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.