During a phone call from her New York City home, multi-Grammy-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin’s voice reveals patience and acceptance regarding the situation imposed by the current pandemic that has kept her and every other touring artist out of concert halls. “I haven’t traveled since the middle of February,” Isbin says.…
You can’t learn what Chet Atkins knows about playing the guitar from a book or from his records. Any guitarist who has lifted one of Atkins’ solos or some of his knuckle-busting moves from a tape and tab knows that while it’s possible to play the notes correctly, getting them…
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Whether as a solo artist, playing duets, leading his own group, or as a founding member of the seminal British folk-jazz ensemble Pentangle, Renbourn’s playing has left a profound imprint on the modern landscape of acoustic music.
San Francisco Bay Area–based Gretchen Menn is the author of The Way Music Works, portions of which can be viewed at Acoustic Guitar Plus (formerly Guitarcast). We recently reached out to Menn, ordinarily a busy performer, to see how she’s been handing her musical life during the coronavirus pandemic, and…
In the pantheon of classical guitar greats, Australia-born John Williams stands as a most imposing figure. For decades he has been the archetype for recitalists of the post-Segovia era. His singular technical abilities and thoroughgoing approach to the music he plays have set very high standards for those seeking to…
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Benjamin Verdery inhabits his own exclusive territory in the classical guitar world. Among the virtuosi of the baby boomer generation, it’s not hard to make a case that Verdery has explored the most diverse musical terrain.
We checked in to learn about what David's been up to lately and to hear his suggestions on remote learning.
Looking for something fun, safe, and socially distant to do on Friday night? Seven-string guitarist Ron Jackson will take over Acoustic Guitar’s Facebook page Friday, July 10 at 6–7PM (PST) for a live performance and Q&A. Joining him for a portion of the event will be Sean McGowan, who will…
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This wonderful recent performance of Rameau’s popular piece Les Sauvages, from the composer’s Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin (1726–1727), is delivered by one of the finest young players on the contemporary guitar scene, Frenchman Raphaël Feuillâtre, who was the deserving winner of the 2018 Guitar Foundation of America competition.
Alberto Lombardi had been working as a professional guitarist—a professional electric guitarist, that is—for more than two decades before he turned to the acoustic as a primary form of musical expression several years ago.
Sheaffer is a colorful and imaginative soloist who does wonders with a very simple setup
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Guitarist Antoine Boyer Boyer grew up in a Paris suburb, where his musical education began with the Gypsy jazz his parents would play around the house.
John Jorgenson thought he’d heard every possible description of Django Reinhardt’s guitar style—until he was asked to play the Gypsy-jazz guitarist’s music for the 2004 film Head in the Clouds. “The British director [John Duigan] said, ‘Django Reinhardt makes a particular sort of a racket on guitar. Can you make…
Among the world’s most prominent Gen-X classical guitarists, Jason Vieaux has embarked on a musical adventure that includes deep excursions into the classical literature juxtaposed with serious expeditions into pop, jazz, and other musical tributaries.
David Grier is the classic guitarist’s guitarist—not terribly well-known by the general public despite a long, stellar career working with just about everyone who’s anyone in the bluegrass and Nashville country music communities over the past four-plus decades, but uniformly admired by fellow guitarists for his amazing skill and versatility.
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For the fourth consecutive year, steel-string fingerstylist and composer Alex de Grassi Andrew York are teaming up to mentor intermediate and advanced players at the Mendocino Guitar Workshop.
Watching Yasmin Williams perform, it is immediately apparent that the 22-year-old guitarist has an uncommon approach to her solo playing.
Skye is among a handful of artists to have been honored with a Santa Cruz Guitar Company signature model. Since its introduction in 2011, he has used the guitar exclusively when straddling the worlds of fingerpicking and flatpicking—in traditional acoustic and more adventurous jazz contexts—which he does with apparent effortlessness.
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These three young improvisers play music of striking originality
Having lived and performed in the United States for 15 years, British guitarist Martin Simpson’s playing is a well-steeped blend of American blues, old-time music, and traditional English folk material. Simpson is currently at the very height of his powers, having released a string of pretty-perfect albums, with last year’s…
Jerry Douglas seems to be everywhere. Apart from fronting his eponymous Jerry Douglas Band, he boasts a 20-year tenure with Alison Krauss and Union Station, as well as a crucial role in a supergroup of sorts, the Earls of Leicester, whose recent release, Live at the CMA Theater in the…
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A new crop of players continues to push fingerstyle guitar toward the future while celebrating the sounds of the past.
Levin has put out three volumes of a remarkable series on the Naxos label
Steve Dawson may not be a household name, but with the release of 2014’s Rattlesnake Cage, he put himself on the radar of many acoustic guitar fans.
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Peter Ciluzzi plays music in his dreams. He tells me this as we’re standing outside The Evening Muse in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he has just played a transcendent set. As an unseasonably chilly wind rushes down the street, the guitarist and luthier, who built guitars out of his Provincetown,…
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