Don Conoscenti

Don Conoscenti
Don Conoscenti at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, 2001
Background information
Birth name	Don Conoscenti
Born	September 13, 1955 Chicago, Illinois
Genres	Folk, pop, jazz, blues
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, banjo, steel guitar, drums
Years active	1975-present
Labels	Cogtone
Website	www.donconoscenti.com

Don Conoscenti (born September 13, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist originally from Chicago, Illinois. He started his musical career in middle school playing drums, before receiving a guitar as a gift from a cousin for his 8th grade graduation. Conoscenti became known for his unique use of multiple and partial capos on the acoustic guitar, releasing an instructional video Capo Abuse and Guitar Techniques in 2001. He has played with many notable musicians, including Kristian Bush, David Wilcox, Ellis Paul, John Mayer, Nils Lofgren, Robert Mirabal, Bill Miller (musician), and The Indigo Girls.

Conoscenti was a winner of the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriting Competition and was a National Academy of Songwriters’ Acoustic Artist of the Year finalist. He has performed twice on the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center. Following his 1999 performance at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress added a collection of Conoscenti's work to their folk revivalist archives. Conoscenti has been a regular at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival since its inception in 1998. He has released nine CDs to date, all but one on his Cogtone label.

Conoscenti grew up in the Chicago area and first played drums in garage bands and flute in his high school symphony band. His musical influences were diverse while at home he heard his mother's big band music while his father listened to the music of Frank Sinatra, Vic Damone, and Tony Bennett. Conoscenti also listened to Chicago radio station WLS-FM which played a lot of Detroit "Motown" music. He bought his first acoustic guitar for $50 in 1974 in Boulder, Colorado at a yard sale, and began writing songs and performing in public. A self-taught musician, Conoscenti said he learned to play guitar by watching and listening to other musicians. Conoscenti began to experiment with psychedelics, and spent many hours in the meditation hall of the Naropa Institute in Boulder during the summer that Ram Dass was doing a residency there. This was on the heels of Dass's seminal book Be Here Now, published in 1971. That summer culminated in a spiritual awakening that set Conoscenti on his lifelong spiritual path. In late 1971 Conoscenti hitchhiked to California where he continued to write songs and play guitar. Don’s spiritual training continued in a San Jose barrio where he fasted, meditated, and widened his cultural horizons.