Most influential/inspirational artist?

[OlsonAcoustic]

I’m new so I figured that I would start this thread to explain and understand what drives folk’s style here.

My hero of guitar is without a doubt William Ackerman.

The first time I ever heard William Ackerman was when I was 15 or so. I heard his album, “Conferring with the Moon” I was hooked. Ackerman did things with the acoustic guitar that I had never imagined possible. The CD belonged to a friend of mine that had a kind of James Taylor feel to his Acoustic Guitar playing. He sold me at a young age that, “it is not what you play, but rather how you play it.”

William Ackerman has never been a Guitar Guru, never played any wailing solos, never used any obscure hammering techniques, or even written and played anything that could not be easily figured out, but he has a knee weakening ability to express in straight instrumental form a feeling or thought in ways that drove me to dig deep and find my own groove.

I don’t really concern myself with what William Ackerman believes, nor do I care to know, but William Ackerman is considered by most to be the grandfather of New Age music. He employed the likes of Alex DiGrassi and Michael Hedges, turned them from living room players to musicians that everyone could enjoy. He started the Windham Hill record label that made famous the likes of George Winston, Doyle Dykes, and The Nylons. William was a simple guy at the start, and his business card read “Windham Hill Home Builders and Recording Studios”.

I remember watching the story of how he discovered the earth shattering phenomena known as Michael Hedges. William Ackerman had a way with identifying talent that others look at and walked right on by. Lately, Ackerman has been using some of the famous folks he found in coffee shops, and incorporating them in his own recordings. “Sounds of the Wind Driven Rain” was a prime example of how he could bring together relatively obscure musicians on their own and make them glorious musicians together.

Ackerman uses many different guitars, most that would never be affordable to me, but he realized the important roll different guitar tones had in constructing a song that best expresses the writers intent. He recently sold his famous Froggy Bottom that recorded many of my favorite tunes. The day I saw that guitar hit the For Sale rack so that he could afford to buy a new guitar, my heart broke.

This toast goes to William Ackerman, probably one of the best acoustic guitar players that no one has ever heard of.

His influence on me is best described by this song…

http://www.nowhereradio.com/olsonacoustic/singles

[Teleguy]

Tom Rush got us all Travis pickin' in the '60's.

Phil Ochs was a very strong influence on my thinking, generally. Danny Kalb's playing on Phil's albums and Blues Project, was inspiring.

Mike Bloomfield was who we all wanted to be in the sixties, after the Folk boom. Funny, I sound more like Clapton or Roy Buchanan, now.

Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, and Johnny Smith, all influenced me, as did Joe Pass, George Benson, and Pat Martino, later. On a good day I can sound like one of their old albums if you play an LP at 16rpm, and ignore the obvious clams. :oops:

[kewlpack]

would have to be Joe Satriani and Steve Vai... even if you can't tell from my hackin' and noodlin'. :angel

[msaint]

Steven curtis chapman

[OlsonAcoustic]

Nobody is going to explain why?? :???: This is no fun!! :cry:

[kewlpack]

Why... well... :-s

I like Joe & Steve for different reasons...

Joe Satriani: He is technically marvelous. His legato lines are fluid and nothing short of acrobatic sometimes. In concerts, his improvisation is very expressive. His tunes are catchy and the main lead lines are melodic and singable. He is very diverse in what he tries to accomplish with each album. He has said (my paraphrase), "The studio album is the 'definitive' artistic expression of the musician... Sometimes it isn't possible to do some of the songs live, so they get changed around a bit and become a new statement. Both are expressive and meaningful." That tells me that Joe cares about what he writes at a deep and personal level... and he wants it to mean something to the audience.

On a personal note, Joe doesn't seem to be hung up on himself with some sort of stupid ego (at least it never has come across in anything I've read or seen). And on stage he has a lot of fun - and that's one of the big reasons I play.

Steve Vai: Also a virtuoso with an unparalleled, ecclectic guitar vocabulary... he writes some of the most technically challenging stuff you'll hear. He is insanely fast when he wants to be - not just "shred" but cool, rhythmic, funky kinda stuff you don't hear anywhere else. He always pushes the envelope and gets into musical styles from many other areas of the world. He's into eastern religious themes which kinda bug me, but the music is really interesting. Like Joe, he makes each album something different and wonderful. He has so many different tones and is willing to get into effects for some very wild sound.

On a personal note, Steve has a bit of an attitude and is more "in your face". He is entertaining to listen to and watch. I get a kick out of the whacky things he does live.

That's kind of a high level set of reasons why I dig these guys. I could only ever hope to actually play at their level. I'm willing to dedicate my fingers to hours and hours of playin'! But I don't have a guitar teacher who can get me headed in the right direction as it is... If I could find one, I'd be all over it.

Anyway - there's the 25¢ explanation. :)

[OlsonAcoustic]

May God grant kewlpack a for really...

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/51/519419.jpg

[UncleMarker]

As a high school kid in the 70s, I went to a Phil Keaggy concert in Lawrence KS (my home town!). He showed a combination of musical artistry and absolute joy of playing that really moved me and made clear to my young self that there was a place for rock & roll and joyful music in the church. What an incredible musician, and a great lesson for a young believer! Some of you younger folks may not believe it, but at the time there was serious concern about whether Christians should even listen to rock music, let alone play it.

I also will never forget hearing Jaco Pastorius playing with Herbie Hancock - a much less spiritual experience, but an incredible musical one. He played a 15 minute unaccompanied solo, and all I could do was stand open-mouthed in awe. That was almost 30 years ago, and I still remember it well!

[Crunchyriff]

Some of you younger folks may not believe it, but at the time there was serious concern about whether Christians should even listen to rock music, let alone play it.

Ooohh boy I remember that like yesterday. I lived it. The 70's era was a boat-sinking time for uhh, accepted Christian Music!

SO be it.

"Sometimes the boat doesn't need to be rocked, that sucker needs to be SUNK". - Rick Godwin

[TheViking]

....the artist who made the biggest impact on me is without a shadow of doubt Ella Fitzgerald. The tone in her voice, the phrasing, her pitch, the musicality and how she breathes life into any song, continues to blow me away time after time.
There are many more, Chet Atkins for his unique style, Chet Baker for his blue trumpet and interesting style of singing. John Lee Hooker, B.B.King, Little Richard, then again you have people like Donald Fagen, Gino Vanelli and Bruce Hornsby, Huey Lewis and the News, George Duke, and so on.
However the most inspirational artists to me are the once who play small gigs in a four horse town week after week, night after night, who never gets recognized or getting any cred. It can be the ole woman who has faithfully played with the church choir for 40 years or the troubadour playing night after night at a local joint. They get up on a platform or on a stage for years and years, generously giving of themselves, and that is what inspires me the most.

[kewlpack]

May God grant kewlpack a for really...

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/51/519419.jpg
Boy - I wish!

[Crunchyriff]

Okay, I'm going plural on you all here...

(& not in any particular order)

Michael Schenker (UFO, MSG)
Jean-Luc Ponty (electric violinist)
Henry Mancini (writer, composer, conductor, arranger)
Bill Nelson (BeBop Deluxe)
Steve Perry
The Beatles
Roy Nichols (70's Merle Haggard)
Frank Sinatra (older, not young Frank)
Neal Schon
Tom Jones (good grief what pipes!)
Dave Gilmour

Bob Byerley (painter)
hey you said "artist"....

[Teleguy]

...the most inspirational artists to me are the once who play small gigs in a four horse town week after week, night after night, who never gets recognized or getting any cred. It can be the ole woman who has faithfully played with the church choir for 40 years or the troubadour playing night after night at a local joint...

You are so right. There are talented and "inspirational" people all over the world, who we will never hear of.
But the last shall be first, and the first last...


What a mighty God we serve!

[SAguitar]

For this ol' character, it was Jimi Hendrix, Michael Hedges, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B. B. King, and a slew of others.

Hendrix, for blowing open the doors of electric guitar. I had no idea the thing was capable of stuff like that.

Hedges, for doing the same thing for acoustic guitar.

Clapton, and later, Vaughan, for taking the Blues (my favorite style of music) to the next level and then some.

B. B. King, for showing me the importance of one, well-placed note.

[Micter]

Michael Schenker

I was a teenager when I was first inspired by UFO's then guitar player. I heard the tonality and fantastically original phrasing of the Blonde Bomber. I went to see a concert and stood right in front of the stage at the ripe age of 17. I was hooked! I saw a kid only a few years older than I play the guitar with such passion and grace it made me sit down and finally get serious about my instrument that had been sitting around collecting dust. I soon after that started to pick the brain of every guitar player I knew to the point of being obnoxious. I wouldn't leave them alone 'til they taught something. After a few years my ear started to develope. I would play my old UFO cassette tapes every day to try and pick out his phrasing. I got to a point where everything I did on the guitar sounded like Schenker. Eventually I had to put away my UFO and MSG tapes and begin to develope my own style but no matter how far a distanced myself from those Schenker riffs of my past I still find them coming out in my playing. Songs like Rock Bottom off of Strangers in the Night have influenced me in such a way that I actually went out and bought a Gibson Flying V. That turned into 3 Gibson Flying V's.

I have continued to follow his career over the last 30 some odd years and seen him countless times live. The guy can still play the guitar and manages to boggle my mind at how his phrasing and tone still inspire me to practice my guitar. He took the Rock/Blues thing about as far as it could go. His signature scale is the Dorian mode with a flat 5 everyone that is a Schenker fan knows it but can't quite duplicate it exactly.

There are other guitarists that have influenced me....Ted Nugent, Uli Roth, Jimmy Page, and Alex Lifeson to name a few. None have really intrigued me as much as Schenker. Although Lifeson is up there on my list pretty high. I have had the opportunity to meet Schenker on quite a few occasions and he is actually a genuinely nice guy.

[Teleguy]

Michael Schenker...I have had the opportunity to meet Schenker on quite a few occasions and he is actually a genuinely nice guy.


That's good to hear.
I like it when it doesn't go to a guy's head that he is famous for being a real guitar player.
There are some local players who've been to L.A. and played. They come home like they're conquering hero's.
Sad creatures.

[Crunchyriff]

"None have really intrigued me as much as Schenker."

Me too, Micter.

"Although Lifeson is up there on my list pretty high."

Again, ditto! Good grief, we musta went to different schools together!

:mrgreen:

[Micter]

"None have really intrigued me as much as Schenker."

Me too, Micter.

"Although Lifeson is up there on my list pretty high."

Again, ditto! Good grief, we musta went to different schools together!

:mrgreen:

Ya purdy much HUH? I'll tell you why. UFO and Rush weren't mainstream back then. Anything that was mainstream I didn't listen to. I liked all the somewhat underground non-airplay gettin stuff.