American folk guitarists

Question

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

Answer 1

Jim Croce

Jim Croce

James Joseph "Jim" Croce (/ˈkroʊtʃi/; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American folk and popular rock singer of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1966 and 1973, Croce released five studio albums and singles. His songs "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and "Time in a Bottle" reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Croce was born in South Philadelphia, to James Albert Croce and his wife Flora Mary (Babucci) Croce, both Italian Americans. Croce took a strong interest in music at a young age. At five, he learned to play his first song on the accordion, "Lady of Spain."

Croce attended Upper Darby High School in Upper Darby Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Graduating in 1960, he studied at Malvern Preparatory School for a year before enrolling at Villanova University, where he majored in psychology and minored in German. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1965. Croce was a member of the Villanova Singers and the Villanova Spires. When the Spires performed off-campus or made recordings, they were known as The Coventry Lads. Croce was also a student disc jockey at WKVU (which has since become WXVU).

...

Wikipedia

Answer 2

William Coulter

William Coulter is an American Celtic guitarist, performer, recording artist, and teacher. Since 1981 he has explored the world of traditional music as a soloist with ensembles including Isle of Skye, Orison, and the Coulter-Phillips Ensemble.

William Coulter was born in 1959 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the son of a classical singer who founded the Pro Arte Chorale, a professional choral group. William's early exposure to the classical techniques of choral music influenced his own guitar work. At the age of nine, Coulter began taking piano lessons, practicing on a borrowed piano. In his teens, the piano was replaced by an electric guitar, which he practiced in his basement accompanying Neil Young records. At the age of eighteen, Coulter traded his electric guitar for a classical guitar after attending a concert by noted classical guitarist Andrés Segovia.

After graduating high school, Coulter performed with several bands. In 1980, he moved to Santa Cruz, California, where he studied classical guitar and earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California-Santa Cruz. He went on to earn a master's degree in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Deeply interested in American folk music as well as traditional Celtic music, he went on to earn a second master's degree from the University of California-Santa Cruz in Ethnomusicology.

In 1984 Coulter met guitarist Benjamin Verdery at one of Verdery's concerts on the West Coast. Coulter was so taken by Verdery's music that he introduced himself to the guitarist after the concert. The two guitarists quickly discovered that they had much in common musically, and the two became friends. Despite living on opposite coasts of the United States, they stayed in touch. In 1990, they performed together for the first time.

In 1988, Coulter teamed up with four other San Francisco Bay instrumentalists to form an ensemble called Orison, the name taken from the Middle English word for prayer or invocaton. The group, which included William Coulter, Barry Phillips, Shelley Phillips, Steve Coulter, and Anne Cleveland, came to the project with a collective repertoire that included music from both the folk and classical traditions, as well as original compositions. Their combinations of harp, guitar, cello, oboe, English horn, flute, and percussion produced an ethereal musical signature of "poignant beauty."

...

Wikipedia

Answer 3

David Crosby

David Crosby

David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

He wrote or co-wrote "Lady Friend", "Why", and "Eight Miles High" with the Byrds and "Guinnevere", "Wooden Ships", "Shadow Captain", and "In My Dreams" with Crosby, Stills & Nash. He wrote "Almost Cut My Hair" and the title track "Déjà Vu" for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1970 album. He is known for his use of alternate guitar tunings and jazz influences.

Crosby has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: once for his work in the Byrds and once for his work with CSN. Five albums he contributed to are included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, three with the Byrds and two with CSN(Y). He has been depicted as emblematic of the 1960s' counterculture.

David Crosby was born in Los Angeles, California. His parents were Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead (a descendent of the prominent Van Cortlandt family) and Floyd Crosby, an Academy Award–winning cinematographer and descendant of the Van Rensselaer family. He is also the younger brother of musician Ethan Crosby. Growing up in California, he attended several schools, including the University Elementary School in Los Angeles, the Crane Country Day School in Montecito, and Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara for the rest of his elementary school and junior high. At Crane, he starred in HMS Pinafore and other musicals but was asked not to return because of his lack of academic progress. He graduated from the Cate School in Carpinteria, completing his secondary studies by correspondence. In 1960, his parents divorced, and his father remarried Betty Andrews Crosby.

...

Wikipedia

Answer 4

Paul Curreri

Paul Curreri

Paul Curreri (born January 18, 1976), an American guitarist, pianist, songwriter, and music producer born in Seattle, Washington and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He performs mainly in the folk and blues music styles. He married songwriter-guitarist Devon Sproule in May 2005 and lived with her in Charlottesville, Virginia. They have appeared and toured together, performing duets – most famously for Valentine's Day. He now produces his wife's track's, providing supporting instrumentation.

Curreri and Sproule moved to Berlin, Germany in September 2011, have since resided in Austin, Texas, and now live in Stony Point, Virginia.

Michael Paul Curreri, Jr. was born January 28, 1976 in Seattle, Washington. He grew up in Richmond, Virginia, where he first put bands together and performed as a musician. He was friends with fellow musician Drew Gibson and "from ages 13 to 18" they played "in bands together, writing songs and encouraging each other." He enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to pursue painting and film.

By the time Curreri graduated from RISD he had composed "more than 200 songs" on guitar and piano. Turning down a job at MTV, he pursued his music. Following a spot at New York City's Knitting Factory in 2001, he received several tour invitations from Kelly Joe Phelps. Over the next four years, the two would play over 100 concerts together.

Attending the debut of the King of My Living Room songwriter series in Charlottesville in 2001, Curreri decided to make his home there. The original group of Charlottesville songwriters that launched this series of live shows included such artists as Brady Earnhart, Danny Schmidt, Stratton Salidis, Jan Smith, Lance Brenner, Browning Porter, and Jeff Romano. The concept resulted in a number of concerts, many of which Curreri would join in on – including the reunion/finale in November 2007 at the Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville.

...

Wikipedia

Answer 5

Joe Dassin

Joe Dassin

Joseph Ira "Joe" Dassin (5 November 1938 – 20 August 1980) was an American-born French singer-songwriter.

Dassin was born in New York City to American film director Jules Dassin (1911–2008) and Béatrice Launer (1913–1994), a New York-born violinist, who after graduating from a Hebrew High School in the Bronx studied with the British violinist Harold Berkely at the Juilliard School of Music. His father was of Ukrainian and Polish-Jewish extraction, his maternal grandfather was an Austrian-Jewish immigrant, who arrived in New York with his family at age 11.

He began his childhood first in New York City and Los Angeles. However, after his father fell victim to the Hollywood blacklist in 1950, he and his family moved from place to place across Europe.

Dassin studied at the International School of Geneva and the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, and graduated in Grenoble. Dassin moved back to the United States, where he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1957 to 1963, winning an undergraduate Hopwood Award for fiction in 1958 and earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1961 and a Master of Arts in 1963, both in Anthropology.

Moving to France, Dassin worked as a technician for his father and appeared as an actor in supporting roles, among others in a number of movies (three) directed by his father, including Topkapı (1964) in which he played the role of Josef.

On 26 December 1964, Dassin signed with CBS Records, making him the first French singer to sign up with an American record label.

...

Wikipedia

Answer 6

George S. Davis

George S. Davis

George S. Davis (August 19, 1906 – November 11, 1992), known as The Singing Miner, was an American folk singer and songwriter, who worked as a coal miner, and then as a disc jockey on local radio in Hazard, Kentucky from 1947 until 1969.

Davis began his career about 1933, about the same time the United Mine Workers of America began organizing the coal mines in Eastern Kentucky.

Among the songs he wrote and sang were "White Shotgun," "Buggerman in the Bushes," "Coal Miner's Boogie," "When Kentucky Had No Union Men," and "Harlan County Blues." Although "Sixteen Tons", the song about the misery of coal mining, has generally been credited as being written in 1946 by country singer Merle Travis, who was the first to record it, Davis claimed that Travis based it on an earlier song of his called "Nine-to-ten tons", written in the 1930s. Davis' 1966 recording of his version of the song can be heard on the album George Davis: When Kentucky Had No Union Men.

Davis was 88 years old when he died in 1992 in London, Kentucky, United States. His D28 Martin Guitar that he played from 1947 until 1992 was displayed in the new studios of WKIC and WSGS on Main Street in Hazard.

...

Wikipedia

Answer 7

Brad Davis (musician)

Brad Davis is an American country/folk singer-songwriter and guitarist. Initially a member of country singer Marty Stuart's road band, Davis has also performed with Earl Scruggs, Sam Bush, Billy Bob Thornton and several other country and musical acts, in addition to writing songs for artists like Tim McGraw, Jo-El Sonnier, Tony Trischka, and Thornton.

Davis also has a solo music career of his own, with several releases, both instrumental and vocal, and he has released instructional material on guitar playing, particularly the style of flatpicking.

Brad Davis has had plenty of work as a guitarist, harmony vocalist, writer and producer for other music artists and movie soundtracks.

In the late 1980s, Davis was invited to become a member of the Ricky Skaggs band. Upon arriving in Nashville, he discovered the job had been given to another musician. As he needed to find a way to pay the bills, he found a job as a roving fiddle and guitar minstrel at Opryland USA.

In 1992, he became a member of Marty Stuart's road and studio band, the Rock and Roll Cowboys and continued in the band through 2002, touring across the world and appearing in music videos and television shows on CMT and what was then known as TNN. During this time, he also appeared on Stuart's gold selling album This One's Gonna Hurt You, the Marty Stuart "Hit Pack", and Stuart's last MCA recording, "The Pilgrim".

After a jam with Stuart at the home of Earl Scruggs in 2001, Brad was inivited to become a member of Scruggs' road band, "Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends", of which he is still a member. Davis appeared on a Grand Ole Opry episode, which aired on CMT, as part of this configuration, to sing "The Ballad of Jed Clampett". Other prominent musicians who have appeared in the Earl Scruggs band include Albert Lee and Jon Randall.

...

Wikipedia

Answer 8

Anne E. DeChant

Anne E. DeChant is an American rock singer/songwriter/guitarist based in the Cleveland area. Her career began with the promising band Odd Girl Out in the early 1990s before releasing her first solo project in 1996. Since then, she won regional awards and opened for top-10 pop groups, while poising herself for a national break.

With Alexis Antes and Victoria Fliegel, Odd Girl Out enjoyed a niche following, particularly on the college scene. The band got airplay on, and support from, commercial radio stations in the Cleveland market, shortly before media deregulation and consolidation made the practice less common.

In July 1997, Anne E. DeChant officially released her first solo album, with a more mainstream sound, but departing a bit from her folk roots. In the following years, she developed a loyal following and dominated local music polls, by reaching out to her audience through political lyrics and an approachable persona.

Since she continues to write, she releases an album about every two years, with progressively bigger producers. Meantime, she has an active show schedule hovering around the Cleveland and Nashville areas, and regularly tours other states to build on her fan base. According to her web site, she has performed at such colorful venues as Lilith Fair, at the White House, and on Olivia Cruise Lines.

DeChant writes her share of heart-felt songs of heart ache and heartbreak. However, many of her most popular tracks are about social justice issues. Examples include Girls and Airplanes (gender equality), Green Hand (supporting troops post-war), Swastika (Holocaust denial), 25 (imbalance in economic status), and Second Class Citizen (prejudice and intolerance toward the gay community).

Virtually all her songs feature singing and guitar-playing. As such, she regularly includes guitarist Matt Sobol and backup vocalist Kelly Wright, for a distinctly intimate acoustic-folk feel. Naturally, at full-band shows, the louder songs reach their potential as pop rock tunes.

...

Wikipedia

Answer 9

Brett Dennen

Brett Dennen

Brett Michael Dennen (born October 28, 1979) is an American folk/pop singer and songwriter from Central California. His sixth studio album, Por Favor, was released in May 2016.

As a child, Dennen was homeschooled, where he was given creative free rein by his parents. He spent much of his time learning to play music. After becoming proficient in the guitar, he started to write his own songs.

Dennen attended Camp Jack Hazard, a residential summer camp, as a child and adolescent, and worked there as a counselor. He has continued to help the camp, performing at a fundraiser in February 2012 for the Jack and Buena Foundation, which now runs Camp Jack Hazard. Brett's older sister and younger brother also attended the camp, and his mother has served on the board of directors of the Jack and Buena Foundation.

He attended UC Santa Cruz from 2000–2004, where he was a student at Kresge College. He led numerous anti-smoking campaigns on campus, and was instrumental in removing ash trays from building entrances.

Dennen has been a part of The Mosaic Project, a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit organization, since its inception. The Mosaic Project works towards a peaceful future by uniting young children of diverse backgrounds, providing them with essential skills to thrive in an increasingly diverse society, and empowering them to strive for peace.

In 2004, Dennen released his debut, self-titled album, Brett Dennen on a boutique indie label, Three Angels and A Saint Records, produced by Dennen & Leslie Merical. Denzyl Feigelson (of iTunes) heard Brett perform songs from this debut live in Ojai, and got hold of a burned CD, which he put in the hands of influential KCRW DJ Chris Douridas. When Douridas debuted "Desert Sunrise" on his Valentine's Day show in 2004, the response was huge, which ultimately lead to Dennen's record deal with Dualtone Records.

His second album, So Much More, includes the singles "Ain't No Reason", "She's Mine" and "Darlin' Do Not Fear".

Dennen also contributed a cover of "Private Life" to the 2006 tribute album Drink To Bones That Turn To Dust: A Toast To Oingo Boingo.

In an interview with American Songwriter magazine, Dennen acknowledged Paul Simon's significant influence on his music as well as commenting that Paul Simon's "“Graceland is my all time favorite album.”

...

Wikipedia

Answer 10

John Denver

John Denver

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, activist, actor, and humanitarian, whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singer, starting in the 1970s. He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade and one of its best selling artists. By 1974, he was firmly established as America's best selling performer, and AllMusic has described Denver as "among the most beloved entertainers of his era". After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. Throughout his life, Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed, with total record sales of over 33 million.

He recorded and performed primarily with an acoustic guitar and sang about his joy in nature, his disdain for city life, his enthusiasm for music, and his relationship trials. Denver's music appeared on a variety of charts, including country music, the Billboard Hot 100, and adult contemporary, in all earning him twelve gold and four platinum albums with his signature songs "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Annie's Song", "Rocky Mountain High", "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", and "Sunshine on My Shoulders".

Denver further starred in films and several notable television specials in the 1970s and 1980s. In the following decade, he continued to record, but also focused on calling attention to environmental issues, lent his vocal support to space exploration, and testified in front of Congress to protest against censorship in music. He was known for his love of the state of Colorado, which he sang about numerous times. He lived in Aspen, Colorado for much of his life and was named poet laureate of the state in 1974. The Colorado state legislature also adopted "Rocky Mountain High" as one of its state songs in 2007. Denver was an avid pilot and died in a single-fatality crash of his personal experimental aircraft at the age of 53.

...

Wikipedia