottke (Chrysalis)

Burnt Lips (Chrysalis)

Guitar Music (Chrysalis)

Ber t J a n s chBorn in Glasgow and raised in Edinburgh, Jansch has been a

dominant force on Britain’s folk scene since 1965, when h is first

album (Bert Jansch, TRA 125) appeared. Jansch’s version of

Davey Graham’s Angie became a fingerpicker’s standard covered

by (among others) Paul Simon. His collaborations with John

Renbourn set a new standard for imaginative guitar duets, and



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B er t J an s c h ( ph

o t o b y S t ef an Gr o s s m an )

the diverse elements Jansch

and Renbourn f i l te red

through their fingers (En-

glish folk, American jazz and

blues, etc.) took on furtherd imens ions when they

teamed with bassist Danny

Thompson, drummer Terry

Cox and vocalist Jacqui

McShee to form Pentangle.

Pentangle’s evoc-ative and

eclectic modern chamber

music came to be dubbed

(to Jansch’s chagrin) folk-

baroque. Since Pentangle’s

initial disbandment in 1973,Jansch has worked exten-

sively as a solo performer,

with fiddler-mandocellist

Martin Jenkins, and, on oc-

casion, with a reformed

Pentangle. His two performances in this set illustrate both his

clean articulation and his imaginative way with a traditional

song. In Black Waterside, Jansch uses a D-A-D-G-B-E tunin g

with reflective pu nch and panache. His d istinctive off-rhythms

and string snapping are legacies of his jazz and b lues influenceswhich Jansch in turn ed passed on to Pierre Bensusan.The Best of Bert Jansch (Shanachie)

Jansch & Renbourn / After The Dance (Shanachie)

The Ornament Tree (Run River Records)

Sketches (Temple Records)

Pentangle / Early Classics (Shanachie)

Pentangle / So Early In The Spring (Green Linnet)

Pentangle / Think Of Tomorrow (Green Linnet)

Bert Jansch In Concert (Ramblin' Video 807)

A d r i a n Le ggLike another English-born guitarist, Albert Lee, Legg brings a

refreshingly un-Southern (yet simpatico) approach t o count ry

guitar. His first instrument was oboe, but Legg abandoned it

when he h eard Lonn ie Mack’s Wham! He played electric guitar

in several country bands before embarking on his unique ver-

sion of semi-acoustic fingerstyle guitar. Since 1991, Legg has

recorded four albu ms for the Relativity label, two of which ( Mrs.



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A d r i a

n L e g g ( p h o t o b y J e f f S a c k s )

Crowe’s Waltz and Wine,

Women & Waltz) are de-

voted to the revival of 3/4

time. (“I like waltzes,”

says Legg, “I th ink they’rean under -exp lo i t ed

form...People used to be

conceived because of

wal tzes .” ) The non-

wal tzes heard in th is

video illustrate th e legacy

of gui ta r i s t Clarence

White and electric banjo-

ist Buck Trent, both of

whom played instruments

with ‘string bender’ ef-fects which replicated the

sound of the p edal steel guitar . Legg has ‘Scruggs style’ tuners

and a very light G string on his instrument. Along with the

lessons of White and Trent , Legg has absorbed influences from

Chet Atkins and his d isciples, Jerry Reed and Lenny Breau. Legg

mixes his influence in an ap pealingly original way, winn ing him

“Best Acoustic Finger Stylist” in Guitar Player’s reader’s poll.

Like a veteran ‘reader’s poll’ champ for whom Legg has opened ,

Leo Kottke, Legg was drawn to the multi-linear guitar from a

uni-linear wind instrument. (For Kottke, it was trombone.)“With the guitar,” explains Legg, “you can hold a whole p iece of

music, whereas if you p lay trumpet or oboe, you can only do bits

of a piece of music. You can d o a whole piece on th e piano, but

you don’t hold it. There’s a kind of intimacy with yourself that

can happen with the guitar.”Guitars and Other Cathedrals (Relativity)

Guitar for Mortals (Relativity)

Mrs. Crowe’s Blue Waltz (Relativity)

Wine, Women & Waltz (Relativity)

Beyond Acoustic Guitar-Video Lesson (Hot Licks)

Fingerpicking & Open Tunings -Video Lesson (Hot Licks)

J o r m a K a u k o n e nThou gh his heroes were Blind Blake and Rev. Gary Davis, Jorma

Kaukon en emerged as one of the sultans of psychedelia in 1967

via his trips with the Jefferson Airplane. The influential San

Francisco rock band was losing some of its momentum by 1970,



10

when Kaukon-en and

his long-time friend

(and Airplane bass-

is t ) Jack Casady

formed Hot Tuna asa ‘side project’ from

the often-grounded

Airplane. There they

were free to explore

their roots as well as

experiment outside

the sometimes-vola-

tile band. The first

performance here is

a bluesy jam which

suggests, in a differ-ent context, some of the innovative spirit of the Jansch-Ren-

bourn duets. Casady was originally an electric jazz guitar ist and

here he plays chordal bass (and even in one section, flamenco-

inspired runs). Jorma’s guitar playing is at times an acoustic

simulation of his reverb-and-distortion-laden solos with the

Airplane. But if the first performance suggests acoustic (and

vocalless) Airplane music, the second is archetypal Hot Tun a, a

Gary Davis-inspired arrangement of Hesitation Blues. In the

years since these clips of the young Tun as, Kaukon en has been

busy playing and teaching both h is rock and his roots. “I lovethe acoustic guitar,” he told Guitar Player’s Jas Obrecht . “It’s a

complete, portable instrument. It’s like being able to play an

acoustic piano, but you can carry it around. I find it a very

sensuous instrument.” Jorma (RCA)

Hot Tuna (RCA)

Magic (Relix Records)

Quab (Relix Records)

Live At Sweetwater (Relix Records)

The Acoustic Guitar Of Jorma Kaukonen (Homespun Video)

Br a d J o n esWhen his dad wasn’t working on the Ames, Iowa police force, he

was starring on one of those once-ubiquitous ‘live’ country

radio shows, The Buster Jones Show. Older brother Ron was

fingerpicking a la Merle Travis and Chet Atkins, so it was fairly

J or m aK a uk on e

n



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B r a d J on e s ( ph o t o b y S t ef an Gr o s s m an )

natu ral for Brad Jones to fol-

low in the family tradition.

As is evident from the auto-

graphs on his classical-style

guitar, Jones wears his influ-ences proud ly, pr imarily that

of the wise guy who wrote,

“To Brad, My Hero” — Jerry

Reed. Reed (aka ‘the Claw’)

took Atkins’ style to anot her

dimension in the 1960s, and

Jones says, “I went crazy with

Jerry’s stuff. I do a lot of his

licks, but I do ‘em different .”

The influence of left-hand ed

brother Ron contributed: Ronplayed a right-handed guitar

upside down, picking the

bass notes with h is fingers. “I

just never learned to play

right, ” says Jones. “I double pick a whole lot on the bot tom and

get a kind of funky sound.” (Notice in th e video th at he some-

times cross picks up and d own with his thumbp ick as if it were

a flat pick.)

Jones has three albums out on the Virginia-based Flat Five

label, and in 1992 won the fingerstyle guitar competition atWinfield, Kansas. He has played in Europe in the company of

such legend s as Albert Lee, Larry Coryell, and Marcel Dadi, bu t

Jones doesn’t lean on the guitar for his livelihood. “I move

furniture,” he says. “I go on tour when I can, but I don ’t take it

all that serious. I tried that for awhile, but I got severely

overweight, so I had to go back to work.” Live at Five (Flat Five)

Backporch Boogie (Flat Five)

Bag Of Tricks, Pocketful Of Licks-Video Lesson

(Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop)

J o h n F ah e yEisenhower was still President when a 20-year-old from Takoma

Park, Maryland issued an Lp of steel-string guitar solos, Blind Joe

Death, on his own label, Takoma. “John kind of invented the

audience for solo steel-string guitar,” Leo Kottke told Dale

Miller, “and the industry behind it. Without John it wouldn’t



12

J o h n

F a h e y ( p h o t o b y J o A y r e s )

have happened.” The

seminal a lbums

Fahey made for his

Takoma label in the

Sixties were a big partof both why and h ow

it happened: “When

I started ,” Fahey once

told this writer, “no-

body was interested

in guitar solos — in

tak ing o ld b lues

pieces and trying to

rec rea t e them. I

thought there was

enough in the guitarthat d eserved concert

attention. I was pushing to get the steel-string guitar recognized

as a legitimate concert instrument, using American folk tradi-

tion, though not exclusively. I was eclectic, starting off with

some blues and h illbilly pieces by adding classical licks, Indian

stuff, and other mu sic that is hard to define.”

Fahey’s pioneering eclecticism is demonstrated in th e per-

formances on t his video. His lap-style slide playing is a vehicle

for Bukka Wh ite’s Poor Boy, which John Lomax recorded by an

imprisoned Bukka White at Parchman Farm in 1939. (Faheyrediscovered White in 1964 , and r ecorded him for the Takoma

label.) The second clip of a younger Fahey shows him moving

through introspective, and sometimes dissonant material in a

manner which clearly anticipates the ‘impressionism’ of his

varied disciples. And his syncopated ar rangement of the Episco-

pal hymn, In Christ There Is No East Nor West , became a

fingerpickers’ standard, in the 1960s, comparable to “Windy

and Warm” and “Angie” in popu larity.Old Girlfriends And Other Horrible Memories (Varrick)

I Remember Blind Joe Death (Varrick)

Rain Forests, Oceans And Other Themes (Varrick) John Fahey Christmas Guitar (Varrick)

God, T ime And Causality (Shanachie)

Railroad (Shanachie)

Fare Forward Voyagers (Shanachie)

Old Fashioned Love (Shanachie)

The Yellow Princess (Vanguard)

John Fahey & Elizabeth Cotten (Vestapol Video)



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P r e s t onR e e d ( ph o t o b y Mi c h a el Wi l s on )

P r e st o n R e ed

Reed cites three of the other ar tists on this video — John Fahey,

Leo Kottke, and Jorma Kaukonen — as h is format ive influences

as a guitarist. The acoustic funk tap attack illustrated in this

video was inspired by the examples of Michael Hedges and

Stanley Jordan, and gives new meaning to the term ‘hammer-

on.’ “Creative exploration, for me, is the purpose of playing

guitar,” Reed told Todd Ellison. “I always try to go after some-

thing I haven’t done before.”

Reed’s eight albums trace his evolution through a variety of six-and-12-string fingerstyle techn iques, includ ing slide guitar.

He devotes as much creative energy to generating new tunes as

he d oes to n ew techn iques. “For me,” says Reed, “composing is

as important as playing the instru ment.”

The Washington Post said of Preston 's playing: “His unac-

companied instrumentals often sounded like combo arrange-

ment s as he deftly combined bass lines, melody lines, arpeggios,

piano-like tapping on the fretboard and conga-like rapping on

the guitar's wooden box. Most impressively, the tunes never

sounded like academic experiments but always emphasized a

memorable melody and clear mood.” Border Towns (Capitol Nashville)

Blue Vertigo (Capitol Nashville)

The Road Less Traveled (Flying Fish)

Preston Reed (Flying Fish)

Instrument Landing (MCA Master Series)



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W o o d y M a n n ( p h o t o b y S t e f a n G r o s s m a n )

W o o d y Ma n nMann’s performance

here of crisply articu-

lated orchestral jazz

chords illustrates hisimaginative blend of

jazz, blues, and much

else. His lifelong stud y

of America’s musical

heritage began in Rev.

Gary Davis’s living

room and extended to

Julliard and his cur-

rent faculty position at

Manhattan’s New School for Social Research — Guitar Study

Center. Mann is best known for such instructional books as Six

Early Blues Guitarists and The Complete Robert Johnson, but his

performing credits have included stints with such blues legends

as Bukka White and Son House, jazz guitar ist Atilla Zoller, even

work as guitarist in the Broadway production of A Chorus Line.

“Blue” is certain ly one of the primary colors in Mann’s varied

palette, and recently he has made a series of blues-based in-

structional recordings for Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop.

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar - Video Lesson

The Guitar Of Blind Blake - Audio Lessons

The Guitar Of Big Bill Broonzy - Audio Lessons

The Guitar Of Lonnie Johnson - Audio Lessons

Roots Of Robert Johnson - Audio Lessons

Masterpieces Of Country Blues Guitar - Audio Lessons

Fingerpicking Jazz Improvisation - Audio Lessons

(All the above available from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop)

W ill A ck e r m a nSteeped in th e music of John Fahey, Ackerman was able to hang

up his carpenter’s tools and enjoy phenomenal success in the

1980s with the label he started in 1975, Windham Hill. The

label and a genre of music became synon ymous, and Ackerman

(who has since gone on to other entrepreneurial ventures),

became the guru/p atron of a school of so-called New Age

guitarists, including Ackerman’s cousin, Alex de Grassi and

Michael Hedges. Windham Hill’s brand of mood-enhancing

fingerstyle guitar often made the Billboard pop charts and

Ackerman’s independ ent ent repreneurial success had him tou ted



15

in Esquire’s 1984 Register:

The Best of the New Genera-

tion as among the “men and

women under 40 who are

changing America.”At the very least ,

Ackerman felt th at he and his

disciples were changing the

expectations of listeners to

fingerstyle guitar. “I person-

ally feel that t he ran ge of hu -

man emotions that are being

attempted and communicated

now are more subtle and inti-

mate and personal,” he told

Dan Forte. “I think the pur-pose of the music almost

changed. It went from some-

thing d emonstrative to some-

thing articulate.”Past Light (Windham Hill)

Childhood and Memory (Windham Hill)

It Takes A Year (Windham Hill)

The Search for the Turtle’s Navel (Windham Hill)

The Opening Of Doors (Windham Hill)

Conferring With The Moon (Windham Hill)

Notes by Mark Humphrey

Wi l l A c k er m an

( ph o t o b y B i l l R ei t z el )



16

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V e st a p o l 1 3 0 0 6ISBN: 1-57940-969-5

P e t e r F i n g e r

1. A Trip ThroughThe Pyrenees

Leo Kottke

2. Air ProofingBe r t J a n s ch

3. One For JoA d r i a n L e gg

4. Cajun InterludeJ o r m a K au k o n en

5. Man’s FateB u s t e r B . J o n e s

6. Wild TurkeyJ o h n F a h ey

7. Poor BoyP r e st o n R e ed

8. Slap FunkW o o d y M a n n

9. Lennie's LamentLeo Kottke

10. The Ice FieldA d r i a n L e gg

11. Midwest SundayB u s t e r B . J o n e s

12. Live At FiveJ o h n F a h ey

13. Red PonyJ o r m a K au k o n en

14. Hesitation BluesBe r t J a n s ch

15. Black WatersideW i ll A ck e r m a n

16. A Bricklayer’sBeautiful Daughter

J o h n F a h ey

17. In Christ There IsNo East Or West

B on u s In s t r u c t i o n a l

T r a c k s :

B u s t e r B . J o n e s

18. Sitting On Top

Of The WorldJ o h n F a h ey

19. Some Summer Day

Running Time: 82 minutes • ColorNationally di stributed by Rounder Records,One Camp Street, Cambridge, MA 02140

Representation t o M usic Stores byMel Bay Publication s

© 2003 Vestapol ProductionsA division of Stefan Grossman's

Guitar Workshop, Inc. 0 1 1 6 7 1 3 0 0 6 9 6

“This three DVD set features new and

archival footage of performances by the

preeminent names in steel -st r ing fingerstyle guitar. Beginning with Peter

Finger's breathtaking ‘A Trip Through The Pyrenees’, the collection boasts some

real gems: a rare late 1960s clip of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady - a .k.a.Hot Tuna doing ‘Hesitation Blues’, Bert

Jansch delivering a soulful version of ‘One For Jo’, John Fahey crooning whi le plucking a Gibson L-00 on a plaintive

‘Poor Boy’ and Adrian Legg at his peg-

twisting best on ‘Midwest Sunday’... It's a wonder seeing these greats do what they do up close without those often clumsy

instructional asides, and w ithout getting

a lot of smoke in your face. A real treat.” – G UITAR P LAYER

P e t er F i n g er

P r e s t onR e e d

59901710 finger style guitar new dimensions vol i

Documents