2018 has been a good year for fingerstyle guitar, very good year! For those who might not know what it is, “fingerstyle” or “fingerpicking” is a name that refers to the technique used to play the main instrument of this genre that is guitar. As name itself tells, the fingerstyle guitar (mostly acoustic) is played with the help of the fingers only (no plectrum, therefore) and often solo, being a technique so to speak autarchy that allows you to play accompaniment and melody simultaneously.
For those who may not be very accustomed to the matter, it may be appropriate to contextualize everything, and go back to the early 60s. Precisely at that time some musicians began to explore the potentials of the fingerstyle guitar and expand its language with a vision that, while not losing the link with popular tradition, begins to look at the surrounding world, paying particular attention to the east and the experimentations contemporary. We do not speak of a real movement, nor of a homogeneous music, but rather of a common approach to the instrument that developed, from one side of the Atlantic to the other, with peculiarities and different cultural approaches, revolving around those that they can consider the two leaders of the genre: John Fahey in America and Davey Graham in England.
In the United States, the style that Fahey himself defined as “American Primitivism” was spreading around, combining popular music like blues, folk and ragtime with a dilated sound, influenced by the Indian raga and by the avant-garde. In addition to his own production, Fahey gave a fundamental contribution to spreading fingerstyle through its label: Takoma. For example, thanks to Fahey, the recordings of Robbie Basho, deeply influenced by oriental sounds, and the acrobatic Leo Kottke, were handed over to history. We can ‘t forget the contributions to the genre of Peter Walker with his Raga-Folk and Sandy Bull with his pioneering fusion of folk, ethnic sounds and Jazz improvisation.
In Britain fingerstyle guitar had a less autonomous development as it’s more linked to folk.movement. After master Davey Graham the disciples Bert Jansch and John Renbourn followed; the first developing a music more related to the songwriting and the last more directed to the research of the medieval roots of this music. Obviously we can not forget the common project of the two musicians: those Pentangle, through which the two musicians developed a new fusion between a traditional British folk, but with a modern sensibility, and Jazz.
Despite never having achieved significant popular feedback, fingerstyle has become one of the most significant elements of the so-called folk revival of the sixties, capable of influencing guitarists of different generations such as Jimmy Page or Johnny Marr.
Fingerstyle guitar had a period of stasis from the second half of the 70s, when, as happened for many cultural phenomena that referred to the 60s and the hippie movement, was absorbed by the new age that, given some significant contributions, ended up dilute the original spirit, focusing on a technicality for its own sake and on a sound that could fit as tapestry to crystal therapy session…..
We had to wait until the end of the 90s and precisely 1997 to finally see a new interest about fingerstyle guitar. Right then, in fact, Jim O’Rourke, an eclectic musician and producer from Chicago and also a collaborator of Fahey in the latest and most experimental part of his career, published “Bad Timing”. O’Rourke, demonstrating all his talent as a composer, guitarist and arranger showed a vision of the American Primitive, updated and renewed through the post-rock sounds and avant-garde sensibilities of the time. “Bad Timing” is not only one of the masterpieces of modern fingerstyle, but also that spark that lighted the fire of interest around a style that seemed destined to oblivion.
After that record, other new, young and able guitarists were not long in coming. Among all in particular we want to remember Jack Rose whose talent and whose music, which followed and gave new life to the Faheyan style, made a breach both in the hearts of old and new fans and critics. His unfortunately short and lightning solo career lasted about a decade but managed to leave a deep and indelible mark in the history of the genre.
Since then the fingerstyle guitar has never lost this headway generating a creative underground underground and a lot of good music without any media hype..
We can then finally go back to our times and talk about what is happening now. And there are a lot of things to say because in 2018 numerous valuable albums have been published, able to show the different facets of a style that might erroneously seem limited by its very nature.
If there someone who may think that fingerstyle guitar is a dead and buried genre or that is doomed to always reiterate its already codified form, I think there is no better remedy than telling him to listen to the music of Marisa Anderson and in particular his last work, “Cloud Corner”. In fact, she’s an artist with roots in the past, head in the future and well-opened eyes to look at the world. If her music does not explicitly recall, as in the case of other authors, that of John Fahey, it deeply embodies his spirit through the search for the relationship between music and silence, in the use of pauses that is capable of giving a magical suspension that evokes boundless spaces. Anderson plays mainly the electric guitar and her style therefore also recalls the influence of two other great American guitarists not referable to the fingerstyle tradition, but who are certainly masters in dosing notes and in the re-enactment of desertic atmospheres that are Ry Cooder and Bill Frisell. The mention of these “cumbersome” names should not lead us to think that Anderson is a derivative artist because her music and in particular Cloud Corner is characterized by a personal vision and a compositional talent able to play with great skill in a subtle balance between accessibility and experiments, roots and modernity.
Daniel Bachman, once a young promise, has now become one of the most important figures of American fingerstyle. The monumental “The Morning Star” comes after the homonymous work of 2016 whose title seemed to indicate the desire for a new beginning. The disc has a particular genesis: it is born from a long period of isolation of the author who decides to temporarily escape the frenetic pace of the tour and the nascent trumpian america in which it does not recognize, to focus on music. The guitar is no longer the only protagonist of the album, but the treatment that the author reserves to it is very meaningful and important. Bachman immerse guitar and sometimes almost drown it in field recordings that bring now natural sounds then anthropic, noises coming from radio broadcasts, drones of organ and violin. In this work the absence and denial of the vital force, that guitar embodies, are as fundamental as its presence. The record begins in a oppressive and pessimistic way with the very long raga nightmare of Invocation where the guitar, even if it appears, is struggling to be heard. The rest of the record draws a path that passes from the sunset of “Song for the Setting Sun III and IV“ and brings us slowly, in a painful and powerful way, towards the final 13 minutes of “New Moon” in which a guitar is finally “free” and seems to show us a new horizon where you can finally see the morning star that titled the album …
Glenn Jones, is one of the veterans of the scene. At first protagonist of an experimental and psychedelic rock post with Cul De Sacs, then an ensign of fingerstyle, represents a common thread between the old and the new wave of artists. Jones in fact recorded a record with the Cul De Sac with John Fahey and then become a bearer in his solo career of the tradition of the so-called Takoma School. Jones is a certainty and, if perhaps the masterpiece is missing, each of his records is always at a high level. You can play it safe with every of his album and so also with his the latest “The Giant Who Ate Himself and Other New Works for 6 & 12 String Guitar” if you want to approach this author and the more classic fingerpicking style.
The American Buck Curran, now permanently resident in Italy, has trod the scenes for many years with the psychedelic folk of Arborea. With the album “Morning Haikus, afternoon Raga” he completed a process started with the previous “Immortal Light” which led him to become a soloist fingerstyle in all respects. From past experience, Curran carries the rich sound of reverberation and subtly psychedelic atmospheres that adorn his crystalline guitarism and his suspended melodies. The songs of the album follow one another in a lyrical and meditative oasis that refers to the title of the album. The feeling is that of a small enchantment that offers 65 minutes of suspension from everyday life and materiality. Try to listen to “Rivers Unto Sea” to believe ….
Until now we have talked about well-known names, but Welsh guitarist Gwenifer Raymond certainly owns the title of “rookie of the year”. Her record “You Were Never Much Of A Danger” is published by the well-deserving Tompkins Square Records. She’s an eclectic and complete guitarist (but not only, she also plays banjo), able to go from the typical meditative dilatations of the American Primitive to amazing accelerations, often even within the same song as in the case of the remarkable “Off To See The Hangman, Part II “. Its ease in passing from the blues roots with the frenetic slide bluegrass with the banjo is amazing. Maybe the album covers a ground that is too wide, but considering that it is a debut it seems to be only a natural sign of enthusiasm. So we can go over it and bet on Raymond as one of the names on which to aim for the future of the genre.
Paradoxically, to find an artist who carries on the British tradition of fingerpicking guitar we must stay in the USA. Listening to “Third” by Nathan Salsburg in fact, since the first notes of “Timoney’s”, the influence of the giants Jansch and Renbourn strongly emerges. Equally strong, however, is the feeling of not dealing with an anonymous disciple, but with an artist capable of reviving the strength of English folk heritage and the sensibility of his inspirers through his own guitar. The songs that form the album are perfectly modeled miniatures that bring out melodies capable of insinuating gently under the listener’s skin. The approach to melody also brings to light another important influence, namely that of early New Age guitarists, in particular Alex Degrassi. Salsburg proves to have a masterful control of musical matterl and to know how to express it not only through his technique, but also through a writing that is not satisfied with a superficial fascination, but which manages to perpetuate the timeless beauty of tradition.
A quick quote for two emerging names from England: Toby Hay and Jim Ghedi, who in 2018 released a joint album “The Hansworth Groove Sessions” and a soloist each. The record that involve both artists is a work that sees intertwining and integrating the 6 strings of Ghedi and the twinkling 12 strings of Hay in a enjoyable and successful music. Ghedi instead offers us a pastoral and emotional folk richly arranged by strings in his solo album “A Hymn for Ancient Land”, while Hay, accompanied by a group with a rhythm section, violin and sax develops his folk tendencies, winking to America and Jazz, in his work “The Longest Day”.
Finally, but only for pure geographical reasons, we find italian Maurizio Abate. Abate is a musician who’s difficult to be pigeonholed and a tireless explorer who expresses his creativity in various fields through numerous collaborations and projects characterized by different sounds. This year alone, for example, he has released two equally interesting records: the most experimental “The Maadi Sessions” and “Standing Waters”, fingerstyle record that continues the path taken with the beautiful “Loneliness, Desire And Revenge”. “Standing Waters” is based on a very simple structure, which juxtaposes Abate’s acoustic guitar with a few but simple elements such as a spacious harmonica, a discreet piano, a drone of Hurdy Gurdy or delicate string arrangements. These elements are used in a sparse and balanced manner without ever overwhelming the guitar that remains the undisputed protagonist and serve, rather than to enrich, to emphasize the clear and inspired writing of Abate. Particularly guessed then is the final part of the last song, “Standing Crumbling”, in which the guitar withdraws, leaving the tage to a gradual and increasingly free crescendo of strings and piano that finally take the scene. With this disc Abate confirm himself, despite being at the “margins of the empire”, as one of the most important and stimulating figures of the entire fingerstyle scene.
So this was 2018 but the new year already brought us a lot of good guitar music. So save the date for the next January for a recap of Art Of Fingerstyle Guitar in 2019…. In the meanwhile, good guitar to everyone!!
