Best of Acoustic

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If you don’t play acoustic guitar yourself, or aren’t a bluegrass music fan, you may not have heard of Tony Rice. That’s one reason I feel I have to mention him – his incredible acoustic guitar playing is somehow still relatively ignored outside of guitarists’ circles.

A master technician with an extraordinary touch, whose guitar style was also conversant with country and ragtime jazz, Johnson had a haunting delivery that Clapton once called “the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice”. I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom, Sweet Home Chicago, Terraplane Blues, Love In Vain, Hellhound On My Trail and Traveling Riverside Blues are just a few of the essentials included on The Complete Recordings. The only act to appear twice on MTV Unplugged, R.E.M.’s performances 10 years apart captured them in markedly different phases. In 1991, after a decade of building steadily, they were on the cusp of breakout success with seventh album Out Of Time. Thus the first part of this collection was slanted in its direction, and includes the mandolin-driven Half A World Away and international hit single Losing My Religion.There’s a hint of a smile on Open All Night (a song about a car and a girl – ‘Wanda, behind the counter at the Route 60 Bob’s Big Boy’). But it’s offset by the manic State Trooper; a song Springsteen later said was partly an homage to NY art punks Suicide’s Frankie Teardrop. It was done in just one take. Even decades and umpteen plays on, the latter – and The Sound Of Silence and Kathy’s Song– can reach you in your present moment with its innocence and sweet simplicity. The lesser-known songs have aged well too, especially April Come She Will, Blessed and the poetic Leaves That Are Green. Every bar gig needs to have that one song in the setlist where the chatter stops, the crowd falls silent, the glasses stop clinking – and everyone can’t help but get mesmerized by the beautiful song being played onstage. If you want such a song in your repertoire, then Eva Cassidy’s magical version of the classic ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ is the song for you. Church Street Blues, One More Night and Orphan Annie are some of my favorites from this album – if you’re unfamiliar with Tony, you owe it to yourself to at least give those songs a listen and soak in some awesome acoustic guitar playing. How to Listen to These Albums for FREE

Wary of the Unplugged format, Nirvana agreed to record this on the condition that their performance skipped the hits to explore their catalogue’s dark corners and rifle through Kurt Cobain’s record collection. Even then, Dave Grohl recalls, two days of rehearsals were “horrible”, the band struggling with acoustic instruments, the singer suffering from heroin withdrawal, the drummer hitting too hard. “That show was supposed to be a disaster,” Grohl concludes. This idea might surprise you: We are in a new Golden Age of Acoustic Guitar. Never have there been so many true virtuoso players, working in so many different styles, expanding the possibilities of the instrument with their seemingly boundless imaginations. And as listeners and fans, we have never had access to this much music, old and new. Virtually the entire history of recording is literally at our fingertips through our phones and computers. Want to compare Joni Mitchell’s early records with her later work? Want to hear 1920s recordings of Blind Blake, or the quirky folk of England’s Incredible String Band from the late ’60s? Where should you start if you want to understand all this fuss about Tommy Emmanuel? What’s the story with Michael Hedges? Just start streaming; maybe you’ll find that magical album. At the very least, the search will be interesting and enlightening. has a lullaby quality and is likely to lull anyone to sleep, without Martin Barre's jarring riffs ready https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS4Wj2khD-s Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Tony Rice ~ Church Street Blues (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS4Wj2khD-s)The contemporary league of instrumental acoustic guitarists have been reinventing an instrument that has been subject to a standard performing approach for centuries. From Wendy Eisenberg’s twisting of the guitar into sparse atonality to Yasmin Williams’ extended techniques that are as visually stunning as they are musically, the acoustic guitar refuses to stay in a box. Or at the very least, the players holding the instrument won’t allow it to. far. I knew beforehand that I was going to have a hard time to rate such an album. I guess that none of these songs would fit on While the instrumental acoustic guitar is most commonly associated with the American primitive tradition derived from blues and folk, characterized by guitarists like John Fahey and Leo Kottke, musicians such as Wendy Eisenberg show the instrument’s capabilities when given an avant-garde touch. Eisenberg is known for their work on both acoustic and electric instruments, but their 2018 VDSQ release, Its Shape Is Your Touch is their finest example of avant-garde acoustic guitar. Breaking apart and reinventing classical guitar tradition, Eisenberg can be heard drawing upon fragments from essential classical guitar etudes (“Bay Road”) and reshapes them as something entirely new, as if Eisenberg is forging a new path while the shadows of the past linger. An artist as prolific as Ryan Adams was always going to get to an acoustic album, and when The Cardinals folded in 2009 – the band’s frazzled and tinnitus-plagued singer noting that he was “ready for quieter times”– it seemed the perfect juncture. category. Of course, the title of this compilation doesn't fool anybody. I am waiting now for "The Electric Tull" or "The Progressive

Bruce Springsteen’s former manager Mike Appel once said: “Bruce is not afraid to try things that are not popular. He’s not afraid to be a stone in the stream.” There are few better examples of Springsteen’s willingness to provoke the mainstream than 1982’s Nebraska. That he released this stark, largely acoustic album two years after his then biggest hits to date ( The River LP, and single Hungry Heart) seems amazing, even now. In 1994 Alice in Chains made a very clear statement that didn’t push the boundaries of grunge music as a whole, but Alice offered a new captivating color to their palette as well with their departure marked by their third EP Jar of Flies. Front and center, No Excuses brought to the game a universally charming and somewhat elevating acoustic strummed riff, with flawless electric arrangements that are often credited for bringing the American alternative sound to Britain. With the easygoing pace on the song and a beautiful yet somber No Excuses has a hopeful, ethereal, and gentle nature to its sound, with a practical toe-tapping aura to its full ringing wide as a canyon sound. An album that makes you feel as if you’re going through a breakup yourself, For Emma, Forever Ago crudely touches on feelings of hopelessness, abandonment, loss, and, of course, heartbreak. The debut began gaining momentum weeks after its release, with sales soaring throughout the year and eventually peaking at number sixty-four at the Billboard 200. Eventually becoming certified gold by the British Phonetic Industry and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the strained and regretful record was also met with universal critical acclaim, with Consequence of Sound critic, Katherine Flynn, claiming “For Emma, Forever Ago transcends time, evoking themes and emotions that are universally relatable.”The Best of Acoustic (2007) is a greatest hits album by Jethro Tull. It includes some of the band's biggest acoustic hits from 1969 to 2007.

Depending on where are going your Tull preferences, you might enjoy this album very much or not at all. I belong to the latter At times the closeness of Springsteen’s voice and the empty space around it makes Nebraska almost uncomfortably intimate. That was intentional. Springsteen wanted to make a record “that sounded good with the lights out”. He wanted his listeners to think they were eavesdropping on his characters’ most private thoughts and emotions –“to get inside their heads”. After two and a half years off the scene, as singer Layne Staley battled an increasingly desperate heroin addiction, Alice In Chains returned on April 10, 1996 for what is regarded as one of the most memorable of all MTV’s Unplugged shows. Expanding their line-up to a five-piece with the addition of guitarist Scott Olson, the band played a set of their most renowned songs. But these were lifted to an unprecedented level, with all of them seemingly inspired by the acoustic format.

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And what about this "Under Wrap" version ? Is it really useful to get an acoustic version of this bad song here ? I guess that you Yet the ache at the core of Clapton’s performance is offset by the joy of moments such as Signe and Before You Accuse Me, and the frequent flashes of humour: fluffing the intro to Alberta (“Hang on, hang on!”) and teasing the audience with Layla (“See if you can spot this one”), the 1971 classic now played as a rootsy amble. “Making it acoustic denied all the riffs,” Clapton explained. “So it just seemed to naturally become jazzier.” Martyn had been drifting away from his pure folk roots ever since 1970’s Stormbringer!, his collaboration with then-wife Beverley. Solid Air’s predecessor, Bless The Weather, included Martyn’s first use of Echoplex, a tape-delay unit used to such gripping effect here. I’ve never heard it so quiet in here,” Townes Van Zandt remarks as he makes his way through the monumental live set captured on Live At The Old Quarter. It’s a testament to both his craft as a composer and the emotional weight of his songs that he was able to keep a full house spellbound using only his voice and an acoustic guitar. Rolling Stone noted on the album: “The plaintive, folky take on Big Me; and the climactic, slow-building Everlong illustrate how Grohl’s songwriting gift moved him out of Kurt Cobain’s shadow in the first place.