News & Updates — guitar

Here's a birthday shout to Lou Reed, urban storyteller, composer, guitarist, avant-rocker and NYC icon. The Velvet Underground are one of my all time favorite rock bands, and although his solo work is very hit-or-miss he displays heart and passion through all of it. He was a drug-using, free-jazz loving, dark poet with a life of ups & downs who captivated through song and sound. He is one of the godfathers of punk & no wave, a huge influence on Krautrock and sympathized with the freaks of the world. His biggest hit "Walk On The Wild Side" has been sampled...

The first "folk" guitarist I got really into was John Fahey and his curious Takoma albums. Fahey's music combined blues, country, classical, avant-garde and finger-pickin' roots styles and other international folk musics all together. From dissonant to haunting, country blues to modal epics, it covered a lot worth hearing. Takoma was his label, started with money saved from his gas-pumping gig and it went on to be a very influential independent label, releasing many classics not only by Fahey, but also records by Bukka White, Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke, Canned Heat, Charlie Nothing, Bola Sete, George Winston and others. He...

Despite never being what I would call "an acoustic guitar guy", I always dug the ever-reaching and even educational style of John Fahey's music. An early "world music" blender, his records covered country blues, gospel, Indian ragas, ambient sounds, classical, avant-garde and various international folk styles, documented on a classic run of '60s & '70s sides. I can't say as much for Eric Clapton, although I like his music enough, I just don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy Fahey's. Certainly, Clapton also scoped wide influences: blues, country, jazz, psychedelic rock, Arabic, reggae, etc. One of my favorite tunes...

A birthday shout-out to the Man In Black, Johnny Cash! He was the first "country" artist I ever respected and I always loved his baritone voice and shuffling-yet-soulful '50s tunes. The fact that he did concerts for incarcerated people, opposed the Vietnam war and included topics (and actions) in respect to indigenous culture gave him a lot of real cred, in my opinion. His music had just the right amounts of country, rockabilly, gospel, blues, folk and even mariachi and he totally OWNED that Nine Inch Nails song. There was nothing artsy about his style, just a direct approach with...

Sandy Bull was one of my favorites of the '60s/'70s "folk" musicians, although his music was much, much more than your typical "folkie" thing. Playing a variety of stringed instruments (guitar, banjo, oud, pedal steel, etc), his music was informed by various international folk traditions, modal jazz, Indian ragas, classical, blues, gospel, psychedelia and even Chuck Berry! He sometimes had percussionists (such as Billy Higgins or Denis Charles) as well as his own system of live tape overdubs and rhythm-machines. Check out his early Vanguard albums for some early excursions into psychedelic world fusion! Bull's 1963 debut, Fantasias For Guitar...