American folk guitarists

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about American folk guitarists

Answer 1

Robert German

Robert German (born Robert John German on June 16, 1978) is a United States singer, guitarist, and songwriter.

Robert German was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 1978. In 1996, at the age of eighteen after he quit attending Oklahoma State University, German bought is first guitar and began writing songs.

In April 2006, his song Marlboro Man was distributed nationally with the DVD release of Brokeback Mountain through Wolfe Video. The song was picked up in June by Sirius Satellite Radio's OutQ Channel 106, where the song went to number 1.

On November 14, 2006, German released his self-produced debut album, sirens of Brooklyn, containing 12 original tracks. His song Well formed man was featured on National Public Radio's Open Mic series as well as the Village Voice's High Bias with Uncle LD.

His songs open wide, Fishnet Sailor and Marlboro man, all held the number 1 position on Sirius Satellite Radio's OutQ Channel 109. His music has been featured on THIS WAY OUT the international gay & lesbian radio magazine, broadcast on over 150 radio stations worldwide. On September 30, 2007, the music video for Open Wide debuted as an official selection of the Coney Island Film Festival. [2]

Robert German's debut album, Sirens of Brooklyn, was released on November 14, 2006. The album included 12 tracks and a hidden track titled "Knock on my door."

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Answer 2

Rosi Golan

Rosi Golan

Rosi Golan is an indie singer-songwriter originally from Israel, now residing in Brooklyn, New York. Since 2008 she has released 2 LPs (Lead Balloon and The Drifter & the Gypsy) and an EP (Fortuna). Her songs have been featured in feature films such as Dear John and Tiger Eyes, various TV shows such as Vampire Diaries, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers & Sisters, One Tree Hill, Ghost Whisperer, and numerous commercials for companies such as Chicco, Pantene, J. C. Penney and Walmart.

Golan was born in Israel, but made many stops in her travels, including Germany, Paris and finally ending up in Los Angeles at the age of nine. During her travels, she not only managed to hone her infectiously melodic songwriting, but also learned to speak five languages: French, Hungarian, German, Hebrew and English.

Golan began songwriting in Los Angeles after purchasing her first guitar on a whim. Soon after, she bravely began performing open mics at LA staples such as Molly Malones and Genghis Cohen. In 2003, Golan moved to New York to begin recording her first demos, promoting through Myspace as well as many other internet outlets. While never releasing those early songs, she did begin to hone her live performance skills by performing at open mics, cafes and small venues across New York City. She also began collaborating with other songwriters during this time. One of those early collaborations was with UK songwriter Jamie Hartman (Ben’s Brother). Their song “Let Me Out” was first released in the UK (EMI) and was Rosi’s first single. It was nominated for the prestigious Ivor Novello award for Best Song. In 2006 Rosi became the winner of the first ASCAP Robert Allen Award for songwriting excellence, she was recognized at the annual ASCAP awards show at Lincoln Center.

In 2007, while Rosi was continuing to collaborate and write the songs that would eventually become her debut LP, she landed the coveted world-wide theme for Pantene with her song "Shine". The song replaced the long-running previous theme "Feel The Rain" by Natasha Bedingfield.

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Answer 3

John Gorka

John Gorka

John Gorka (born July 27, 1958 )is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."

Gorka received his first guitar as a Christmas gift. He eventually learned, instead, to play the banjo, and began performing in a folk music group at his church.

Gorka attended Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

As of 2005, he was residing in the St. Croix Valley area near Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Gorka formed the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band with Doug Anderson and Russ Rentler and would also include guitarist Richard Shindell. He began performing solo at the Godfrey Daniels coffee house as the opening act for various musicians including: Nanci Griffith, Bill Morrissey, Claudia Schmidt and Jack Hardy.

In 1984, Gorka was one of six winners chosen from the finalists in the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Since then he has regularly toured Europe and North America.

He has appeared with artists such as Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Michael Manring, Christine Lavin, Dave Van Ronk, Cliff Eberhardt, David Massengill, Frank Christian and Lucy Kaplansky. He joined with Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson to form the folk supergroup Red Horse in 2010—touring together and releasing a self-titled album on which they record each other's compositions. Red Horse toured through July 2014.

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Answer 4

Melissa Greener

Melissa Greener

Melissa Greener is an American singer-songwriter who describes herself as a folk crooner. She is based in Nashville, Tennessee. She has been described as a "sassy singer, virtuoso guitarist, beguiling songwriter and an imposing stage presence" with an "original blend of quirky lyrics and distinctive voice". Her third album, Transistor Corazón, received a 4.5-starred review in UK national newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

Greener, the daughter of a classically trained soprano singer and a hippie father, was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She began playing guitar at the age of nine and was influenced by her childhood guitar teacher Billy Brandt and his heroes Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Gram Parsons.

After graduating from high school, Greener traveled to Tel Aviv and then to Montreal. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ceramics from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia and then taught in Jingdezhen, China, where she began writing songs for what would become her first album.

After Greener's contract in China finished, she returned to the United States to pursue a career of writing and performing her songs. Before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, she was based in Austin, Texas. She appeared (performing "Bullets to Bite") in episode 13 in series 1 of the television documentary Troubadour, TX, first aired on 10 February 2012.

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Answer 5

Gregory and the Hawk

Gregory and the Hawk

Meredith Godreau is an American singer-songwriter performing under the pseudonym Gregory and the Hawk. Active since 2003, Godreau initially enjoyed independent success with 2 EPs and a full-length album selling a total of 15,000 copies.

Originally from Medfield, Massachusetts, Godreau moved to Potsdam, New York when she was twelve. This was where she learned a number of instruments, including piano, clarinet, oboe, violin and viola before settling on her "$70 Christmas gift": the guitar.

Godreau then took on the pseudonym Gregory and the Hawk in 2003 to avoid being pigeonholed as a singer-songwriter, despite citing her influences as Nick Drake, Liz Phair and PJ Harvey. The name was derived from her brother, Gregory, and his imaginary childhood hawk.

This was when she released her demo EP, including early versions of "Boats and Birds" and "Isabelle". When asked about going by her real name, Godreau responds, "There is no reason for it. But, I’d walk by places and it’d say ‘Playing Tonight – Joe Jones’ and I think that was super-boring and I’d never want to go to that show".

Godreau began playing solo shows in small venues around New England until 2005 when she met Mike McGuire in New York. The two played live shows together for several months before bassist Jeff Ratner and drummer Adam Christgau (both of New York band Paper And Sand) joined the band. The four of them recorded the Boats and Birds EP.

In 2006, Gregory and the Hawk self-released the Boats and Birds EP as a home-studio project containing the songs "Isabelle" and "Boats and Birds". Both songs received a great amount of attention on social networking website MySpace, increasing Gregory and the Hawk's popularity. Soon after the release, the four friends moved apart, and so Godreau began playing live with just Ratner on upright bass, and herself on acoustic guitar and vocals.

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Answer 6

Patty Griffin

Patty Griffin

Patricia Jean "Patty" Griffin (born March 16, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is an accomplished vocalist and plays guitar and piano. She is known for her stripped-down songwriting style in the folk music genre. Her songs have been covered by numerous musicians, including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, Rory Block, Dave Hause, and the Dixie Chicks.

In 2007, Griffin received the Artist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association, and her album Children Running Through won the award for Best Album.

In 2011, Griffin's album Downtown Church won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album.

Griffin is from Old Town, Maine, United States, next to the Penobscot Native American reservation. The youngest child in her family, with six older siblings, she bought a guitar for $50 at age 16. She sang and played but had no inclination to become a professional musician. After a short marriage, which ended in 1992, Griffin began playing in Boston coffee houses and was scouted by A&M Records, which signed her on the strength of her demo tape. When the finished studio recordings were submitted to A&M, the company executives thought it was overproduced, so producer Nile Rodgers and A&M instead released a stripped-down reworking of her demo tape as the album Living with Ghosts.

Griffin's second album, Flaming Red, released in 1998, was a departure from the acoustic sound of Living with Ghosts, with a mix of mellow songs and high-tempo rock and roll songs. The title track, "Flaming Red", is an example of the latter, beginning with an even beat until it increases to a fevered pitch of emotion. Another song from the album, "Tony", is also featured on the charity benefit album Live in the X Lounge.

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Answer 7

Jenn Grinels

Jenn Grinels is an American actress, guitarist, singer and songwriter. Originally from Northern California, Grinels settled in San Diego, California after studying musical theater at UC Irvine. Since late 2007 she has toured continuously in support of her albums, Little Words & Brokenheartbreaker.

Jenn left her hometown of Cupertino, California to study musical theater at the University of California at Irvine. After graduation, Jenn moved to San Diego and made a living performing in musicals, including performances as Janis Joplin in the 1960s musical Beehive and as Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch before devoting her time to a solo career.

After recording a self titled EP in 2004, Grinels recorded her first full-length album, Little Words, in 2007. The album, along with Jenn's live performances, has received universal praise from reviewers and comparisons to well known musicians Fiona Apple, Ani Difranco, and Jewel.

Her song Can't Stay Here was featured on MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Island.

Grinels released her second full-length album, brokenHEARTbreaker, in May 2011.

Grinels announced to fans on her Facebook page she was moving to Nashville, Tennessee in late 2016 to continue pursuing her music career.

Grinels' music is characterized by acoustic guitar and powerful vocals. Her vocal delivery has elements of folk, pop rock, jazz, and blues.

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Answer 8

Dave Guard

Dave Guard

Donald David "Dave" Guard (October 19, 1934 – March 22, 1991) was an American folk singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist. Along with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, he was one of the founding members of The Kingston Trio.

Guard was born in San Francisco and went to Punahou School in Honolulu in what was then the pre-statehood U.S. Territory of Hawaii. Upon completion of his final year of high school in 1952 at Menlo School, a private prep school in Menlo Park, California, he matriculated at nearby Stanford University, graduating in 1957 with a degree in economics.

While an undergraduate at Stanford, Guard started a pickup group with Reynolds and Shane. Guard called his group Dave Guard and the Calypsonians, with a Weavers-style signature sound that was principally two guitars, a banjo, and rollicking vocals. Guard kept the group together after Reynolds and Shane left, changing the name of the Calypsonians to The Kingston Quartet. Then in 1957, when Reynolds and Shane agreed to team up with Guard again, the group changed its name to The Kingston Trio. Under contract with Capitol Records, the Trio became a huge commercial and influential success.

Guard spent his early years first in San Francisco, and then his junior high school and high school years in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. Guard grew up hearing the soft vocal melodies and strummed guitars of Hawaiian music. He was particularly attracted to the unique rhythmic sounds of finger-picked slack-key ukulele and guitar music masterfully performed by the many of his neighbors and beach boys.

Guard attended Punahou School, a private school established in 1849 by Hawaii's New England missionary families during junior high school and high school. Hawaiian culture and music played an important part in his school's educational program. Along with all his other classmates, Guard early on learned to play Hawaii's ubiquitous ukulele in a 7th grade junior high school music class required of all students. It was in that class that Punahou's young 7th graders like Guard and his future Kingston Trio partner-to-be Shane learned the basics of playing the ukulele. The "ukulele" class made an impact on Shane, who during the next four years progressed steadily from the 4-string ukulele to the less toy-like and more professional appearing baritone uke, on to the tenor guitar, and finally to the 6-string acoustic guitar. According to Guard, his own first serious exposure to stringed instruments came from Shane, who taught him the rudiments of playing the six-string guitar.

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Answer 9

Michael Gulezian

Michael Gulezian

Michael Gulezian is an American composer and fingerstyle guitarist. He is noted for dramatic compositions, a penchant for manipulating metre, an affinity for open tunings, and an unconventionally free two-handed technical approach. Gulezian's use of bottleneck slide on 12-string guitar, coupled with his command of reverse analog reverbs have made his recordings notable for their dream-like sonic atmosphere. Gulezian inhabits a musical territory between his mentor John Fahey and Gulezian's late friend and colleague Michael Hedges.

Gulezian began playing acoustic guitar at the age of six; although he never took formal lessons, he underwent years of self-imposed classical guitar training. He was influenced by his mother, who sang Armenian folk songs, and his father, classical Middle-Eastern oud virtuoso and Pharonic Egyptian ethnomusicologist H. Aram Gulezyan. Gulezian immersed himself in his Armenian cultural heritage, Middle Eastern music, non-Western Indian and Chinese music, improvisational rāgas, as well as Western idioms such as Gregorian chants, rock, jazz and folk.^,, In 1965 the family moved from the New York City area to Tucson, Arizona.

As a young guitarist he was influenced by the early Mississippi Delta fingerstyle guitarists: Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White, Son House, and Robert Johnson, as well as their contemporaries from the Atlantic seaboard, Blind Blake and Reverend Gary Davis. Later he discovered and explored the music of John Fahey and Leo Kottke, and further broadened his musical horizons by listening to Keith Jarrett, John McLaughlin, Ravi Shankar and Sun Ra.

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Answer 10

Arlo Guthrie

Arlo Guthrie

Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer-songwriter. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, he is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice. Guthrie's best-known work is his debut piece, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a satirical talking blues song about 18 minutes in length that has since become a Thanksgiving anthem. His only top-40 hit was a cover of Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans". His song "Massachusetts" was named the official folk song of the state in which he has lived most of his adult life. Guthrie has also made several acting appearances. He is the father of four children, who have also had careers as musicians.

Guthrie was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of the folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia Guthrie. His sister is the record producer Nora Guthrie. His mother was a one-time professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company and founder of the Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease, the illness from which Woody Guthrie died in 1967. Arlo's father was from a Protestant family and his mother was Jewish. His maternal grandmother was the renowned Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt.

Guthrie received religious training for his bar mitzvah from Rabbi Meir Kahane, who would go on to form the Jewish Defense League. "Rabbi Kahane was a really nice, patient teacher," Guthrie later recalled, "but shortly after he started giving me my lessons, he started going haywire. Maybe I was responsible." Guthrie converted to Catholicism in 1977, before embracing interfaith beliefs later in his life.

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