Seeking contemporary guitar music with fingerpicking.

September 16, 2005 11:37 PM

Looking for guitar music with finger picking...

I'm learning classical style guitar, as I enjoy fingerpicking more than just strumming away. Classical music is great, but I'm looking for recommendations of more contemporary music which are fingerpicked. Think `Blackbird' by the Beatles, or `Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac. Anything from the 60's up till now would be fine.

posted by tomble to sports, hobbies, & recreation (28 comments total)

Two of the first fingerpicked songs I learned were 'Street Spirit [Fade Out]' by Radiohead and 'Dust in the Wind' by Kansas. 'Roulette' by System of a Down is a good one as well. You could also try 'Wonderful Tonight' by Eric Clapton for something a little less depresssing...

Others off the top of my head:
'Paranoid Android' by Radiohead (better for electric)
'We Are Going to be Friends' by The White Stripes
'Everybody Hurts' by R.E.M.
posted by Stauf at 12:00 AM on September 17, 2005

He's not everyone's cup of tea, but give John Fahey a try. Much of his recordings are just a single guitar, but his picking makes it sound as if several are playing at once. His catalog is extensive & somewhat varied, so be sure to check out songs from a few records to see what you might like. I personally prefer the songs that don't use as much slide & focus on the pickin'

Jim O' Rourke's guitar style is very Fahey influenced, but used with a full band. His album 'Eureka' may be the best example of this. 'Insignificance' doesn't have quite as much picking, but an excellent record regardless.
posted by yorick at 12:28 AM on September 17, 2005

Oh, I meant to add - acoustic guitar where possible! I do have an electric but I don't use it much.
posted by tomble at 12:33 AM on September 17, 2005

Mark Knopfler is very well known for his fingerstyle playing. Listen to most Dire Straits songs and you'll hear that.
posted by devilsbrigade at 12:53 AM on September 17, 2005

Pullman - Turnstyles and Junkpiles
posted by amb at 1:11 AM on September 17, 2005

Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotten
posted by Satapher at 1:55 AM on September 17, 2005

Don't think Twice it's alright by Bob Dylan.

Bert Jansch is a good musician to start with.
posted by fire&wings at 2:45 AM on September 17, 2005

Leo Kottke -- tho' he's probably too intricate for his own good.
posted by scruss at 4:24 AM on September 17, 2005

Try picking your way through the wonderful John Martyn's back catalogue.
posted by brautigan at 4:48 AM on September 17, 2005

This resource is worth looking at.
posted by the cuban at 5:29 AM on September 17, 2005

Fahey Fahey Fahey. He's really the man for contemporary finger picking.

Three great albums:
The Legend of Blind Joe Death. Fahey was a bit like Walt Whitman in that he liked to revise a good thing, so the newest CD version of the album has two albums, the one orginally released, and then also the rerecorded version that he released many years later. The contrasts are interesting.

Yellow Princess is also excellent.

And, I have really been enjoying the live album that was recently released: The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick.
posted by OmieWise at 6:12 AM on September 17, 2005

Another musician heavily inspired by Fahey is M. Ward. His 'Transfiguration of Vincent' album is awesome and has some nice finger picking songs.
posted by fletchmuy at 7:20 AM on September 17, 2005

I'm in the same place as you, and I've been enjoying working on Never Going Back Again by Fleetwood Mac, and the Iron and Wine version of Such Great Heights. The timing is kind of hard on the first one, just listen to the song like a hundred times but the second one you can pick up in about an hour.
posted by Who_Am_I at 7:38 AM on September 17, 2005

Another recommendation here for Fahey. Learning to play his arrangement of "In Christ There is no East or West" was a turning point for me in terms of how I approach the guitar.
posted by greasy_skillet at 8:04 AM on September 17, 2005

Oh also a couple Led Zeppelin songs: Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Going to California (tabbed for guitar),
posted by Who_Am_I at 8:08 AM on September 17, 2005

Tommy Emmanuel has a Day Tripper/Lady Madonna rendition that will break your neck in three different places.
posted by The White Hat at 8:16 AM on September 17, 2005

Julia by the Beatles, on the White Album.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 9:12 AM on September 17, 2005

The Fahey is correct.

If you try it and it's too "off" for you (his style is incredible, but occasionally eccentric), try Leo Kottke (also rec'd above).

Kottke has many of Fahey's styles but in a "smoother" more "neutral" fashion.

I strongly prefer the Fahey, for the record, and put his Blind Joe Death and The Santa Barbara Oil Slick high on my list.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:23 AM on September 17, 2005

Blackbird by the Beatles is a lot of fun to finger pick. It was one of the first songs I learned on guitar and I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world for those sounds to come from my hands.
posted by any major dude at 9:24 AM on September 17, 2005

Nick Drake! His playing is amazing, and will probably present a significant challenge. Get your hands on Pink Moon.

Colin Meloy does some nice fingerpicking on "The Gymnast, High Above the Ground" from Her Majesty by the Decemberists.

Jimmy Page played a lot of great acoustic fingerstyle parts with Led Zeppelin. Stairway to Heaven is the classic, but I love Going to California, both from Zeppelin IV.

Check out the songs "Boa Constrictor" by The Magnetic Fields and "Those to Come" by The Shins.

Elliott Smith played fingerstyle a lot, check out his album XO. Also listen to some Iron and Wine, Simon and Garfunkel, and Devendra Banhart, to name a few.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:27 AM on September 17, 2005

If anyone is looking for a good site to figure out chords Chordfind is pretty good.
posted by any major dude at 9:34 AM on September 17, 2005

Pretty much anything ever made by Mike Oldfield.
posted by Mwongozi at 11:12 AM on September 17, 2005

Lots of great Ani DFranco tabs here.
posted by scarabic at 2:49 PM on September 17, 2005

He's old now, but I still love playing Simon and Garfunkel (and Paul Simon solo) as much as anyone. Kathy's Song, Feelin' Groovy, Duncan, The Boxer, April Come She Will -- and probably 20 others all in variations of the travis pick.
posted by crapples at 6:52 PM on September 17, 2005

Pretty much anything by Tuck Andress of Tuck & Patti, but Europa is pretty amazing. (See link for Real Audio sample on page I've linked). 1 Gibson guitar, 1 take, no dubs, and his fingers never leave his hands...
posted by paulsc at 6:57 PM on September 17, 2005

Late to the party, and I'm not sure if he qualifies as a finger picker, but Michael Hedges will knock you on your ass if you love guitar. He was a Windham Hill artist (but don't let that scare you off) for a long time and died in 1997 in a really stupid single car accident (drove off a cliff, alone).

His stuff is staggeringly complex, hauntingly beautiful, and frequently rockin'. I saw him in concert 2 or 3 times in Knoxville, TN and miss him like I can't even say.
posted by ZakDaddy at 2:00 AM on September 18, 2005

Kelly Joe Phelps is highly recommended.

I was listening to "Worn Out" from "Sky Like A Broken Clock" today, that's a great example of picking and a beautiful song.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 2:51 AM on September 18, 2005

How about Scarborough Fair?
posted by teleskiving at 2:37 PM on September 18, 2005