Q&A: While on Tour, Ben Harper Opens Up to His Opening Act Christopher Paul Stelling
We asked Christopher Paul Stelling to chat with Ben Harper about songwriting, guitars, growing up in a famous music store, and more.
Learn to Play the Classic Railroad Song ‘Rock Island Line’
Not long ago, Billy Bragg and Joe Henry took a long train ride, from Chicago to LA, stopping at stations to record great railroad songs. The resulting album, Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad (Cooking Vinyl), features “Rock Island Line”—a durable song that’s been covered by…
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Acoustic Guitar Tonewood Primer: How to Pick the Right Materials for Your Optimal Sound
As the acoustic guitar has evolved, so has the variety of different tonewoods used in guitars. Here's how to find the right tonewood to get your optimal sound.
John Gorka’s ‘Before Beginning’ Revisits His Earliest Studio Recordings
These early versions, appearing as kind-hearted sketches and confessionals filtered through a perpetual outsider’s spyglass, are no less solid than their better-known variants.
New Book ’26 Songs in 30 Days’ Reveals the History of Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River Songs
Guthrie’s fertile 30-day sojourn in the Pacific Northwest, when he composed 26 songs celebrating the rugged landscape is the subject of the new book.
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Cindy Lee Berryhill: Teach Your Children, And Take Your Own Guitar Playing to the Next Level
If you go back and listen to my earliest albums, Who’s Gonna Save the World and Naked Movie Star, I’m a strummer. We were folkies, but we were punks at heart.
Billy Bragg and Joe Henry Turn a Rail Trip into a Record of Forgotten America
Billy Bragg and Joe Henry took a long train ride, from Chicago to LA, stopping at stations to record great railroad songs.
Video Lesson: 6 Tips For Acoustic Fingerpicking Blues Guitar
Learn to combine the bass and treble voices in your fingerpicked blues to add complexity.
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Reignite Your Love for Guitar: 6 Ways to Bust Out of Your Rut
From the October 2016 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY PAULINE FRANCE If you’re past the honeymoon phase with your guitar, chances are you’ve experienced a love-hate relationship with it at some point—and that’s OK. Maybe you’re frustrated because you can’t learn fast enough, or perhaps you’re just bored with playing the…
Video Lesson: Learn to Play Guitar Chord Melodies Like Chet Atkins or Earl Klugh
Learning to play chord-melody style—that is, expressing melodies in chords rather than single notes—is a formidable and valuable skill.
Gear Review: The Truly Acoustic, Acoustic Guitar ToneWoodAmp [VIDEO]
The ToneWoodAmp is an affordable, cutting-edge product that serves the traditional needs of the performing guitarist. It belongs in every guitarist’s toolbox.
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Review: Breedlove Pursuit Concert Koa Is Built from Treasured Hawaiian Tonewood [VIDEO]
With abalone purfling and intensely figured and richly colored koa, it’s a jewel of a guitar, for sure, but it's also a highly functional tool.
Review: Two Affordable Eastman Acoustic Guitars, the AC–GA1CE & AC–GA2CE [VIDEO]
I am a little snobbish when it comes to instruments, but two new Eastman guitars—the AC–GA1CE and AC–GA2CE—have led me to reappraise my view of lower-priced models.
Guitar Review: Martin 00-18 Authentic 1931
This diminutive, slope-shouldered beauty has a warm and lively voice and is extremely responsive. It’s got a surprising amount of volume and projection for its size.