Adam Perlmutter holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a master's degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. He is the editor of Acoustic Guitar.
Shortly after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, Tom Prasada-Rao, a singer-songwriter based in Silver Spring, Maryland, was watching CNN footage of protests when in a fit of inspiration he penned a new song. In its aching and deeply felt contemplation, “$20 Bill (for George Floyd)” brilliantly captures the grief and rage coursing through the veins of so many in the wake of Floyd’s senseless murder, over cigarettes said to have been purchased with counterfeit currency.
While the Beatles song kicks off right on the vocal melody, Juber takes structural liberties and begins his arrangement with an adaptation of the guitar figure that appears between verses on the original recording.
To make things easier to play on the guitar, I placed the first two bars an octave lower than the strings on the original recording, with the second two bars in the original octave. Play this part kind of languorously, taking advantage of the breathing room afforded by the open strings.
In the late 1950s and early ’60s, prewar acoustic blues guitarists such as Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, and Reverend Gary Davis earned late-in-life fame as new audiences eagerly devoured their music through performances at events like the Newport Folk…
Chris Eldridge, the Punch Brothers member and house guitarist on NPR’s Live From Here, has in recent years been having conversations with Collings Guitars about making the ultimate dreadnought. “One of my main goals was to come up with something…
Like millions of Americans, Eric Skye, the virtuoso jazz and roots guitarist, is currently under a shelter-in-place order—and making the best of it. He’s been hunkered down at his home, in Portland, Oregon, cooking and playing guitar with his wife…
“The Girl from Ipanema,” a prime example of the bossa nova idiom, is one of the most covered songs in recorded history. Here we explore Charlie Byrd's dropped-D interpretation.
Not long ago, Jim D’Addario, Chairman of the Board and Chief Innovation Officer of D’Addario & Company, Inc., began to feel guilty that most of the guitars in his 50-instrument collection were being neglected. D’Addario decided to pair with Reverb to sell an initial batch of 14 of these guitars.
“Just a Closer Walk with Thee” finds Dylan and Cash—incidentally, with rockabilly legend Carl Perkins on the electric guitar—putting a country spin on a New Orleans funeral standard.
While not perfectly executed, the Loog Mini definitely succeeds as a fun and inexpensive first guitar for younger children—a great gateway to the standard six-string guitar.
A couple of years ago, Darren Stewart—Chief of Police at the Stonington Police Department, in Pawcatuck, Connecticut—encountered a particularly sad case. Stewart was visiting the estate of a local celebrity, Eva Franchi, helping her prepare for an annual concert in…
Having unveiled its innovative V-Class bracing system in 2018 and Grand Pacific guitars last year, Taylor is adding four new models to the Builder’s Edition collection, which now includes nine instruments. At the top of the line is the 816ce,…
With some beautiful cross-picked variations and gorgeous harmonic colors, this arrangement is best when you slow down and give the melody space to breathe.
It’s been 50 years since James Taylor released what would prove to be one of the most enduring ballads in the folk-pop realm—and, according to recent surveys, an overwhelming favorite of AG readers. “Fire and Rain” is a rather heavy…
Given a market teeming with attractive options, it can be overwhelming to find the acoustic-electric guitar that’s right for your style and which sounds great acoustically.
When AG recently surveyed readers about what songs they’d like to learn, the most requested selection was “Sultans of Swing.” This came as a surprise, as the track, which the British rock band Dire Straits released in 1978, has not a lick of acoustic guitar in it. But ask and you shall receive, as they say.
