If for no other reason than sheer portability, the acoustic guitar is probably the ideal instrument for the singer-songwriter. Its relatively quiet nature allows musicians to play at all hours, and performing for a small audience requires no additional accessories. With knowledge of just a few basic chords and a simple strum or fingerpicking pattern, an aspiring writer can turn thoughts and emotions into songs.
Without question, the king and queen of the singer-songwriter movement were James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. Taylor's landmark single «Fire and Rain», from Sweet Baby James (1970), ushered in pop music's sensitive phase. This was acoustic-based autobiography at its best. His Greatest Hits collection is one of the rare examples of a "best of" set that conveniently packages the essential songs of an artist in one place.
While Taylor delicately fingerpicked his acoustic and scratched the surface of youthful angst, Joni Mitchell was picking, slapping, and strumming her acoustic guitar in a variety of impossible-to-figure-out tunings and raising the autobiographical stakes considerably on her classic release Blue. Mitchell's songs, which were deeply personal and poetic accounts of her romances, inspired a whole generation of songwriters.
Paul Simon's self-titled solo debut followed his multi-million-selling pop masterpiece Bridge over Troubled Water, which featured his singing partner Art Garfunkel and utilized all the technical studio wizardry of the day. Simon's solo debut was a decidedly low-tech affair, and the results were extraordinary. Simon's deft and aggressive acoustic guitar technique was showcased on songs like «Peace Like a River», «Armistice Day», and «Everything Put Together Falls Apart» in a way that we haven’t heard since.
Another ’60s icon, Bob Dylan, returned to form as a songwriter on his 1974 release Blood on the Tracks. Featuring powerful songs like «Tangled up in Blue», «Simple Twist of Fate», and «Idiot Wind» and sporting subtle acoustic production values, Blood on the Tracks stands out as one of the few Dylan releases of the past 20 years to be favorably compared to his mid-'60s triumphs.
Two lesser-known but quite influential singer-songwriters, both of whom are talented fingerstyle players, are Bruce Cockburn and Nick Drake. Drake is a mysterious character partially due to his alleged suicide and to his limited legacy of four recordings. Pink Moon is a startling collection of glimpses into the psyche of a disturbed genius, set against the stark background of Drake's acoustic guitar stylings with no other adornments. Cockburn's Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, on the other hand, is a joyous release that saw the Canadian singer-songwriter finally crack the American Top 40 with «Wondering Where the Lions Are». While Cockburn has successfully recorded over a dozen albums since, many of his fans still view Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws as the high-water mark of his acoustic-based recordings.
After the disco movement and other calamities within the record biz threatened the careers of all but the most successful singer-songwriters in the early '80s, the end of the decade saw a new wave of talent begin to crop up on the revitalized folk circuit.
Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega scored Top Ten hits, and artists like Greg Brown, John Gorka, and Brooks Williams garnered critical raves. David Wilcox and Shawn Colvin, who both had been greatly influenced by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, became standard bearers for this new generation. Wilcox's major-label debut How Did You Find Me Here caught everybody by surprise with its mix of humor, wit, and sensitivity. Colvin has released several albums to growing sales and acclaim, although her solo acoustic Live '88 is the best place to get to know her as a player and singer.
Two veteran artists who have released titles in the '90s that rival or surpass anything from their illustrious pasts are Neil Young and Bert Jansch. Young, the well-known eclectic who’s just as comfortable in a solo acoustic setting as with Pearl Jam, delivered a warm, confident, and graceful set of songs on Harvest Moon. The beautiful «Unknown Legend», «From Hank to Hendrix», and «You and Me» sit well with the biting «War of Man» on this triumphant return to Young’s folk troubadour persona.
Jansch, whom Neil Young has called the Jimi Hendrix of acoustic players, made his first record for Transatlantic over 30 years ago, and it is still in print. Although many of the players he has influenced - Donovan and Jimmy Page, for example - have gone on to international stardom, Jansch never really broke through commercially. But he has continued to grow musically, and his recent When the Circus Comes to Town may be the best thing he has done since his debut. Jansch is a fingerstylist capable of brilliant and complex accompaniment, and his work in D A D G A D tuning on the title track is staggering.
With such great music coming from veteran artists as well as inspired newcomers, the singer-songwriter scene is in one of its most vital phases since the '70s.
[by James Jensen, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, September 1996]
