Pribek

Here are two clips from a couple of my personal favorite acoustic guitarists.

First, Leo Kottke does “Taxco Steps”.

As always, wipe off your strings then press pause on the music player in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

I saw Leo a couple of years ago in a similar setting. He walked on with two guitars, 6 and 12 string, laid one on the floor (no stand) and played. He has this deal where he engages in banter while tuning between songs. It comes in handy because he will change tunings from song to song. At one point, while he had the 12 string, he went from standard to D tuning. That’s a weekend job for a lot of guys. Leo is a brave man. A lot of the records that guitar heads refer to when lauding Leo Kottke are the things he did in the 70s when he used finger picks. He abandoned that technique because it caused tendonitis. So, he’s a living lesson in how one needs to be able to adapt to life’s circumstances. His playing now, with just fingers, is maybe not as raucous. It’s more subtle but, now that I’ve become accustomed to the difference, I much prefer what he does now to the old stuff. He’s at the top of his game, I think.

Next, Tony Rice does “Church Street Blues”

So, there’s an entirely different technique with the flat pick. I’ve listened to Tony play with bands a lot. He has a real knack for getting a very liquid lead tone on the acoustic. His vibrato is very sweet. Some people say that he phrases almost like an electric player in that he seems capable of pulling a seemingly impossible sustain out of an acoustic guitar. I like this clip because it shows the solo, flat pick approach which, you hardly see anybody doing these days and Tony…well he just nails it. One thing you will notice is that he has impeccable time which is just one of the difficult things to achieve with this type of playing. See, I think Tony’s time is the real secret behind his lead playing. Time obviously affects your phrasing but, your tone as well. If you are putting the notes in the right place, they sound better tonally. It lets the note breath.