Whats on your turntable tonight?

@mammothguy54

Michael Hedges "Watching My Life Go By" Promo copy, all analog recording and mixing, excellent SQ. Outstanding, eclectic acoustic guitar style. He can make a guitar sound like 3 instruments, at the same time. How sad, he died in a solo car crash in 1997. Rain soaked road and skidded off, down a cliff. I guess his album title says a lot.

Joel, a long time ago in the 1970’s I used to really be into Windham Hill artists including Hedges, Ackerman, De Grassi, et. al. There were also some other similar players I was digging on different labels: Scott Cosu (sp?) and Eric Tingstadt (sp?) come to mind. I think I had my own “post rock” mindset going on at the time. Anyway, later I got more into what are probably a generation of guitar players in a similar tradition (who were likely influenced by those early windham hill dudes but took guitar playing to new un-dreamt of places), Billy McLaughlin (try “The Archery of Guitar”), Don Ross (try “Three Hands” or anything really), Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour (protege of Ross), et. al. Do you know them?

James,
No, I don't know of those artists/musicians.  Admittedly, I am a bit slow getting acquainted with new material.  I have been exposed to some new ones via this very good thread, which I am grateful for.  I will look into those cited above.  High quality SQ makes the music that much better.  If Windham Hill is consistent with SQ on their other records too, then I need to get more of them.  And these recommended artists/musicians sound like very good options to explore.
Thank you for that.

@grey9hound  That is a really cool guitar.  I'll look for those guys on vinyl.  What an amazing capability he has to play that instrument.

@Mammothguy54, great! These guys mostly came up in the digital era unfortunately but I know you can get some don ross and billy McLaughlin on vinyl. I suppose for me with this genre I’ll admit that it’s been more about the combination of exceptional technique and appealing musicality (musicianship and composition) than strictly audiophile considerations. As I revisit these records I’ll make better notes about SQ and pass them back as appropriate. Good listening!

Re: Michael Hedges

My musician brother who shares a love of finger style guitar with me reminded me about the cool story of how Alex Degrassi took william Ackerman to see Michael hedges in Seattle. Ackerman was totally awestruck and so blown away that hedges could be so technical and musical at the same time… Ackerman wrote out a contract on a napkin and that’s how hedges was signed to Windham Hill.