Best acoustical guitar - any type music

Be sure not to neglect the late, great John Fahey. Labelled as an 'American primitive', the man was certainly a visionary and straddled numerous genres with much experimentation & extrapolation. His earlier works focus on acoustically based recordings and are nearly all worthy of your attention. I would also heartily recommend "Of Rivers and Religion', a mid-'70's recording with a full band that dove into a strange nether-region of languid guitar strum/jug band fusion that to this day seems timeless. Sandy Bull (also recently passed on) is another great one. His first two albums, "Fantasias for Guitar & Banjo" and "Inventions" are great and, although featuring some electric guitar work are primarily acoustic guitar-based and offer up an amazing blend of classical, traditional and avante-garde stylings with the heavy influence of a variety of ethnic musical stylings. He even features an oud on many recordings and admits a serious debt to Hamza El Din for much of his inspiration for some of his classic pieces. He would be legendary just for his 'Blend' (from "Fantasias") and 'Blend 2' (from "Inventions") compositions if nothing else. Robbie Basho, a compadre of John Fahey who also recorded on his Takoma record label did some fascinating work along a similar path. Heavily influenced by eastern philosophies and musical idioms with a complex and very lyrical feel. The above musicians veer away from the path of the more classically based composers offered up in this thread, but are well worth looking into.

I am not sure that anyone on here will know who this artist is, but I'll take a shot. Maybe SD will know him.
The greatest guitarist to have ever recorded in the 20th century, is Vicente Gomez. He can be seen in the 1941 film classic "Blood and Sand". The recordings he made in 1939 on Decca 78s(later transferred to Decca Microgroove LP entitled "GUITAR RECITAL"), were so incredible, that I have yet to hear any Guitarist of his equal. Laurindo Almeida, and Segovia would tell you the same, as even on the back of thier early LP liner notes Gomez is mentioned as Perfection itself. This work was transferred recently with terrible over-application of Noise reduction on a CD by Doremi. The CD is entitled Segovia and his contemporaries Volume 5. It also will let you compare the Segovia versions to the Gomez versions. You can draw your conclusions. The CD is available from ALLEGRO IMPORTS. IT IS AN EDUCATION......Frank

I might as well mention the other ones that had no equal. These were the greatest in thier day.
1) Julio-Martinez Oyanguren (Uraguay); Decca, Columbia 78s
2) Mario Escudero,; ABC Records
3) Los Romeros,; Mercury & Phillips
4) Dave Apollon (Mandolinist); Coral LPs, Decca 78s (The Heiftz of the instrument)
5) David Moreno; Capitol & Orfeon LP
6) Chet Atkins, RCA
Should any Guitar player have the good fortune of hearing these mostly forgotten artists, they would immidiately know they were in the presence of the Masters of the instrument
I once had a chance to see Los Romeros at Temple University, back in the early 70s (when music was important enough for Universitys to hold concerts). From that moment on, I viewed the guitar as the most difficult of instruments to master. It is clearly ,next to impossible today, to hear artistry at that level.........Frank
SD, You ever listen to any of these?

Ottmar Liebert- Borrasca
Paco Di Lucia, Al Demiola, John Mclaughlin - The guitat trio
Phil Keaggy - Acoustic sketches
If you fancy a little banjo try Bella Fleck - Acoustic planet

Good posts, my man! Honesty compels me to admit that some of the artists you listed were new to me -- just goes to show that there is always something to learn. I have heard of Vicente Gomez, but never heard his playing -- I'll try to remedy that soon. I am familiar with the Romeros, David Moreno, and Chet Atkins, but the others were new to me. Chet Atkins, although not known as an acoustic guitarist, has an eclectic group of recordings going back many years. One of the more relaxed and enjoyable recordings he did was with Mark Knopfler about 10 years ago. The two clearly had fun making the recording.

I had a chance to hear Andres Segovia in concert around 1957, not long before I discovered Charlie Byrd, and he was astounding. The other guitarist of comparable caliber, who I heard about 2 years ago in concert in Seattle, is Christopher Parkening. Parkening did a program dedicated to Andres Segovia, which included some wonderful anecdotes, rare personal photos, etc., of Segovia.

Parkening's parents own a home in Idaho on the Clearwater River, across the river from a friend of mine. I hope that during one of my visits to my friend in Idaho that I will have a chance to meet and talk with Parkening.