American folk guitarists

Question

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

Answer 1

Michael DeTemple

Michael DeTemple (born December 15, 1947) is an American musician and luthier known for his handmade solid-body guitars. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, DeTemple began repairing and maintaining a wide range of stringed instruments at the age of thirteen. Early on, he became acquainted with renowned guitarist Ernie Ball, who retained his services by paying with old guitars.

He began playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin at 12, quickly achieving a high level of proficiency. He began hanging out at the Los Angeles Ash Grove folk club, where he came into contact with a number of luminaries in the folk and blues genres including Taj Mahal, Doc Watson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Clarence White, and Jesse Ed Davis. At 14, he won his first Topanga Canyon Banjo and Fiddle Contest, winning three more times by eighteen. In 1966, Academy Award winning composer, Earl Robinson invited him to play in the "Winterfest Concerto for Five String Banjo and Orchestra" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Lawrence Foster and later with Elmer Bernstein. In the 1970s, DeTemple worked as a studio musician, and contributed to a number of film scores and other projects. A notable studio performance during this period was on Dave Mason's bestselling album, Alone Together. He also developed a close friendship with The Band bass player, Rick Danko with whom he recorded, later playing live in the Rick Danko Band. Danko discovered his guitar work when DeTemple joined in on a jam session in the studio with Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Ron Wood. Most recently he has played mandolin on John Fogerty’s DeJa Vu All Over Again and the supplemental disc of Kevin Costner's Open Range DVD Beyond Open Range: (The Making of Open Range).

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Answer 2

Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond

Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. His career began in the 1960s and he has sold over 120 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Early in the 21st century, he was the third most successful adult contemporary artist in the history of the Billboard charts. His songs have been covered internationally by many performers from various musical genres.

Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Additionally, he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and in 2011 was an honoree at Kennedy Center. On the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, he has had eleven No. 1 singles: "Cracklin' Rosie", "Song Sung Blue", "Longfellow Serenade", "I've Been This Way Before", "If You Know What I Mean", "Desiree", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "America", "Yesterday's Songs", "Heartlight", and "I'm a Believer". "Sweet Caroline" is played frequently at sporting events, and has become an anthem for the Boston Red Sox.

Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family descended from Russian and Polish immigrants. His parents were Rose (née Rapaport) and Akeeba "Kieve" Diamond, a dry-goods merchant. He grew up in several homes in Brooklyn, having also spent four years in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where his father was stationed in the army. In Brooklyn he attended Erasmus Hall High School and was a member of the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club along with classmate Barbra Streisand. They were not close friends at the time, Diamond recalls: "We were two poor kids in Brooklyn. We hung out in the front of Erasmus High and smoked cigarettes." After his family moved he then attended Abraham Lincoln High School, and was a member of the fencing team. For his 16th birthday, he received his first guitar.

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Answer 3

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco (/ˈɑːniː/; born Angela Maria DiFranco; September 23, 1970) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, songwriter and businesswoman. She has released more than 20 albums and is a feminist icon. DiFranco has received positive feedback from critics for much of her career.

Although DiFranco's music has been classified as folk rock and alternative rock she has added punk, funk, hip hop and jazz influences. DiFranco created her own record label, Righteous Babe, giving her significant creative freedom.

DiFranco supports many social and political movements by performing benefit concerts, appearing on benefit albums and speaking at rallies. Through the Righteous Babe Foundation DiFranco has backed grassroots cultural and political organizations supporting causes including abortion rights to gay visibility. She counts famed American folk singer and songwriter Pete Seeger among her mentors.

DiFranco was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Elizabeth (Ross) and Dante Americo DiFranco, who had met while attending MIT. Her father was of Italian descent, and her mother was from Montreal. DiFranco started playing Beatles covers at local bars and busking with her guitar teacher, Michael Meldrum, at the age of nine. By 14 she was penning her own songs. She played them at bars and coffee houses throughout her teens. DiFranco graduated from the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts high school at 16 and began attending classes at Buffalo State College. She was living alone, having moved out of her mother's apartment after she became an emancipated minor when she was 15.

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Answer 4

Jerry Donahue

Jerry Donahue

Jerry Donahue (born September 24, 1946, Manhattan, New York City) is an American guitarist and producer primarily known for his work in the British folk rock scene as a member of Fotheringay and Fairport Convention as well as being a member of the rock guitar trio The Hellecasters.

Donahue was born in New York, the son of big band saxophonist Sam Donahue and actress Patricia Donahue and grew up in Los Angeles. Encouraged by his parents, Donahue took classical guitar lessons as a child, but it was Gerry McGee (who later joined The Ventures) who made the biggest impression on him, when the 14-year-old Donahue witnessed him playing a behind-the-nut bend at a performance at the Sea Witch, emulating Earl Scruggs' banjo technique. Donahue then took lessons from McGee. Regarding regular bends on the fretboard, Donahue cites Amos Garrett as a major influence. Other influences in his formative years were Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, The Shadows and The Ventures; later influences were Clarence White, Danny Gatton, Albert Lee, Tommy Emmanuel and Robben Ford.

After moving to England, Donahue soon became a respected member of the developing British folk rock scene. As a band member, he played with Poet and the One Man Band, Fotheringay and Fairport Convention. Later he recorded and/or toured with artists such as Joan Armatrading, Gerry Rafferty, Robert Plant, Elton John, The Proclaimers, Mick Greenwood, Johnny Hallyday, Gary Wright, Cliff Richard, Chris Rea, Warren Zevon, Bonnie Raitt, Hank Marvin, Roy Orbison, Nanci Griffith, The Beach Boys and The Yardbirds. In 1990 he founded the guitar trio The Hellecasters with Will Ray and John Jorgenson. They recorded several instrumental albums and frequently toured in the 1990s and early 2000s. Donahue has released instructional videotapes and more recently has produced solo projects including Sandy Denny's Gold Dust (1998) and The Animals' Instinct (2004) as well as finishing the second album by his short-lived Folk rock band Fotheringay in 2008.

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Answer 5

John Doan

John Doan (born May 16, 1951) is an American guitarist and composer.

Doan grew up in Venice, California, and at the age of eleven began playing the guitar, first a 12-string, and later a double-neck electric in a rock band. Later, while studying music at California State University, Northridge he was introduced to classical guitar. He really enjoyed the music for the lute and was amazed at the sound of its many strings. Later when he found a century old harp-guitar on the back wall of a music store, it called to him with its beautiful shape and unusual collection of extra strings. He relates: "I was achingly curious and wanted to transform its silence and neglect into something alive and vibrant. It was and continues to be an adventure to play music on the harp-guitar." After moving to Oregon, Doan earned his master's in musical education from Western Oregon University and served on the faculty there. He studied the renaissance and baroque lute in the Netherlands. Doan's music has a strong classical influence and he also finds inspiration in folk traditions, Irish musical traditions in particular. He is an associate professor of music at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, a historian, and a multi-instrumentalist specializing in unusual vintage instruments. Over the years Doan has played with many folk and country artists, including Donovan, Burl Ives, Larry Carlton, and Chet Atkins.

Doan created his own brand of folk-fusion on his first album on Narada, titled Departures (1988). He followed that up with Remembrance: Melodies from a Forgotten Era (1993) on the Tapestry label which was inspired by his own musical traditions in folk tunes of the American West. In the 1990s two television specials were produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting: A Christmas to Remember With John Doan (seen on PBS) and his Emmy nominated A Victorian Christmas With John Doan. The live version of his Victorian Christmas, in which he re-enacts what it might have been like to celebrate Christmas a century ago, has been a holiday tradition for over 30 years. His recording on Hearts of Space, Eire – Isle of the Saints, won "Best Celtic Album of the Year." The Lost Music of Fernando Sor (2008) features the music of Fernando Sor (1778–1839), beloved as the "Father of the Classical Guitar", who composed ten works for the harpolyre, a three-necked, 21 string guitar. Doan discovered and restored a playable instrument from c. 1830 which he used for this recording. Doan's latest video project is a 90-minute documentary that he wrote and starred in titled In Search of the Harp Guitar. John hosted an International Harp Guitar Festival at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Doan was recently awarded "World's Leading Harp Guitarist" by the Brand Laureate Awards.

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Answer 6

Pat Donohue

Patrick Donohue (born April 28, 1953) is an American fingerstyle guitarist born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a Grammy nominated, National Fingerpicking Guitar Champion songwriter. Donohue has several albums to his credit and his songs have been recorded by Chet Atkins, Suzy Bogguss, and Kenny Rogers. He has performed on A Prairie Home Companion for several years, both as a member of the house band and as a featured artist.

Donohue grew up in St. Paul but moved to Denver, Colorado in 1971 to study at Regis College (now Regis University). After two years at Regis, he transferred to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While carrying a full academic load at Marquette, Pat maintained a rigorous musical regimen, often practicing up to six hours daily. His performances during that time (mainly as part of Marquette’s “Traditional Music Society” as well as venturing out into the Milwaukee bar scene) often consisted of three or four forty-five-minute sets, featuring an eclectic offering of folk, blues, and jazz material. After his graduation in 1975, he returned to Denver where he started establishing his musical reputation.

Donohue was particularly influenced early in his career by blues guitarists like Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, and Blind Blake. He also listened extensively to folk-oriented singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan, Steve Goodman and John Prine.

Donohue established a solid reputation in and around Colorado as a 'guitarist's guitarist' and in 1982 was runner-up in the National Fingerpicking Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. The following year he won the Championship. This award led to wider recognition of his skills and he started accepting engagements throughout the United States.

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Answer 7

Jimmy Driftwood

Jimmy Driftwood

James Corbitt Morris (June 20, 1907 – July 12, 1998), known professionally as Jimmy Driftwood or Jimmie Driftwood, was an American folk music songwriter and musician, most famous for his songs "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Tennessee Stud". Driftwood wrote more than 6,000 folk songs, of which more than 300 were recorded by various musicians.

Driftwood was born in Timbo, Arkansas, on June 20, 1907. His father was folk singer Neil Morris. Driftwood learned to play the guitar at a young age on his grandfather's homemade instrument. Driftwood used that unique guitar throughout his career and noted that its neck was made from a fence rail, its sides from an old ox yoke, and the head and bottom from the headboard of his grandmother's bed. This homemade instrument produced a pleasant, distinctive, resonant sound.

Driftwood attended John Brown College in northwest Arkansas and later received a degree in education from Arkansas State Teacher's College. He started writing songs during his teaching career to teach his students history in an entertaining manner.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Driftwood left Arkansas, eventually hitchhiking through the southwestern United States. In Arizona he entered, and won, a local song contest.

In 1936, Driftwood married Cleda Johnson, who was one of his former students, and returned to Arkansas to raise a family and resume his teaching career. During this period of his life Driftwood wrote hundreds of songs but did not pursue a musical career seriously.

He wrote his later famous "Battle of New Orleans" in 1936, to help a high school class he was teaching become interested in the event.

In the 1950s, he changed his name to Jimmy Driftwood, both publicly and legally.

In 1957, a Nashville, Tennessee song publisher learned of Driftwood, auditioned him, and signed him to his first record deal. Driftwood recalled playing some 100 of his songs in one day, of which 20 were chosen to be recorded. Driftwood's first album, Newly Discovered Early American Folk Songs, received good reviews but did not sell particularly well.

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Answer 8

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan (/ˈdɪlən/; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American songwriter, singer, artist, and writer. He has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when his songs chronicled social unrest. Early songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving behind his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone", recorded in 1965, enlarged the range of popular music.

Dylan's lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning more than 50 years, has explored the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and the Great American Songbook. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but songwriting is considered his greatest contribution.

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Answer 9

Steve Earle

Steve Earle

Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle (/ˈɜːrl/) (born January 17, 1955) is an American rock, country and folk singer-songwriter, record producer, author and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. His breakthrough album was the 1986 album Guitar Town. Since then Earle has released 15 other studio albums and received three Grammy awards. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Shawn Colvin, Ian Stuart Donaldson and Emmylou Harris. He has appeared in film and television, and has written a novel, a play, and a book of short stories.

Earle was born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, where his father, Jack Earle, was stationed. His father was an air traffic controller. The family returned to Texas before Earle's second birthday. They moved several times but Earle grew up primarily in the San Antonio area. Earle began learning the guitar at the age of 11 and was placed in a talent contest at his school at age 13. He is reported to have run away from home at age 14 to follow his idol, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, around Texas. Earle was "rebellious" as a youngster and dropped out of school at the age of 16. He moved to Houston with his 19-year-old uncle, who was also a musician, where he married and worked odd jobs. While in Houston Earle met Van Zandt, who became his hero and role model. Earle's sister, Stacey Earle, is also a musician and songwriter.

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Answer 10

Earnest East

Earnest East (July 8, 1916 - January 8, 2000) was a fiddle, guitar, and banjo player. East began his music career as a member of the Camp Creek Boys, and later founded his own instrumental band which he called the Pine Ridge Boys in 1966. In 1969, the Pine Ridge Boys released their first album, titled "Old Time Mountain Music", on the County label. Their second album, "Stringband Music From Mt. Airy" was released in 1981 on the Heritage label.

East received several folklore awards in his lifetime, including the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society in 1988, and the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1990.

Earnest East was born July 8, 1916 in Surry County in North Carolina and spent much of his childhood learning about and playing music. Music played an integral part of East's childhood, from his own involvement with music, to his family's musical influence on the community. East's family was famous for holding a New Year's square dance and music party as part of the Breaking Up Christmas tradition, an event that persisted even after East's death.

As a child, East spent most of his time at legendary banjoist Charlie Lowe's home learning to read music and play the fiddle, banjo, and guitar. East drew music inspiration from the playing styles of popular recording artists at the time, including Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, learning to create a stronger driving sound by employing the entire length of his bow which became East's signature style. This style, which has been called "slip-chord" fiddling, describes East's ability to slide into a chord, a characteristic sound in his fiddling.

East joined the mountain string-band the Camp Creek Boys in the 1930s along with Kyle Creed (banjo), Fred Cockerham (fiddle/banjo), Paul Sutphin (guitar), Ronald Collins (guitar), Roscoe Russell (guitar), and Verlin Clifton (mandolin).

Following his short-lived involvement with the Camp Creek Boys, East founded the old-time string band the Pine Ridge Boys in 1966. The group included East's son, Scotty East on guitar, Gilmer Woodruff on banjo, and Mac Snow on guitar. Later, Scotty's wife, Patsy, joined the band on bass. While the group was largely instrumental, Scotty, Mac and Patsy were also singers. The group produced two albums :"Earnest East and the Pine Ridge Boys - Old-Time Mountain Music," which they released in 1969, and "Stringband Music From Mt. Airy", with banjoist Andy Cahan, in 1981. The group performed at many folk festivals including the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife and the National Folk Festival, and was wildly popular in their home county of Surry.

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