Walter Strauss – Ishi
One of the fascinating things about acoustic fingerstyle guitar is the variety of individual styles possible. For this reason I created the ‘Fingerstyle at FARwest 2009–Six Approaches‘ video, which captures intimate performances by six different fingerstyle players filmed at the the annual Folk Alliance Region West (FAR-West) last November. Of the six guitarists presented, Walter Strauss has the most unique style. With strong compositional skills at his command, Walter makes use of techniques he has developed based on West-African music. Performing frequently with Malian harp player, Mamadou Sidibe, Walter has thoroughly absorbed the feel of this music and informed it with his own feel for modern fingerstyle.
I wrote about Walter previously in a post about Stevie Coyle’s ‘Ten-in-One’ CD. Walter was involved both as producer and accompanist. I was impressed with his playing on the CD and onstage with Stevie’s ‘Ten-in-One’ band at the CD release shows. At the FAR-West conference in 2009, Walter was a featured performer. His impassioned and masterful performance of original material earned him a standing ovation–not that common an occurrence, given the sophistication of the audience of fellow musicians. These were not the easily impressed. But with pieces like the one he played for my camera, the sublime ‘Ishi‘, Walter overcomes the ’seen-it-all-before’ attitude, and amazes with powerful rhythms and intricate picking, with no need for flashy pyro-technics. I’ve posted my video of Walter on my YouTube page.
Playing on an Oneida Guitar also gives Walter a special sound. His model of this decidedly modern instrument made by violin makers Ithaca Stringed Instruments, is a closed-top guitar, with no sound hole–an ‘un-holy’ instrument as Walter likes to joke. This Oneida acoustic/electric is made to be played amplified, but un-plugged it has a certain, woody, muted resonance that is suited to Walter’s style. The drier sound of this instrument allows his complex rhythms and flowing cascades of notes to be clearly heard without the guitar sounding over-driven.
The song, ‘Ishi‘ has a 6/8 feel, and Walter makes good use of triplets, executed with guitar rolls, either adapted from Malian guitar, or of his own creation. The thumb gives the first note and then two fingers for the remaining notes of the triplet. There is a staccato feel to these rolls, especially on the theme. But, since this
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Garrin Benfield – Unbound
I’ve known San Francisco based singer-songwriter Garrin Benfield for some time. In the mid ‘oughties’ (this century has turned out sucky for decade names so far,) we were booked on the same bill at a local SF acoustic music showcase night. At the end of the evening, Garrin and I jumped onstage for an impromptu jam. The experience was to play with someone extremely talented at improv, but who listened and adapted to other players. I was impressed. After a subsequent showcase night, we ended up back at Garrin’s with another player. The three of us amused friends (until they fell asleep) trading songs until dawn. At that point I realized Garrin was the real deal–a musician who loves to play, no matter the circumstances, and who had plenty of energy for making music, simply for the pleasure of doing it.
To say Garrin is extremely talented is not an exaggeration. His songwriting is top-notch, both from a composition and a lyrical viewpoint. His songs are intimate, revelatory and moving. No BS here–Garrin cares too much to fake it. His voice is flawless, sweet and rich, not too sugary, and always moving, as Garrin wears the emotion of the song vulnerably; caught up in his music, he’s truly moved by what he’s conveying. With three studio albums and a live CD to his credit, there’s plenty of evidence of his songwriting and vocal skills. But a big part of the Garrin Benfield story is his guitar technique. Most singer-songwriters are happy to provide an interesting guitar part as back up to a song, but Garrin enriches the mix by adding improvisational riffs and a sense of taking risks in the moment as the mood strikes him. Beyond the arrangements of his guitar parts, which are always virtuosic, he extends his pieces into ad-libbed solo ‘jams’, often with the aid of a looper. He has an uncanny ability (and the pedal board to enable it) that allows him to change the sound, EQ, reverb and delay of his instrument from moment to moment, creating rhythm tracks, powerful bass lines, rocking percussion parts and then launching into stratospheric lead improvisations that leave audiences slack-jawed. Using a Sunrise pick-up in his Martin dreadnought, he can pull-off these guitar heroics without
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Shaun Cromwell-The Rise and the Fall of It All
Through performing and being involved in the acoustic music community, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many excellent pickers. More importantly, I’ve been able to experience the incredibly variety of individual expression within the format of folk, folk blues, fingerpicking and independent songwriting. I stress independent, because the heart of music culture today is not on the hit parade, but in the small venues and house concerts across the land. There, independent and self sustaining musicians are offering their wonderfully original take on our cultural heritage of folk, blues, jazz and pop.
I want to portray as many of the good fingerpickers I meet as possible on this blog, and when I can, present exclusive video of their performances. While in Irvine recently for the annual Folk Alliance Region West (FAR-West), I took video of several Fingerstyle Guitarists. I have presented them together in a half-hour video “Fingerstyle at FARwest 2009“.
One of the guitarists I was lucky enough to meet is Shaun Cromwell. I’ve posted the clip of Shaun playing his very cool song “The Rise and the Fall of It All” to my YouTube page.
Shaun was a featured performer at the FAR-West conference, and his show proved to be one of the most enjoyable for someone like me, who loves good songwriting combined with great fingerpicking. About the fingerpicking in a minute–but first the songwriting. For non-pickers, the first thing you’d notice about Shaun might be his compelling vocal style, or the funny way his face scrunches up when he sings–more evidence of just how fully he puts himself into his songs. Then, as you listen, it dawns on you that the lyrical content is really intriguing, and surprises with unexpected meaning and rich, literary references. Even after multiple listening, songs on his CD “The Turning Of Clocks” reveal new depth and choice poetics, making obvious why Shaun has been a finalist in such prestigious songwriting competitions as
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Fingerstyle at FARwest 2009–Six Approaches
I took video of several Fingerstyle Guitarists while in Irvine last November for the annual Folk Alliance Region West (FAR-West). I am presenting them together in a half-hour video “Fingerstyle at FARwest 2009“.
Here’s the link to the High Resolution Video:
(large file, needs fast connection, stream or download)
Here’s the link to the Low Resolution version:
(not as good video quality, good for slower connections, plays full screen)
The video includes songs by six different performers playing their original material, including three of this year’s featured showcase performers, Walter Strauss, Shaun Cromwell and Ernest Troost.
One of the things that makes this video interesting is the juxtaposition of six experienced players, who have developed different sets of skills and created original styles within the context of fingerpicking, and of both traditional and world music. With six different guitarists, we get six different approaches, completely distinct use of right and left hand techniques, and, most importantly, the differing ‘touch’ each player has on the instrument, based on their own inner sensibilities and the clear conveyance of the values that they bring to their music. Not to get all high-fallutin’ or anything, but, in particular with this group of musicians who are based on the west coast of California, we get a glimpse of
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Duck Baker–Thumbs of Fury
Since I often talk about right hand technique on this Blog, you might think ‘Thumbs of Fury’ refers to the right hand thumb.* Yes, the fingerpicker’s Jedi force surely resides in the right hand thumb, but in the case of long-time fingerstyle master Duck Baker, there’s a lot going on with the left hand thumb. Baker uses that thumb to fret notes on the low E string by reaching over the top of the neck, while simultaneously fretting notes on the treble strings in the normal fashion with his other fingers.
Baker’s ‘thumb over‘ technique is certainly powerful (hmm, your kung fu is pretty good,) but he really takes the technique to the extreme, virtually replacing any use of the other left hand fingers on the lowest guitar string. In today’s world, venerable techniques like the ‘thumb over’ have all but disappeared. It has been kept alive mostly by boomer generation players who had direct contact with the early fingerpickers–or learned from those who did. These players of the earlier generation who survived into the 1960s inspired the fingerstyle renaissance that caught up many seminal guitarists of the era like Dave Van Ronk, Jorma Kaukonen and Stephan Grossman.
At that time, the thumb over was pretty much de rigueur, used to create classic arrangements by older players like Doc Watson. Perhaps the main proponent of the technique was the Piedmont style guitar master Reverend Gary Davis, who directly taught many folkies of the boomer generation like Jorma and Van Ronk. Many of the Reverend’s arrangements are impossible to reproduce without using the thumb on the fretboard. I caught a workshop by Duck Baker when he came through the Bay Area recently, and got to see how he uses it up close, as well as gain some insight into
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