Inspirational Music For Acoustic Guitarists

Listening to other music for inspiration and motivation is a very neglected part of the learning process, being introduced to new music – or rather things you may never have heard before. Fusions of genres, styles and expressions in music can be very individual. What floats one person’s boat may not float another.

Welcome to the second in a series of articles designed to offer the guitar player some fresh perspectives on what others find in their music collections to inspire and motivate. It features input from a local guitarist with whom I have shared the stage and many local and prestigious events over the years. Over to you T!

Thanks Dave. For me it really is all about the song or the music, how it is played and produced; if lyrical, it’s lyrical content and finally, how it is expressed, engineered and finally presented. So what are my recommendations for 5 Albums Every Acoustic Guitar Player Should Hear If Not Own?

CD is what most people play these days but for analogue lovers it’s vinyl. There is nothing worse than a vinyl pressing that destroys the efforts of the musicians – the first vinyl press of Fleetwood Mac Rumours was atrocious, but 10CC’s Deceptive Bends was exemplary!

So, when choosing some essential albums from my own collection for the acoustic guitarist, I wanted to make sure that:

Manu Chao – Clandestino

• Style: Folk / Contemporary / World / South American / Spanish

Writers Comment: World music is influential, different rhythms, motifs, fusions and chord progressions. Manu’s music is big in France and Spain as well as South America. He has a worldwide following and is as elusive today as he has always been.

Originally Manu’s first album was supposed to be a dance techo’ affair until the studio he was working in had problems. The take had been stripped of its underlying beats and rhythms, its techno’ essential nature left a bare a simple acoustic tapestry that was rich and sublime. Now the recording had an acoustic rather than electronic edge and, the rest so they say, is history!

So why this album?

• It’s simplicity is overridden by its context and its seamless amalgamation with other genres.
• Reviews of Manu Chao and his music included references to Bob Marley – like being compared to Dylan, it’s a sure recommendation if ever there was one.
• It’s folk roots are in the people, in society, its ills, consumerism and corruption.
• That a return to acoustic roots opens the musical material to a new perception.
• It is unique and inspirational.

Robert Johnson – The Complete Recordings (The Centennial Edition)

• Style: Blues (Delta)

Writers Comment: The blues has generated so many styles and influenced so many players, you have to pick one from the many and none is better than this guy.

You’ve got to have been asleep for most of your life or have been born in a vacuum if you’ve never have heard of Howlin’ Wolf or Muddy Waters; both of these artists were heavily influenced by Robert Johnson – himself heavily influenced by Skip James and Son House. An original, so to speak.

To say he was Titanic is an understatement; to say he was the original rock star is probably spot on: the guy who supposedly first sold his soul to the devil! A tale that would be repeated by those envious of him who could only hope to master some of the techniques employed by this musician and, by Johnson himself.

The tale goes that he wanted to play like Son House and was passionate about the style. In Clarksdale, Mississippi, Johnson met and made a deal with the devil at a crossroads. Prior to this meeting all his peers had told him to pack up his guitar; he would never make it as a guitarist or blues singer because he sucked! Big time. He disappeared for a while but when he returned he amazed those who had once ridiculed him. Almost overnight, so the story goes, Johnson had the ability to play how he wanted. Obviously a myth, it’s what legends are made on. In Johnson’s case, the ability to play that guitar was not a myth.

Johnson’s career, in terms of recording, can be measured on a few pages ripped from a calendar but it is his impact on the delta blues and numerous musicians over decades that gives the music unique ability to influence; it’s an influence that is still going strong – the likes of Clapton referred to Johnson’s recordings as the blues bible and he recognised his influence by releasing the album Me & Mr Johnson.

So why this album?

• Another member of the 27 club, musical talent to die in their 27th year, who died in 1938 under mysterious circumstances, Johnson had only recorded a little over 30 takes for ARC (American Record Company). They are rare recordings from a rare talent. He died far too young.
• Johnson was and still is an inspirational player and these are rare recordings which are now remastered and available so you can enjoy them in higher fidelity.
• For the lover of acoustic blues this is a quintessential album.

Django Reinhardt – Djangology

• Style: Romani / Jazz / Gypsy Jazz,

Writers Comment: Reinhardt formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France with violinist Stéphane Grappelli and it featured the guitar as a lead instrument for the first time. If you don’t tap your feet or sway to the rhythms and relish the melodies, you probably have no soul.

There really isn’t much I can say about Django and the banjo-guitar/guitar that has not already been said by someone else:

“His technique is awesome! Even today, nobody has really come to the state that he was playing at. As good as players are, they haven’t got to where he is. There’s a lot of guys that play fast and a lot of guys that play clean, and the guitar has come a long way as far as speed and clarity go, but nobody plays with the whole fullness of expression that Django has. I mean, the combination of incredible speed – all the speed you could possibly want – but also the thing of every note having a specific personality. You don’t hear it. I really haven’t heard it anywhere but with Django.” Jerry Garcia

“by far the most astonishing guitar player ever” Jeff Beck

Django was physically impaired – after a fire he was limited to the use of his thumb and his index and middle fingers on his left hand. Despite this he is regarded as one of the most influential guitar players of all time and main contributor to jazz – no mean feat! His axe of choice was a Selmer guitar, his style instantly recognisable.

At the outbreak of the second world war he escaped France and came to England; the Nazi regime disapproved of jazz. Some 600,000 gypsies lost their lives during this time.

So why this album?

• Some of the best of Django’s music nicely restored.
• He remains an inspiration against all the odds that might challenge even the most hardened of guitarists.
• It is a representation of a true master of his genre at work.
• Stéphane Grappelli plays on it!

John Martyn – Solid Air

• Style: Folk / Contemporary

Writers Comment: A direct influence for me. An album which changed my approach and opened up new possibilities and is a supremacy that never grows old.

He was a major contributor to folk music. Where my roots lie. He integrated jazz, blues, folk and rock into his playing which was individual and technically challenging. His album Solid Air, the title track being about Nick Drake another essentially British sound, redefined folk at a time when its direction was taking many different routes.

He extended the genre, as did Fairport Convention, 5 Hand Reel and Steeleye Span, he wasn’t afraid to use technology to improve, enhance and redefine the folk sound.

Playing alongside established musicians well known to the folk scene like Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Danny Thompson and Dave Mattacks to name a few, this album broke new ground and firmly cemented John into the folk music scene.

Known for his vitriolic and excessive nature it was only a matter of time before this took its toll. Martyn himself proposed Grace and Danger as his most liked album for his own reasons. He gained an OBE for his contribution to music and this album is on most peoples shelf. His live performances were inspirational and spellbinding.

“John Martyn was a true original, one of the giants of the folk scene. He could write and sing classics like ‘May You Never’ and ‘Fairy Tale Lullaby’ like nobody else, and he could sing traditional songs like ‘Spencer The Rover’ in a way that made them seem new minted.” Mike Harding

So why this album?

• It redefined folk and provided a new and exciting benchmark.
• He sought new challenges with almost every album and combined other genres and styles.
• As a singer songwriter he sets the bar very high with songs that can touch the soul.
• I have never introduced this album to any acoustic guitar player who has not been impressed by its fluidity and haunting ability to capture the listener.
• It remains an album that is well produced and mixed and, played on the right equipment, you feel that you can almost shake hands with him.
• Beautiful and sonorous, captivatingly inspiring.

Paco de Lucía (Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin) – Friday Night in San Francisco

Writer’s comment: Si dios tocaba la guitarra. (If god played the guitar!) Enough said.

• Style: Flamenco Jazz

“One afternoon I got a call telling me to turn on the radio quick. When I did, I couldn’t believe my ears. I was like, who is this guy? And then the host came on and said, ‘You have just been listening to Paco de Lucia.’ And I thought, ‘My God! I’ve got to meet him, as in right now!…” John McLaughlin

An album that I could not do without. I first introduced another, but much earlier recording of Paco’s on the Phillips label as I recall, to a friend of mine some time in the early 80’s; it was a battered copy I had bought around the same time as Dark Side Of The Moon was released if memory serves me right. How the years roll by!

A friend of mine was a classical guitar player who had been playing for a couple of years at the time when I introduced the record to him (today you know you’re getting old when someone asks you what a record is.) He was and still is a lover of flamenco and he had never heard of Paco De Lucia! He was becoming frustrated with the style, he needed some new input. So, it had to be done.

It was a well played piece of vinyl as I recall that popped and clicked its way through the first track (it’s sometimes what I miss about CD.) The stylus hit the record, Entre Dos Aguas (Between Two Waters) had been playing for 2 or 3 minutes when his jaw hit the floor. He has since bought every album Paco produced.

Many years later, he was holidaying in the Netherlands when Friday Night In San Francisco hit the presses. I couldn’t get hold of it here in the UK and was most anxious to get my ears on it. A dearth of this type of music was typical at one time here in England. He repaid the favour for my introduction to Paco by buying a copy of this amazing album for me. Muchas gracias amigo!

Paco played Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” at the Festival Hall in 1991; it was attended by Rodrigo himself. Rodrigo considered it among the best interpretations of it he had heard. Paco gave it a uniquely flamenco flavour.

Born Francisco Sánchez Gomez he died in 2014 leaving a formidable legacy. He came from a very poor family and recalled in an interview that on occasions his mother would be caught crying because there was little to eat. Paco began playing the guitar at the age of five but schooling cost money, so at the age of 11, when he had learned to read and write, his father pulled him out of school! As a boy and young man Paco practiced for 12 hours a day and didn’t read a single note of music. Yes you read that right, not a note.

So why recommend this album?

• Well if Paco isn’t enough just on his own, with Friday Night in San Francisco you get three giants of the guitar for the price of one album. Al De Meola’s work is sublime. McLaughlin’s work with a plectrum is awesome in the truest sense of the word.
• It is a representation of a true master of flamenco at work.
• If you like flamenco or jazz fused with flamenco this should definitely be in your collection to amaze and move you, to relish and enjoy as a fine example of live guitar work.
• If you don’t like flamenco or jazz, as a guitarist it should be there in your collection simply to humble you.
• Paco reminds us to practice (to suffer) and to be your own worst critic.

“With the guitar I’ve suffered a great deal, but when I’ve had a good time, the suffering seemed worthwhile.” Paco De Lucia

“When I hear myself I only see the blemish and the things that need to be improved.” Paco De Lucia