I’ll second John Wesley Harding. I’ve seen him a few times, once in the living room of a sorority house at Wellesley College. (Talk about a small room.) Not flashy or pretentious, but puts a lot of energy into his songs, in just the right places. And he’s coming to Cambridge in a couple weeks.
bienville, did you listen to July 13th, 1985 during Live 8, too?
I haven’t seen her in person, but I like some of Christine Lavin’s music. On a recent live CD, there are songs where she must have a sampler, because she’ll sing a few lines and play them back in a loop while she continues on with the lyrics. And it’s totally seamless. It was my fourth or fifth time listening to the CD when I suddenly realized “wait a minute, she is her own backup singers. And this is a live performance.” But she has a very simple style, just her voice and accoustic guitar, and then adds some technology where you least expect it. She makes it to this list on sneaky creativity, if nothing else. If I can get to one of her concerts, I’ll report back.
I actually didn’t see or hear any Live 8 stuff (didn’t even know he played, but wow what a cool song to do in that context! Pretty ballsy- he’s so cool!)
No, sorry, he didn’t play it at Live 8, it’s just that whenever I hear people waxing nostalgic about Live Aid, I can’t help but think of his song. I listened to it on CD during Live 8; took some of the edge off the hype.
From the link in the OP, I found the message board at Wes’s site, and a couple people there asked about that song and event. And the reply was that he’d be on his honeymoon at the time.
For a single performance, I’d have to go with Ritchie Havens at Woodstock. A quarter-million people showed up, blocked all the roads. The musicians couldn’t get in, except Ritchie was already there…so they asked him to play, please, to keep the crowd from tearing the place apart. He went on solo and played every song he knew. The tune you see in the movie is after his band finally showed up–he’d run out of tunes, so he just started playing and sang whatever came into his head: “Freedom.”
Now that’s a solo performance. Just you and 250,000 (or so) of your closest friends.
Note that several others also played solo at Woodstock. Joan Baez even set down her guitar and just sang. Nice.
Howlin Wolf didn’t do much solo performing – what little he did was at the beginning of his career, before he found that electric instruments and a band suited his huge voice (arguably, the greatest blues voice ever) and animated style better. But people who knew him claimed his solo acoustic playing was better than his electric.
John Lee Hooker was ingenius in developing a solo style on the electric guitar, which enabled him to play big venues without a band or complex sound reinforcement: less overhead, and no sidemen to pay.
I have a few solo songs from when he is very old and those are godly. When he was younger I think he was indeed better with a band (just to equal his Oobah Powah voice.)
Young (Oobah Powah with Band): More Real Folk Blues – I’ll Be Around
Old (Old Powah Solo): Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog – Ain’t Going Down that Dirt Road
Hooker is good, but he desn’t have as many basic riffs to work off of as other blues greats that I have heard. Different sound (Texan), so definitely a good addition to the Delta/Chicago guys–but I get bored listening to just his songs since they boil down to three basic ones played at different tempos.
But I can’t tell the difference between good guitarists and godly ones. So for others, I’m sure that there’s several extra layers of difference between his songs that I just can’t detect.
The man practically re-invented the instrument and could accompany his playing with a truly amazing voice. What a talent. I never got the chance to see him perform but everyone I know that say him said that it was a jaw dropping experience.
Agreed. I had the good fortune to see and hear Hedges and Kottke in the same concert (half devoted to each) at TPAC not long before Michael’s passing. It was amazing music. I also saw Kenny Rankin (my vote for the best of the category) in a small venue in Nashville back in 1985 or 1986. He was on a bill with Pat McLaughlin who was excellent himself. Kenny has done gigs with larger groups and his recordings are mostly with accompanying instruments, but that night at The Boardwalk in Nashville, it was just Kenny and he was right on.
To be fair, there have been some greats mentioned in other posts, making it very hard to decide who would win such an award. Good thread.
It was. I saw him live three times at the old Rockefeller’s in Houston, and actually got to talk with him a while between sets the third time. Fascinating man. The guitar world is much the worse without him. Get a copy of Windham Hill in Concert . William Ackerman and Michael Hedges are outstanding on this DVD, especially getting to watch Micheal play his signature piece, Aerial Boundaries.
Interesting trivia. He was naturally left-handed, but learned to play the guitar in right-handed mode, which was why it was so easy for him to do the incredible things with his left hand on the frets that he did.