American Folk Guitar

American Folk Guitar

Today I was fortunate to be in a shop buying a present, a Sudoku board game for a family member.  I’ve heard that solving puzzles is very good for keeping the brain active, especially when you are getting older. I guess it’s a bit like understanding and working with music theory, specifically improvisation, chord substitution and harmony.   When I was at the counter I saw a CD on sale called American Folk, it’s part of the series from Putumayo, a very cool label that specializes in music of various cultures and specific idioms. 

Personally, as you may know from visiting this site and my other one the Guitar Player, I’m not locked into one style.  So I took a gamble and purchased it quickly as I was in a hurry to get to a Birthday afternoon tea that had lots of yummy stuff and a waiter that must’ve been trained by Mr Bean. 

This album is one of the best contemporary Folk albums I’ve ever heard, it’s a compilation with a number of players I’ve never heard of, people like Christine Kane, Shannon McNally, Josh Ritter, Jeffrey Foucault, Lucy Kaplansky, Peter Mulvey, Elizabeth Mitchell & DanieL Littleton, and some players that I am familiar with such as Eric Bibb, Natalie Merchant, Patty Griffin and Nanci Griffith.  It’s well recorded, good seem simple guitar parts, sensible arrangements, well written tunes and a good balance of tunes that sit nicely together on the one album.

Check it out, American Folk, cool as ice-cream.  If you want a few tunes to add to your repertoire you’ll find a few on this one.  There are some great clean simple guitar parts.