Mississippi John Hurt’s Influence on the 1960s Folk Scene and Beyond
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.
Guitar Concert Impresario Richard Patterson Celebrates 40 Years of Creative Programming
For 40 years, Richard Patterson and his Omni Foundation for the Arts have been one of most vital producers of classical guitar concerts in the U.S.
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Does Nashville Have the Best Guitar Shops in the Country?
Here's a look inside Music City’s "Temples of Spruce" to find out if Nashville really does have the best guitar shops in the country.
Meet 5 Maverick Guitarists Playing Their Way into Nashville’s New Frontier
Each of these singular six-string devotees has made the acoustic guitar their key partner in writing the next chapter of Nashville’s story.
A Survey of British Fingerstyle Guitar from the 1960s to the Present
British guitarists Davey Graham, Martin Carthy, John Renbourn, and their contemporaries created a body of work that set the template for modern players while helping extend the expressive range of the steel-string guitar in general.
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Inspiration and Unification: Cultural Ambassador Claudia García on the Power of Mariachi
Mariachi in the realm of music education is nothing new. For California-based educator, vocalist, and guitarist Claudia García, uniting the two worlds has been a lifelong passion. García’s experience directing mariachi began back in 2001, when she was an undergraduate at Harvard University. After discovering the school had no mariachi…
Out of the Blues: Reflections on the 1960s Folk Revival
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 Festival and LP reissues and compilations on labels like Folkways…
DIY Folk: What It Takes to Survive and Thrive in the Streaming Era
At the 2019 Folk Alliance International conference, held in Montréal in February, evidence of the vitality and diversity of the contemporary folk scene was everywhere, as nearly 3,000 attendees representing 47 countries crammed the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel with acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins, fiddles, and upright basses. Alongside legends like…
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How to Promote Your Music
It’s easier than ever to put your music out into the world... but building a career is still work, just as it has always been.
Southern Journeys: Alan Lomax’s Steel-String Discoveries
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.
10 Music Festivals You Must Attend At Least Once
Here are ten musical festivals to put on your bucket list (plus, an idea for creating the eleventh...)
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Stores That Do More: Four Community-Minded Guitar Shops
The four brick-and-mortar shops featured here—those stores that do more—fit the description by offering educational programs, hosting jam sessions, taking part in schools and community events, and fostering a welcoming space for musicians to explore and connect. As a result, they’ve found that community efforts have made them viable in a rapidly changing economy, while giving customers an enduring vehicle for connection.
Is the Acoustic Guitar God’s Favorite Instrument?
How the acoustic guitar has shaped the modern music of the Judeo-Christian liturgy. For an instrument that’s been so vital to the evolution of popular music over the past century, the guitar has traveled a long road in finding its place in religious culture. In the United States, this mostly…
Custom Guitar Shows: Meet Your Luthier, Find Your Dream Guitar
Lutherie shows draw guitar fanatics through a mix of exhibitions, master classes, panels, and demonstration performances.
Guitar Mash Nashville: Songs Shared, Bridges Built
It goes without saying that bluegrass dobro titan Jerry Douglas is no stranger to the bandstand. Still, even Douglas had to admit that co-hosting a “Guitar Mash” at Nashville’s City Winery on April 7, 2018, alongside longtime Paul Simon musical director Mark Stewart, was a whole new way to approach…
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Syracuse’s Guitar League has Created an Impressive Model for Both Teaching and Learning
On a Monday night in Syracuse, New York, guitar cases line the walls of a hotel meeting room. Around 70 players, many cradling their instruments, are listening to a presentation by singer-songwriter Tim Burns, leader of the local Americana band Two Hour Delay. Burns is sharing ideas on how to back up another guitarist, and to demonstrate, he’s invited to the stage John Cadley, a veteran of the bluegrass/country scene in upstate New York and beyond (Lou Reid & Carolina once topped the bluegrass charts with Cadley’s song “Time”).
Hail Caledonia: A Brief History of Scottish Song in America
Speed through the distant past and get right to the most action-packed chapter of Scots-American musical history: the past 50 years.
‘Lead Guitar’ Brings Guitar Education to Our Nation’s Most Impoverished Young People
Classical guitarist and composer Brad Richter wasn’t expecting what he found when he stopped by the high school in Page, a small city in Northern Arizona’s Navajo country. On tour, Richter had been asked to lead a master class for guitarists in Page High School’s music program, and he had…
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Through his web series ‘Guitar Moves,’ Matt Sweeney talks with some of the biggest names in guitar
At 48, Sweeney is an in-demand collaborator and producer, with a long list of credits—for everyone from the Dixie Chicks to Johnny Cash to Neil Diamond—under his belt. Most recently he’s played guitar on records by the bands Chavez, Endless Boogie, and Soldiers of Fortune; toured with Iggy Pop and Josh Homme; and co-written songs for the John Legend album Darkness and Light. In between these gigs, Sweeney hosts his own instructional web series, Guitar Moves, on Noisey/Vice, in which guest guitarists break down their techniques.
The State of the Independent Music Store
If there’s one breed of customer that rankles guitar-store owners, it’s not the unreasonable haggler or the teenager who overworks a Nirvana riff for an afternoon. More than anything, it’s the shopper who comes to examine an item but fully intends to purchase it online elsewhere. “Showcasing,” as it’s known, is not new, but it’s increasingly in the open, and indicative of a fickle retail environment where buyers chase deals via the internet.
Learn from the Best: Plan Your Summer Camp Getaway
Take your guitar to a camp, clinic, or workshop to hone your technique, study with your guitar heroes, learn new songs, see old friends and make new ones.
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Summer Guitar and Music Camps, Workshops, and Clinics
We asked Acoustic Guitar readers and audience members where they've been to camp recently. Here's the list.
Inside the American Acoustic Tour – A Roundtable with 5 Younger-Generation Acoustic-Music Masters
These young musicians—all in their 20s and 30s—have long been on the vanguard of the acoustic/roots scene and have quite a bit of shared history.
The Mabes: Branson’s Brothers in Song
Nearly 60 years ago, Bob Mabe and his brothers—Jim, Lyle, and Bill—gathered up a guitar, a Dobro, a washtub bass, and the jawbone of a mule and headed for nearby Branson, then a small town in the lush lake country of the southern Missouri Ozarks. Their first gig was playing…
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Mariachi Is Inspiring a Revolution in Music Education
Acoustic guitars are flying off the shelves at Iowa-based West Music, one of the country’s largest and oldest distributors of instruments for schools and school districts. Not just any acoustic guitars, but Spanish classical guitars and guitars with exotic names and unique sounds—like the oversized, bulbous bass guitarrón and the…