Who writes your favorite acoustic guitar music?

[geordie]

hi all,

Who is your favorite writer of acoustic guitar music.

To clarify - I don't mean your favorite guitarist or the "best" guitarist though they might also be as well, I mean who writes your favorite tunes and this can be instrumental or song tunes from any genre.
This discussion, in a wider sense came up with friends while I was on vacation and I found very interesting and informative.
Geordie

[Stringin Swing]

Bert Jansch -- not only a highly original virtuouso guitarist, but a brilliant songwriter of both lyric and instrumental songs. His material will move and haunt people for generations to come.

[rockinrebel]

Jack Williams comes to mind.

[Glennwillow]

I have always appreciated John Renbourn's acoustic music. And in more recent years, I really appreciate Tommy Emmanuel, Pete Hutlinger, and Al Pettaway.

Regards, Glenn

[Brent Hutto]

At the moment, Russ Barenburg's stuff really "does it" for me.

I also really dig some of David Grier's "new acoustic" or whatever you want to call it material although I have a hard time keeping track of which of my favorites were written by him or by Matt Flinner.

Laurence Juber is a killer arranger of songs from other genres into fingerstyle guitar but LJ's original compositions are a little hit or miss for me.

Our own Larry Pattis probably comes up with as high a percentage of really fine originals as any fingerstyle artist I know of.

And Eric Skye comes up with some real jewels.

Honorable mention to Pierre Bensusan. His best pieces are almost untouchable but he also writes lots of stuff that leaves me cold.

[billgennaro]

its odd that my favorite genre of music is acoustic singer/songwriter type stuff, but i find so few that are really good at it for more than a short period of time. i loved bob dylan in the late 60s, early 70s. i loved james taylor in the first half of the 70s. i love martin sexton in the late 90s, early 2000s. cat steven's "tea for the tillerman" is still one of my favorite albums but i'm not too crazy about much else he has done. the beatles wrote great acoustic based music. so did the stones in the 70s. i've liked some of nickel creek's music off of their "why should the fire die" record, but i'm not crazy about them otherwise. mostly, i find acoustic singer/songwriter music to be boring. but when its done right i tend to like it better than any other type of music. it'll be interesting following this thread to see if i can find some new stuff that turns me on.

[geordie]

great choices,
Defiantly "Hall o' Fame" stuff here.
And there's another reason your choice are spot on -
Your chosen artist can do the occasional (re)arrangement / interpretation or plain "cover" of a tune thats not there's originally
- but they should be mostly known for their own compositions.

Geordie

[Jack Orion]

Bob Dylan...

[matty1001]

John Martyn.

[BULLSPRIG]

a "lesser-known" favorite of mine would be Jim Earp.

he may not fit into the mainstream of what most of you want to hear, but he's a great talent and a fantastic instrumental guitar composer.

[L20A]

The Late John Denver.
He could do it all.

[ewalling]

Generally speaking, and with exceptions such as Big Bill, Lightnin' Hopkins and Joseph Spence (all dead, unfortunately), for me solo acoustic guitar playing is often at its best when it's used for music that wasn't originally written for the acoustic guitar, such as ragtime, folk and jazz, or music that has mutiple composers, like blues. I invariably find modern music composed on and for the acoustic guitar quite unappealing.

[Craigo]

Leo Kottke. Always has been, always will be. I love his compositions, his way of taking simple themes and making them beautiful yet entertaining("taking a lovely, simple melody and driving it into the ground" - a classic Kottke quote). Yet he can really create some complex and fascinating compositions.

Kottke's a really funny guy, at least to my warped sense of humor, and to me his sense of humor carries over into his compositions. Even his serious or sad stuff seems to have an element of humor behind it. His compositions warm my heart and make me smile.

He is also my favorite guitarist, even if he doesn't completely measure up to some of the technical wizardry of guys like Emmanuel or Juber. I saw TE last month, and he without question is a master (THE master?). He had the audience on our feet many times during the show. I was in awe of his wizardry and his musicality.

But I'm way more excited that I'll be seeing Leo again in just three more days! This is around the 15th time (maybe more? totally lost count) that I've seen him in the past several decades, and I still can't get enough of him.

[lone eskimo]

How about Joni Mitchell who wrote some of the huge hits of the 60's and 70's- "Both Sides Now", "Big Yellow Taxi", "Woodstock", "Help Me" and yet never really sold out and kept changing and growing as an artist- starting as a folky and eventually winning over some of the biggest jazz players of the day.

Her inventiveness in her guitar playing (over 50 open tunings), her piano style, dulcimer approach, vocal arrangements and chord progressions are quite unique to say the least- not to mention she is critically acclaimed among the greatest lyricists in music history. The biggest kicker is- she considers herself an artist first (does most of her cover art) and then a musician. Having read her bio- this is probably true, as she was recognized for her art at an early age- and people were surprised when she became a musician. It sure shows in her music though.

Don't let me gush- I consider her one of the greatest all around talents in modern history. Go back and read the lyrics to "Both Sides Now" again. We've heard it so much that we take it for granted- but consider that talent at such a young age. Another great early one is "Marcie" from her first album.

I'll stop now-

Mike

[HudsDad]

For pure acoustic work, I'd say Jim Croce is my favorite.

However, my favorite acoustic songs have been written by David Gilmour...even though he's primarily known for his work on the electric guitar.