Modern fingerstyle players to listen to?

[NormanKliman]

Among the “old modern” guitarists, I’ve always liked Alex De Grassi’s playing, especially on his album “Deep at Night.” Here are two of my favorite tracks:

Short order

Waltz #4

[reeve21]

[JParrilla]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Oh wow, love this. A big classical vibe going on. His right hand is very classical-like as well... no anchoring, thumb pretty forward, etc.

Really enjoyed that

[islandguitar]

Haven't seen Al Petteway's name mentioned.....a must artist to explore! Also, Bill Mize, William Coulter, Robert Bowlin (flat pick, hybrid picking, but very much in this style).

[steelvibe]

Michael Hedges
Don Ross
Antoine Dufour

[johnnydobbers]

Julian Lage album Worlds Fair

[virob]

Michael Watts
Michael Chapdelaine
Calum Graham

[snoopster]

Franco Morone

[Ken Carr]

I know that Stephen Wake was mentioned, but this guy is worth mentioning again. He is an outstanding player who specializes in tasteful fingerstyle arrangements of traditional celtic music and his own music which could be considered modern classical. Steel string and nylon. Warning: listening to Stephen Wake may change your guitar tuning preferences from whatever it is to CGDGCD.

[JParrilla]

Yeah I am a huge fan of his. Its funny you mention that tuning... I enjoy it but I feel like my guitar needs to be set up different to play well in that tuning. That low C is super loose and just way too buzzy with my current setup.

But yeah he is very good

[Ken Carr]

@ jparrilla your low string is too floppy when you tune it down to C? Is your guitar short scale? Try stepping up to a heavier string gauge. CGDGCD tuning is incredible and well worth the effort it will take to get used to it. If your guitar is standard scale there should be no problem with the lowered tension. The first Stephen Wake tune I learned was Rosemary's Sister. Now I am arranging Christian hymns in CGDGCD and it works so well.

[boombox]

Originally Posted by Ken Carr

@ jparrilla your low string is too floppy when you tune it down to C? Is your guitar short scale? Try stepping up to a heavier string gauge. CGDGCD tuning is incredible and well worth the effort it will take to get used to it. If your guitar is standard scale there should be no problem with the lowered tension. The first Stephen Wake tune I learned was Rosemary's Sister. Now I am arranging Christian hymns in CGDGCD and it works so well.

I had my Avalon L32C set up for DADGAD with True Mediums, but if I retuned to CGDGCD or similar, I got a bit of buzz on the bottom string. The tiniest tweak to the truss rod fixed that.

I love Stephen Wake, but couldn't get on with his version of Rosemary's Sister as much as other pieces as I am lucky enough to have seen the song's composer, Huw Williams, live nearly twenty times and he played it in EABEBE, so that's the tonality in my head. Not that Stephen's version is bad - far from it - but I always like to make people aware of Huw, who is probably my single biggest source of inspiration.

[j3ffr0]

These two are current favorites of mine because of their great sense of melody. Both very versatile too.

Stephen Bennett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHrrvZvhSB4

and

Matt Thomas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RQs2qLC-9A


Lots of other great players too. Dustin Furlow, Karlijn Langendijk, Michael Chapdelaine, Andrew York, David Qualey, Travis Bowman and Travis Bowman name a few.