American folk guitarists

Question

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

Answer 1

Reggie Knighton

Reggie Knighton is a singer, songwriter and lead guitarist from Biloxi, Mississippi who relocated to Los Angeles, California at an early age and grew up there.

His professional career started as the lead guitarist for The Grass Roots from 1974 to 1975. He arranged an audition through Dennis Provisor who had experience with the group since 1969. He played lead guitar during the period of The Grass Roots "Mamacita" single (which charted), their self titled album and the US tour in support of it. He played with Rob Grill (lead vocals and bass), Dennis Provisor (vocals and keyboards) and Joel Larson (drums).

He then worked with John Sebastian on his very popular "Welcome Back" album, the #1 single released and the US tour in support of it in 1976. After that whirlwind experience with a gifted talent like Sebastian, he then played with a band called White Horse in 1977.

Later in 1977, he produced 4-track demos of his compositions in his own home studio. The tapes caught the ear of a management company, which landed him a record deal with CBS Records. He released his self titled solo album in 1977. The next year he released his second album, titled The Reggie Knighton Band produced by the acclaimed record producer Roy Thomas Baker. It was a group affair this time and he brought in the other members. Knighton had been friends for a long time with guitarist Brian Ray. Ray was Knighton's age, grew up in the same part of L.A. and they formed the nucleus of the band. Knighton had just finished a tour backing another CBS artist, Valerie Carter. It was on his gig as a guitarist for Carter that he played and became friends with bassist Kurtis Teel. So the three of them held auditions for drummers, which was how they connected with Glenn Symmonds, who was replaced at the end of the bands run by Milton Ruth. The band toured as the opening act for 10cc during 1978. Knighton and the group collaborated with John Sebastian on a Canadian animated film score called "The Devil & Daniel Mouse" in 1979.

In 1981, he worked with Mark Saffan & The Keepers and added his vocals to Phil Brown’s The Jimi Project album in 2006.

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Answer 2

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He overcame a series of personal obstacles, including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his right hand, to emerge as a widely recognized master of his instrument. He currently resides in the Minneapolis area with his family.

Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke also sings sporadically, in an unconventional yet expressive baritone described by himself as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day". In concert, Kottke intersperses humorous and often bizarre monologues with vocal and instrumental selections from throughout his career, played solo on his 6- and 12-string guitars.

Born in Athens, Georgia, Kottke moved with his parents so frequently that he was raised in twelve different states. As a youth living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he was influenced by folk and delta blues music, notably that of Mississippi John Hurt. Kottke learned to play trombone and violin before trying the guitar and developing his own unconventional picking style.

A mishap with a firecracker permanently damaged the hearing in his left ear, a condition that would be exacerbated by exposure to loud noise during firing practice while he served in the United States Navy Reserve, when the hearing in his other ear was also damaged.

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Answer 3

Mark Kozelek

Mark Kozelek

Mark Edward Kozelek (born January 24, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer and occasional actor. He is best known as the vocalist and primary recording artist of the indie folk act Sun Kil Moon, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums, and as the vocalist, guitarist and founding member of the indie rock band Red House Painters, with whom he recorded six studio albums from 1989 until 2001.

Born and raised in Massillon, Ohio, Kozelek developed an interest in music as a child. Upon meeting drummer Anthony Koutsos in Atlanta, Georgia, the pair moved to San Francisco, California and formed Red House Painters alongside guitarist Gorden Mack and bass guitarist Jerry Vessel. Signing with record label 4AD, the band released four studio albums to critical acclaim. In 1996, Kozelek recorded the band's fifth studio album, Songs for a Blue Guitar, mostly alone. The release of the band's final studio album, Old Ramon (2001), was delayed for three years. In the interim, Kozelek recorded both an album and an EP of AC/DC cover songs.

Reconvening with Koutsos and Vessel, the trio continued performing under the new name of Sun Kil Moon, releasing their debut album, Ghosts of the Great Highway, in 2003. Inspired by classical guitar music, Kozelek recorded Sun Kil Moon's fourth studio album, Admiral Fell Promises (2010), as a solo act, and continued to record mostly alone on its follow-up, Among the Leaves (2012). The album introduced a deeply personal lyrical perspective, which continued on the collaborative solo releases, Perils from the Sea and Mark Kozelek & Desertshore, both released in 2013.

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Answer 4

Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson

Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He wrote and recorded the songs "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson composed his own songs and collaborated with Nashville songwriters such as Shel Silverstein. In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in forming the country music supergroup The Highwaymen. In 2004, Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He is also known for his starring roles in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and A Star Is Born, the latter for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps officer (later a U.S. Air Force Major General). His paternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden, while his mother had English, Scottish-Irish, German, Swiss-German and Dutch ancestry. Kristofferson's paternal grandfather was an officer in the Swedish Army. When Kristofferson was a child, his father pushed him towards a military career.

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Answer 5

Amy Kuney

Amy Kuney

Amy Kuney, also known by AMES, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician based in Los Angeles, California.

Kuney began piano lessons at the age of four and participated in piano recitals and church performances growing up.

Kuney wrote her first song at the age of 12.

At the age of 13, Kuney's father moved the family from their home in Oklahoma to Honduras to live as missionaries after he saw a video highlighting the destruction of Hurricane Mitch.

She started playing guitar when she taught herself guitar chords off of a poster her dad bought from Wal-Mart after a trip to the United States at the age of 16.

Kuney's song, which she co-wrote with Tim Myers, "All Downhill From Here" opened the season 5 finale of One Tree Hill (TV series) on May 19, 2008.. The song was also featured in the documentary "Catfish." Other placements include: The Blacklist (NBC), Looking (HBO), Hemlock Grove (Netflix), So You Think You Can Dance (FOX) and advertisements for Macy’s, Kleenex, and Pandora.

Kuney opened for The Veronicas in the summer of 2008.

After he heard her cover of his song, The Blower's Daughter, on YouTube, Damien Rice invited Kuney to tour with him in Iceland.

Spin Move Records released Kuney's debut full-length album, "Bird's Eye View," on August 12, 2008.

LnA Clothing featured Kuney's song, "Simple Things," on "The Invisible DJ LnA Music Tee," which the company released online and at Ron Herman stores starting in May 2009. Purchasers of the t-shirt received a code to download all of the songs listed on the t-shirt from the LnA website.

As part of Donate Life's Concert Series at The Grove at Farmers Market presented by Palm, Inc. and the Palm Pre and hosted by KBIG-FM, Kuney opened for Gavin Rossdale.

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Answer 6

Dawn Landes

Dawn Landes

Dawn Landes (also dawn Landes) (born December 5, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is originally from around Louisville, Kentucky, having claimed on stage as having been born in Southern Indiana, but has been for many years a Brooklyn, New York transplant, having arrived as a New York University undergraduate student. As a recording artist she has released five full-length albums: dawn's music (2005), Two Three Four (2006), Fireproof (2008), Sweetheart Rodeo (2010), and Bluebird (2014) and two EPs: Straight Lines (2006) and Mal Habillée (2012). In support of her releases, Landes has toured extensively in the US, Europe and around the world, often sharing the stage with artists such as Ray Lamontagne, Feist, Andrew Bird, José González, The Weakerthans, Midlake, Suzanne Vega, and Sufjan Stevens.

As an instrumentalist, she plays the glockenspiel with the New York City American roots music band Hem. A producer and engineer, she has worked at Stratosphere Sound in New York City and at Philip Glass' own personal recording studio. In 2009 Landes helped found Saltlands Studio in Brooklyn, NY. She has collaborated with contemporaries like Justin Townes Earle, Will Oldham and Josh Ritter in the studio. Her songs have been featured in popular films and TV shows, including Bored to Death, Skins, House, Gossip Girl and United States of Tara. She composed original scores for two feature films Blackbird and Familiar Strangers and wrote the end credit song for Savage Grace starring Julianne Moore. Landes has appeared with The American Songbook Series, Boston Pops and in 2012 with the NYC Ballet at the Lincoln Center for the new Benjamin Millepied ballet "Two Hearts" singing a ballad entitled "The Brown Girl" as part of composer Nico Muhly's score.

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Answer 7

Peter Lang (guitarist)

Peter Lang (born January 6, 1948) is an acoustic guitarist who recorded for Takoma Records with John Fahey and Leo Kottke.

Peter Lang was discovered in 1972 by guitarist John Fahey. Lang's first solo album, The Thing at the Nursery Room Window, was released in 1973. With Lang, Fahey launched the careers of other notable artists on Takoma Records, including Kottke, George Winston, Robbie Basho, Bola Sete and others.

In the 70's Lang recorded or performed with Ry Cooder, Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, John Hartford, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Emmylou Harris, Freddie King, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, John Hammond, Keith Jarrett, Phoebe Snow, Maria Muldaur, The Yellowjackets, and Robben Ford

Lang left music in the 1980s to pursue a career in animation and special effects production. He released the albums Dharma Blues in 2002 and Guitar in 2003. Both Lycurgus and Prime Cuts were re-released in 2003 with bonus tracks.

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Answer 8

Bruce Langhorne

Bruce Langhorne

Bruce Langhorne (May 11, 1938 – April 14, 2017) was an American folk musician. He was active in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, primarily as a session guitarist for folk albums and performances.

Langhorne was born in Tallahassee, Florida, where his father taught at the Florida Agriculture and Mechanical College for Negroes. From the age of four, he lived with his mother in Spanish Harlem, in New York City. He learned violin, but lost most of three fingers of his right hand as a child when lighting a homemade rocket. He was expelled from Horace Mann Prep School, and later claimed that as a teenage gang member he was involved in a stabbing, following which he lived for two years in Mexico. He started playing guitar at the age of 17, and the loss of his fingers contributed to his distinctive playing style.

He began accompanying folk singer Brother John Sellers at clubs in Greenwich Village, soon starting to work with other musicians. Langhorne worked with many of the major performers in the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, including The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Carolyn Hester, Peter LaFarge, Gordon Lightfoot, Hugh Masekela, Odetta, Babatunde Olatunji, Peter, Paul and Mary, Richard and Mimi Fariña, Tom Rush, Steve Gillette, and Buffy Sainte-Marie. He first recorded in 1961, with Carolyn Hester, which is when he met Bob Dylan. He later said of Dylan: "I thought he was a terrible singer and a complete fake, and I thought he didn’t play harmonica that well....I didn’t really start to appreciate Bobby as something unique until he started writing." In 1963 he accompanied Dylan on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and in 1965 was one of several guitarists on the album Bringing It All Back Home.

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Answer 9

Peter Langston

Peter Langston (born 1946) is a computer programmer who wrote and distributed for free several games for Unix systems in the 1970s, including the original version of Empire and the program "Oracle" upon which the later net-wide Oracle was modeled. He is also an experienced jazz, rock, and folk musician.

In 1982, he was hired by the Computer Division of Lucasfilm to start Lucasfilm Games. He hired the programming and design teams and wrote the music for and contributed to the game design of Lucasfilm Games' first two releases, Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus!. In fact, for Ballblazer, Langston created an algorithmic composition system, which allowed the game to improvise music (from an initial set of musical snippets contributed by famous musicians) based on what is happening in the game. Langston later left Lucasfilm Games for Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies). Langston retired in 1991 and is now consulting and running adult music camps.

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Answer 10

Patty Larkin

Patty Larkin

Patty Larkin (born June 19, 1951) is a Boston-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her music has been described as folk-urban pop music.

Patty Larkin was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up in a musical and artistic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Descended from a long line of Irish American singers and taletellers, her mother was a painter, her sisters both musicians. She learned at a young age to appreciate the beauty and magic of the arts. She began classical piano studies at age 7, and became swept up in the sounds of pop and folk in the 60s, teaching herself the guitar and experimenting with songwriting in high school. An English major, Larkin sang throughout her high school and college career, starting out in coffeehouses in Oregon and San Francisco. Upon graduation from the University of Oregon, she moved to Boston, Massachusetts and devoted herself to music, busking on the streets of Cambridge and studying jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music and with Boston area jazz guitarists.

Her recording career began in 1985 with Philo/Rounder Records where she recorded Step Into The Light, I’m Fine, and Live In The Square. In 1990, she signed to Windham Hill’s new High Street label and delivered 4 highly praised releases: Tango, Angels Running, Strangers World and Perishable Fruit. After Windham Hill was sold to BMG, Patty moved to Vanguard Records and released Agogo Live, Regrooving The Dream, Red=Luck and Watch The Sky. The latter was a NY Times Critic Choice. In 2010, Patty celebrates her 25th year of recording with 25, a stripped down retrospective of 25 love songs with 25 featured guests (Road Narrows Records/Signature Sounds).

Patty Larkin produced La Guitara, a compilation of international women guitarists challenging the notion that there are no great women guitarists. She has also performed on numerous compilations and her songs have been featured in the following films: “Anyway The Main Thing Is” in Evolution (DreamWorks); “Good Thing” in Random Hearts (Columbia Pictures); and “Coming Up For Air” and “Tenderness on the Block” in Sliding Doors (Miramax). Cher recorded "Good Thing" on one of her albums.

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