A Guitarist’s Brief Reflections About The Event Which Changed Music

The year 2009 marks forty years since Woodstock, an epic moment for modern music. It is commemorated in the music world with discussions, celebrations and articles. (I would like to draw your attention to the beautiful article written by Sergio Staffieri and Marco Manusso in the October edition of Chitarre/Guitar, 2009).
From my point of view, I would like to add a reflection more specifically linked to acoustic guitar. It was at Woodstock that a huge group of fans, some well-aware of what they were doing and others less, began to see the acoustic guitar in a different light and to discover a greater potential in its wealth of sound, in a way which finally went beyond the simple accompaniment of a songwriter. The standard-bearers of this important message are the mythical Crosby, Stills and Nash & Young. Maybe they were not the only ones to be working with the acoustic guitar, but they were probably the ones, who more than anyone else, based their music and their songs on acoustic sound.
Other performers present at Woodstock also centred their music around the acoustic guitar. One such is Joan Baez and her strong tie to the tradition of political and social songs with her fingerpicking, which recalls the singer and guitarist Elisabeth Cotton, and her Carter style inspired by the repertoire of the Carter family. There was the strong, rhythmical, emotional impact of Richie Havens, who used open harmonies, intensifying the sound with his strong dynamic signature style. There was Country Joe MacDonald’s fingerpicking, which was closer to Country with echoes of Ragtime (let’s remember his “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag”), recalling in some ways the figure of Woody Guthrie.
But from a more musical and technical point of view, owing to the more modern and versatile way of weaving arpeggio, of inserting solo parts and arranging the sound around splendid voices added to the use of open harmonies, it was the four freaks from the West Coast who became an icon to acoustic sound. It was no coincidence that Michael Hedges was amongst the avid admirers of CSN&Y and did everything possible to work with them until he finally supported them in their concerts during a tour. Crosby and Nash were also present in the chorus vocals for Torched, Hedges last musical work, released posthumously.
Speaking more generally, I would say the whole music scene around the label Windham Hill at the end of the ‘70s was linked in some ways to the sound of the West Coast, even if there are obviously big differences. The Martin company owed quite a lot to West Coast sound for the notable increase in their distribution, even if the paradise country of Nashville had already done a lot in that sense. And speaking of Country, where obviously the acoustic scene was, and still is, its base, we can say that a kind of rather net dividing line remained and, in truth, still does today. Country music, although it has influenced other genres a lot, is a world unto itself, with tendencies, traditions and interconnections all clearly defined in a geographically-specific American spirit. Having said that, we cannot deny the link which often leads to Californian music from the ‘60s and ‘70s being called ‘country-rock’.
To go back to my opening comments and without adding all of the many, further possible digressions, David Crosby and Stephen Stills (above all the latter from a guitarist’s point of view) have become the emblem of the evolution of folk guitar, together with Neil Young, whose sometimes simple but precious arpeggio have now become part of the guitarist vocabulary of millions of people. Their music is full of sonorous solutions that lend themselves to open tuning. Finally, in the eyes of the majority, they have found an acoustic sound that can compete adequately with the revolutionary vibration of the electric guitar.
It wouldn’t be fair to finish without mentioning Joni Mitchell and her role in “Woodstock” with her sounds centred around open harmonies. In actual fact, a small group of fans had already been aware of this and the tradition of acoustic blues, from Robert Johnson onwards, had never ceased creating disciples and followers of renown. And it was right in the middle of the ‘60s, from Greenwich Village, that the acoustic sound of Reverend Gary Davis began to spread thanks too to his various pupils, first and foremost Stefan Grossman and Jorma Kaukonen, who moved the instrumental area of folk music forward. At the same time, John Fahey, Robbie Basho and later Leo Kottke brought the example of guitar music steeped in tradition, but superbly magnificent in its continuous and dynamic changes. Not to mention Europe, where the British school was in full evolution with Davey Graham and later John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, the Pentangle, John Martyn and all the others. But that is another story, at least part of which you can find in the July issue of Chitarre/Guitar no. 281 (article by John Martyn) and in the coming November issue (article by Davey Graham).

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