GRAMMY AWARDS | JOHN FAHEY'S SECOND BEST | GUITAR COLLECTIBLES | THE ROME FESTIVAL | AGIT FOLK |
JEFF TWEEDY, POET | GUITAR SONATA UNEARTHED | MEET A.G.

Doc Watson.
See Grammy Awards.

Grammy Awards

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Six-time Grammy winner Doc Watson received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy (NARAS) during the Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles on February 8. Other honorees included classical pianist Van Cliburn, Motown backup band the Funk Brothers, children's musician Ella Jenkins, jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, and swing bandleader Artie Shaw. Notable guitarists earned Grammys for Best Pop Instrumental Performance (the late George Harrison, "Marwa Blues"), Best Pop Instrumental Album (Ry Cooder and Manuel Galbán, Mambo Sinuendo), Best Rock Instrumental Performance (Jeff Beck, "Plan B"), and Best Traditional Blues Album (Buddy Guy, Blues Singer). Pat Metheny took home the Best New Age Album award for his solo acoustic baritone guitar album, One Quiet Night. "A Mighty Wind" was named Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media. Alison Krauss added three more Grammys (for Best Bluegrass Album, Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and Best Country Instrumental Performance) to her record-setting collection of 17, the most ever won by a female artist. A complete list of winners is available at www.grammy.com.

John Fahey's Second Best

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Fantasy Records (www.fantasyjazz.com) has just released The Best of John Fahey, Vol. 2, 1964—1983, culled from guitarist John Fahey's later years with Takoma, the label he cofounded with Ed Denson in 1959. Northern California experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser produced the new collection of what he calls "dangerously expressive guitar music" with an appreciation for the "mercurial and ever-changing set of concepts" that Fahey used in his own evaluations of his work. Overlapping chronologically with the original The Best of John Fahey 1959—1977 (which Fantasy reissued in 2002), Vol. 2 is composed of selections that Kaiser felt would "continue the tradition of Fahey's selections for Vol. 1," including the railroad yard—inspired "Oneonta," a live version of "Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend," the Christmas medley "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing / O Come All Ye Faithful," and a relatively obscure 1966 epic, "The Fahey Sampler." The album also includes three previously unissued performances that were, according to the liner notes, "probably recorded in 1991" for Azalea City Memories (and Dreams of Prince George's County), an unreleased homage to Fahey's hometown.

Guitar Collectibles

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Whether you fret about the effect of GAS (guitar acquisition syndrome) on your nest egg or dream of showcasing vintage Gibsons, Guilds, Martins, Fenders, and more on stands in every corner of your house, you'll likely be entertained and perhaps even enlightened by Bill Dixon's highly personalized guide Guitar Collecting: How I built a $65,000 collection of guitars from a $1,000 investment in four years and how you can too! The homespun 94-page manual (with grainy black-and-white photos) leads you toward the brink of the slippery slope of guitar collecting and offers advice on everything from scouting out and fixing up your acquisitions to keeping a purchase diary. It's available for $14.95 postpaid from the author at PO Box 552, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538, bigartdog@aol.com.

The Rome Festival

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The Rome Festival Orchestra seeks volunteers willing to fold their love of music and curiosity about Italian history and culture into altruistic support of the summer 2004 Rome Festival. The festival brings international performers together in public performances throughout Rome, Italy, encouraging them to collaborate with and learn from each other and explore Italian culture. Volunteers are needed to sing in the chorus, help with all aspects of performance presentation from set and costume design to box office operations and ushering, take professional-quality photographs, assist with bookkeeping, coordinate cultural programs and social events, and more. Volunteers must pay their own way and cover daily expenses. For details, go to www.geocities.com/romefestival or call (800) 811-3841.

Agit Folk

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Daemon Records (www.daemonrecords.com), the Decatur, Georgia, not-for-profit label started by Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, has partnered with Oakland, California—based AK Press (www.akpress.org) to kick off a fledgling political folk series with new releases by veteran rabble-rouser U. Utah Phillips and contemporary activist/ troubadour David Rovics. I've Got to Know is a 70-minute fulmination of pointed recitations and urgent singing recorded by Phillips in 1991 during the first Gulf War. Combining poetry by Bertolt Brecht, Robert W. Service, T.E. Lawrence, and others with original songs and an up-dated version of Woody Guthrie's "I've Got to Know," Phillips stakes out his antiwar and prolabor positions unequivocally.

Behind the Barricades: The Best of David Rovics collects 18 performances from 1998 to 2003 and three new tracks by the 37-year-old agitpropster who performs at rallies, strikes, and demonstrations. Strumming and picking acoustic guitars, Rovics extends the legacy of Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs by bringing laser-like lyrical focus to topics ranging from radical ecology and social inequality to Henry Ford's ideological bent and the war against terrorism.

Jeff Tweedy, Poet

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At least since Bob Dylan warned "the line it is drawn / the curse it is cast," popular song lyrics have been compared to or analyzed as poetry. And from Robert Burns through John Lennon and beyond, songwriters have often forgone musical settings to allow their words to stand alone on paper. The latest, but hardly last, is alt-country pioneer Jeff Tweedy of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco. His Adult Head inaugurates Nightingale Editions, a new series of books from Zoo Press (www.zoopress.org) highlighting the purely literary side of pop lyricists. To wit, Tweedy's "Yachting?": "I have never been yachting / or on a boat / but / I imagine it / a passionate bath / with an older brother / gentle then turning / competitive / as he studies / for the bar."

Guitar Sonata Unearthed

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While performing and teaching at the West Dean International Guitar Festival in England last summer, classical guitarist David Leisner discovered a new three-movement sonata by the little-known, early-19th-century composer Stephen Pratten. One of the participants at the festival had purchased a bound book of manuscripts (which included the piece) at an antique shop. Research revealed that Pratten (1799—1845) was better known as a teacher than performer, which may have accounted for his composition's obscurity.

"I consider it a masterpiece for many reasons," explains Leisner, who has added it to his repertoire alongside works by Rodrigo, Vivaldi, Piazzolla, Villa-Lobos, Brouwer, and Giuliani. "It is consistently, sometimes wildly, inventive and imaginative and daringly original. There is never a moment when the piece is static—it always moves restlessly forward (a quality of virtually all great musical compositions). The quirky harmonies, the uncanny grasp of architecture, and the ever-present element of surprise all combine to make this piece a pleasure to hear and to play again and again." Leisner plans to perform the piece often to allow his interpretation to mature before he records and publishes it, saying, "I consider it a great responsibility."

—Derk Richardson

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Click here to meet the Acoustic Guitar team at a wide variety upcoming music events and trade shows. Listed below are some things happening in the next few weeks.