Michael Hedges (December 31, 1953 - December 2, 1997) was a Grammy Award winning acoustic guitar player and singer-songwriter. During his lifetime he referred to his music with a variety of unlikely terms, including “violent acoustic”, “heavy mental”, “acoustic thrash”, “new edge” and “edgy pastoral”. He was often classified as a new age artist because of his long association with Windham Hill Records but his recordings reflected a mix of folk-rock, folk and new acoustic music and often included vocals, sometimes on a majority of the tracks.
Hedges died in an auto accident at the age of 43. He received a posthumous Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for his 1998 release "Oracle".
Hedges died in an auto accident at the age of 43. He received a posthumous Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for his 1998 release "Oracle".
Old_Boy
January 26, 2015It is said that some art forms are merely waiting for someone to take them to their true heights. This man took the use of the guitar to the outer limits. And I would humbly suggest that without which there would be no Andy McKee, Preston Reed, Jon Gomm, Estas Tonne etc..
My introduction was Ariel Boundaries - this composition stopped me in my tracks and in one foul swoop I felt the need to take my own guitar work to the next level and simply give up all at the same time - such were the emotions this music provoked from me.
But he was more than just a guitar player - his songs, lyrics and voice strike as powerful a chord within us as his mighty finger-pickin - his life an example to us of humility and calmness when all too often there is turbulence around us. He was his music and it will live for ever to all that have heard him.