I am for music that features acoustic guitar–nothing too folksy, but kinda mellow. Maybe Spanish. I went to Boarders yesterday and listened w the headphones to some of the ones they had and the Latin stuff was just sounding too, I don’t know, “overproduced”. I’m looking for something simple, that makes you want to sing along or dance a little.
Some Don Ross might hit the spot.
Try Acoustic Alchemy or Gypsy Kings.
AA’s kinda jazzy, GK’s latin-ish
Hopefully you wont find any of these guys “too folksy” … they’re all incredible musicians, but have no doubt been influenced by folk/blues traditions of guitar playing. Some sang occasionally, but mostly instrumentalists:
Leo Kottke - simply the best 12 string player ever
John Fahey - eclectic and eccentric
Stefan Grossman - bluesy, folksy stuff, try “Texas Lemon Flavor”
John Renbourn - like Grossman, but influenced by British traditions
Marcel Dadi - probably is too folksy/country for your taste, but you gotta love a French guy that could play country so well. Died on TWA 800.
Chet Atkins - sometimes veered a little too close to “country easy listening” music for my taste, but probably the most influential acoustic guitarist
As far as Spanish stuff, Ramon Montoya and Juan Serrano are excellent flamenco players, but I think you’ll hardly find them mellow.
Bah, clarifications from my previous post:
- Although Ramon Montoya was a great flamenco player, I was thinking of his nephew, Carols Montoya, whose recordings are much more widely available.
- I should have pointed out that Chet Atkins mostly played a hollow bodied electric, but his technique was tremendously influential to acoustic fingerstyle players
moodtobestewed just posted the two recommendations I was going to give, which were John Renbourn and Leo Kottke. Seconded.
Al Di Meola
Jean-Luc Ponty
John Mclaughlin
Paco de Lucia
Their solo work is great, but there are a bunch of phenomenal callaborative albums.
I love Jean-Luc Ponty, but he’s a violinist.
By a bizarre coincidence, I just got a CD of DiMeoloa, McLaughlin, and de Lucia playing together. I’ve only listened to it once – and it was at work while I was in and out of my office – but it seems promising.
Ditto on Leo Kottke. You might also want to check out Larry Coryell, who’s more jazz.
doh :smack:
Willy Porter - Falling Forward (his new CD is OK, but kind of cheesy, like he’s trying to get commercial)
If you like him, you might also try Peter Mulvey - The Trouble With Poets (he’s more reliant on lyrics than picking, though)
Michael Hedges - I think Aerial Boundaries is the name of the one I have.
innovative, brilliant acoustic guitarist - plays very accessible stuff, but figured out how to make different sounds through different tunings, making sounds different ways off the guitar, using drone strings, the whole bit.
He died in a car crash a few years ago - check it out.
i second michael hedges
Awesome! I’ll be doing some serious cd shopping Saturday!1
Thanks!
Third (or maybe fourth?) for Leo Kottke. He has an album called “One Guitar, No Vocals” that is outstanding; simple, no frills, tuneful and very nice to listen to.
Believe it or not, Charo (she of the coochie-coochie fame) is quite an accomplished flamenco guitarist. For classical / Spanish, look for Andres Segovia.
For general instrumental, electric but with a strong classical and jazz influence, Jean-Luc Ponty, Al diMeola and someone else whose name escapes me (help me out here, someone!) have done some good work together.
Segovia? Who?
Try a dude called Armik, I think is his name. That cool flamenco gypsy guitar style. Amazing.