From: HENKLE@VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU (Doug Henkle, Univ of Wis Oshkosh)
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
Subject: Re: acoustic guitarists
Date: 18 Aug 1992 17:01:55 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

>From:	IN%"bibb@s912.bnf" 17-AUG-1992 22:29:05.94
>To:	IN%"henkle@VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU"
>CC:	
>Subj:	acoustic guitarists
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>Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 12:55:18 PDT
>From: bibb@s912.bnf (Ken Bibb)
>Subject: acoustic guitarists
>To: henkle@VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU
>Message-id: <9208171955.AA04988@s912>

Ken Bibb,

     First of all, I am replying to your e-mail via "rec.music.folk"
because "bibb@s912.bnf" is not a valid address in the mailer's table on
our VAX, so "REPLY" failed.  I don't know how else to mail my answer to
your question.  Secondly, I thought my reply might clarify to other
readers what I meant by "fingerstyle" in my Aug. 10 "Fingerstyle Acoustic
Guitarist discographies" post.

>There's a local guitarist, John Katchur, who plays in a style kinda like
>David Wilcox who might qualify for your fingerstyle acoustic.

     Where is "local"?

>What exactly comprises fingerstyle?

     Fingerstyle guitar or fingerpicking, at least from my viewpoint,
covers quite a bit of ground.  The only guitar styles I do NOT include are
guitarists who use a flat pick EXCLUSIVELY, anyone who plays a solid-body
guitar, and those who play electric "steel guitar", either Hawaiian or
Country & Western.  Which means, I do include people (like Chet Atkins)
who use a flat pick, and also pluck the strings with their fingernails (or
plastic or metal fingerpicks) at the same time.  And it also includes
those who fingerpick electric guitar occasionally, or even most of the
time, again like Chet, even though I am primarily interested in acoustic
guitarists.  The type of acoustic guitar played also doesn't matter.  I
think fingerstyle can apply to all kinds: 6-string, 12-string, nn-string
Harp guitars, both metal and wood body dobros, lutes, and almost any other
variety of instrument in the "guitar" family not mentioned above that is
plucked with the fingers.

     Personally, I further specialize by not including any Jazz or Rock
musicians, even though one or two may show up on my list if someone
reports in that they recorded at least one track on SOLO acoustic guitar.

     I also collect albums by classical and flamenco guitarists, but I do
not list them and probably will not write a discography for any of them. 
I have concluded that attempting to list every known recorded guitarist in
these two fields would take another lifetime.  If anyone else wants to
start compiling such a list, I've got a lot of names for you.

     I realize, from the varied responses to my posting, that the term
"fingerstyle" may not be the best there is.  I got it from John Stropes
and Peter Lang's 1982 book, "20th Century Masters of Finger-style Guitar",
which includes biographies, discographies and transcriptions for Norman
Blake, John Fahey, Joseph Spence, Ry Cooder, Peter Lang, and Leo Kottke. 
I am still waiting for someone to come up with a "generally accepted"
better term.

     I didn't mean to offend anyone that objects to my mentioning Pete
Seeger, Rory Block, Jesse Fuller, Leo Kottke, Big Bill Broonzy and Michael
Hedges in the same breath.  True, they play extremely different types of
guitar music, but I like listening to all of them, and I think they all
fit in the same general category of (what I define as) "fingerstyle"
acoustic guitarists.  Other definitions/better terms are hereby solicited. 
Thanks to all who sent in new names.  I will post an updated list in a
week or two.

>John Katchur has one album, "Mercy Road", currently available.

     Thanks, Ken, for the information.

                                  Doug
                            henkle@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu
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Douglas H. Henkle               Bitnet: HENKLE@OSHKOSHW
Univ. of Wis. Oshkosh         Internet: HENKLE@VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU
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Newsgroups: rec.music.folk