Not a band, yet. Maybe never. Solo American Primitive steel-string guitar, untutored and endemic, drifting out of the Piedmont & Delta. The guitar's voice is nearly perfect as a medium for things of which otherwise we never speak. As soon as lyrics get involved, the musical experience changes. Not that words are bad, it's just a different cognitive track, and I'm more interested in the wordless side. I try to play with at least the last couple centuries still attached, if not more. Trying to maintain a line to the past, to Americana and what remains of our older, more rural vitality. Impressionist mystery music -- like it needs a label.
Wooed the banjo for years, then had to pick up the guitar, mainly due to Fahey, Faier, Basho & Sete. John Fahey's genius of investigation of the American landscape & perception is cultishly, even rabidly enjoyed, but nearly always misunderstood. An odd paradox, but par for the human race. As our culture frays, we're losing even an instinctive understanding of the importance of what Fahey did (and he WAS irreplaceable, like many others). I play guitar just to reiterate those ineffable musical questions to as many listeners as I can, in the music's original intent, so that at least I don't forget, and maybe a few other people won't either.
Occasionally with various music organizations or open mics, folk fests, etc. It's always good to share music. Best to collaborate with like-minded musicians, for whom I'm carrying a lantern, looking. Bass, cello, violin, mandolin, flute, piano, etc.
Well, Fahey, Billy Faier, Bola Sete, George Winston, Jorma Kaukonen, Robbie Basho, Martin Simpson, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, John Cephas, Joni Mitchell, Elizabeth Cotton, Gary Davis, Skip James, James Booker, Fabienne Magnant, Robin Williamson, JSBach, Charles Mingus, Gino D'Auri. Where does a list of influences end?
As little as possible. The sound of wood & strings with minimal interposition of gizmos is the ideal. Playing live in a smallish space, like an old stone church with tile floors, that's the best. I use a couple 'Jolly Joe' Stalin microphones and an analog tape deck for recording, no pickups.
What we call ‘guitar’ started out, ten thousand years ago, as a bow to shoot an arrow at the heart of what we hunted; the human skull served as the first resonance chamber. It's still exactly the same. I really like James Goodall's bows for hunting.