Jimmy Buffett passed away September 1, 2023 at 76. Today, we're revisiting this conversation with the "Margaritaville" singer-songwriter about his collection of rarified golden-era guitars.
Robertson passed away August 9, 2023. Republished here is the cover story for our September 2011 issue, in which the legendary guitarist opened up about the Band, collaborating with Eric Clapton, and his collection of vintage Martins.
Many significant developments in classical guitar design and technique flourished in Spain during the past few centuries, but the story indeed began many years—perhaps millennia—earlier.
Renowned maxi-instrumentalist David Lindley passed away March 3, 2023 at the age of 78. Republished here is a profile and in-depth interview, which originally ran as cover story for our June 2000 issue.
To his colleagues at Acoustic Guitar, Steve James was not only the knowledgeable, reliable author of 185 well-regarded articles and reviews, he was a cherished friend, close collaborator, and the source of endlessly entertaining tales from the road.
Tommy Emmanuel, John Knowles, and Steve Wariner share the distinction of being Certified Guitar Players, anointed by Chet Atkins himself. Here they sit down, for the first time, to discuss Atkins.
"The idea was to play something that would allow me to tell a long tall tale without it becoming distracting—or in other words, play something familiar. The actual fingerpicking is instantly recognizable now.”
Many people think of the guitar as "America's instrument,” but the truth is the guitar was a relative latecomer to American music. Here, Michael Wright traces the instrument's origins
In the folk music boom in New York in the 1960s, the music of guitarist Mississippi John Hurt was a huge influence on players like Happy Traum, John Sebastian, and others.
Contemporary fingerstyle guitar masters Andy McKee, Kaki King, Christie Lenée, and Mike Dawes reflect on the legacy of the revolutionary guitarist Michael Hedges.
David Surette was renowned for his superb solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of Celtic tunes, as well as the Grateful Dead guitar/mandolin duo Steve and Dave Play Dead.
Guthrie is in many ways our prototypical singer-songwriter, showing the young Bob Dylan, among countless others, how to use old songs to make new ones.
Western swing developed quickly in the 1930s and ’40s from a number of influences: Western life and cowboy culture, various and diverse forms of blues and gospel music, Dixieland jazz and swing, and an all-but-forgotten form of entertainment in traveling tent shows and vaudeville theatre.
Folklorist Alan Lomax is primarily recognized, when at all, by the instrumental role he played in launching the careers of some America’s—and the world’s—most beloved guitarist-singers. Indeed, it’s difficult to overestimate the role that he and his father, John A. Lomax, played in shaping musical history as they traveled the back roads of the southern United States collecting traditional music under the auspices of the Library of Congress.
Izzy Young’s accomplishments are the stuff of legend, from producing hundreds of folk concerts (among them Bob Dylan’s first) to organizing protests and beyond.
