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Michael Hedges

Michael Hedges (1953–1997) was an American composer, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best-known for his innovative acoustic guitar/harp guitar compositions and high-energy live performances.

From 1973–1997 Hedges developed revolutionary techniques on the acoustic steel-string guitar that are widely used by guitarists today. Although he was a recording artist on the new age label Windham Hill, his music defies categorization.

Born in Sacramento on New Year’s Eve in 1953, Hedges soon moved with his family to Enid, Oklahoma where he grew up. He came to love music at an early age and took lessons in cello, clarinet, and piano. In sixth grade, Elvis and the Beatles inspired him to picked up the guitar. He played in rock bands throughout his adolescence, sometimes while wearing a white Pete Townshend-style jumpsuit. The guitar became his primary focus, but his interests expanded to other instruments along the way.

Michael learned to play the flute, inspired by the flute work of Ian Anderson f Jethro Tull, which he played in the high school marching band. During his junior year of high school, his family moved to Northern California for one year when his father took a teaching sabbatical at Humboldt State College. Michael fell in love with California and its folk rock music scene of the time, especially the music of Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Neil Young—who all used alternate guitar tunings. Before long Michael was experimenting with his own unusual tunings on his 1971 Martin D-28 guitar (later named “Barbara”).

As Hedges experimented with altered tunings, he started exploring unconventional guitar techniques.

Michael and his family returned to Oklahoma for his senior year, and he graduated from Enid High School in 1972. After high school he enrolled at Phillips University in Enid, studied composition with his mentor, Dr. Eugene J. Ulrich, played local gigs with his friend Don Record, and taught guitar lessons. As Hedges experimented with altered tunings, he started exploring unconventional guitar techniques. He discovered the solo guitar work of Leo Kottke and this sparked his technical creativity.

In 1973 he wrote “Silent Anticipations,” one of his seminal guitar solos. This piece included innovative techniques such as left-hand tapping on multiple strings over the top of the guitar neck, extensive use of percussion on the body of the guitar, and unique rhythms and harmonic voicings. He remained focused on the guitar as his instrument of choice, but he studied flute and composition at Phillips University for three years, from 1972–1975. He went on to study classical guitar, composition, and electronic music for five more years at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland. He wrote most of the pieces from his first album, Breakfast in the Field (1981) during his college years (1973–1980).

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Play This!

Michael Hedges: Aerial Boundaries

Read "Michael Hedges: Aerial Boundaries" reviewed by Geno Thackara


For all the people that do crazy things with the guitar, there have been precious few that actually invented new ways to play it. The late Michael Hedges did it with an organically grown hodgepodge of a style that he called “heavy mental," all acoustic tones and wicked smarts. This fellow could make one guitar into a mini-ensemble with overlapping melody and rhythm parts, no electric fuzz or effects necessary. ...

187
Album Review

Michael Hedges: Torched

Read "Torched" reviewed by John W. Patterson


Of all of Michael’s fine releases this one, Torched , reaches me in the deepest recesses of my being. I must confess I have sang along, tears in my eyes, sensing the deep loss of Michael now being gone, tragically killed in late 1997 in a car accident. What waste, what loss, and so final. But Hedges’ voice and soul lives on in this last release, nearly ready to be finally “polished” yet too late — it is released anyway, ...

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Recording

Audio Fidelity To Release Guitar Innovator Michael Hedges "Aerial Boundries" On Limited Edition 180gm Vinyl

Audio Fidelity To Release Guitar Innovator Michael Hedges "Aerial Boundries" On Limited Edition 180gm Vinyl

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

Camarillo, CA – Marshall Blonstein's Audio Fidelity will be releasing guitar innovator Michael Hedges critically acclaimed album Aerial Boundaries on limited edition 180gm vinyl! Aerial Boundaries is unquestionably one of the most groundbreaking albums in acoustic guitar history. This is the record that presented Michael Hedges to the world as the ultimate acoustic guitar visionary, stretching the limits of the instrument to accommodate his uncanny musical ideas. There are moments on the record where it seems impossible that so much ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Best of Tobin...

ArtsForge
2023

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Wonder

ArtsForge
2019

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Nobu's Popular...

Stereo Sound (4)
2010

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Torched

Windham Hill Records
2000

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Dinner Party

Direct Source Special Products Inc.
1997

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Sanctuary (20 Years...

Windham Hill Records
1996

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Wonder

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

Wonder

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

Wonder

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

Wonder

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

Wonder

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

Let The Rumpus Begin

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

The Long Sleep

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

The Long Sleep

From: Wonder
By Michael Hedges

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