Electric Bard

Astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about playing guitar in space.

One of the best things about busking is seeing people smile, especially kids who start dancing or just look at what you’re doing and break out into a big grin. It’s fantastic to be able to share music and create a moment where we are all in the present moment and enjoying the same vibe.

I saw Michael Hedges in 1993 at Bumbershoot. I had taken the day off work to drive down to Seattle with my wife and our friends Stu and Teri to attend Bumbershoot and in particular to see Michael Hedges perform. He was nothing like I expected. Based on the cassette album I had of his called Taproot, I expected he would come out on stage probably wearing some sort of African pill box hat, sit on a stool and not look up for the whole concert. How wrong I was. He came out wearing bright red Everlast boxing shorts and a bowler hat. He had some wireless transmitter taped to the hat. He started playing a song and at first I didn’t recognize it, but when I did – woah! He opened with Madonna’s “Lucky Star”. And so it went, full of surprises. But in that one set, he completely changed how I could approach playing the acoustic guitar, and it had a lasting impact on my ideas for arranging songs in unexpected ways.

Mrs. Electricbard came across this article from Gregg Braden that also expresses the impact that Michael Hedges had on him. If you aren’t familiar with Michael Hedges, do check him out. Read Gregg’s article now.

Cool, cool, cool. Check this out if you know who Andy Partidge is. Check this out if you don’t…XTC Rules!

Live in Vancouver on April 20. It was a great show. Here’s a little taste, from my iPhone.

Here’s a video of The Malarkeys performing an original song called Walk Out to the Edge.

Here’s a video playing the Gibson J45 through a BOSS GE-7 pedal into a Bose line array system. We played a 35-minute set in the atrium ahead of the Steven Page concert (which was excellent, by the way).

Like some people I’ve seen, I learned how to play Blackbird but not quite right. Here’s the right way to play it.