Acoustic Quotations

I seldom play in a trio, but acoustic music is likely to be lighter, quicker, and quieter.

I'm looking forward to some more solo acoustic dates. That's a lot of fun for me, because I get to be alone with the song. And I get to hear every little nuance; if my instrument does something that I wasn't expecting, I get to chase that. Chase that down a little bit.

When I became a parent and hit my thirties, I got my hands on an acoustic guitar. I started writing quiet, simple songs at home and, with a little encouragement, I got more courage and found my voice. I have people and movements who have inspired me to carry on, but I try to write about things I know, nothing too complicated, really.

I didn't want to be this four-chord acoustic singer songwriter because that stuff just got so old to me.

Some songs are just going to be acoustic with just maybe some light background stuff going on and maybe violin or something like that. Or sax - I mean, I'm definitely having some sax. That's just what I love. It's going to be jazz-rock stuff. That's what I'm aiming for.

I'm triggering acoustic instruments. I'm literally beating, smacking, hitting, blowing, doing physical things. It's an incredibly exciting way to make music.

A lot of writing I do on tour. I do a lot on airplanes. At home, I write a lot, obviously. When I write a song, what I usually do is work the lyric out first from some basic idea that I had, and then I get an acoustic guitar and I sit by the tape recorder and I try to bang it out as it comes.

I was in Redwood for almost six years. It was an acoustic trio that I still think was the best band I've ever been a part of. We do have a double CD of the Redwood stuff available called 'Lost But Not Really.' I'm very proud of the old Redwood stuff.

I'm also performing regularly in Southern California with two bands. As a solo artist doing acoustic sets and a member of the Jenerators, my rock n roll band that has been around for a long time now.

You know, there's times when you should play and there's times when you gotta hold back.

I might do a solo album, maybe do covers, or do an acoustic thing. No Sex Pistols tours, nothing!

I am a massive fan of early electronica like Steve Reich, Pat Metheny and Thomas Dolby. I used to be a big raver, too, so anything dance. I love ambient music like Tunng. I love acoustic and classical, too.

John Mayer and Jack Johnson are two of my all-time favorites. I love Colbie Caillat and really cool, beach-y, guitar, acoustic type music.

We started very slow in America. It was small acoustic shows. We played places like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago and everywhere there has been a great reaction. It has been really lovely. They listen to the lyrics and the melody over there and the reaction has been fantastic.

My head is full of shifting patterns and polyrhythmic stuff; but I want to use all acoustic instruments and create this kind of tapestry of interlocking lulling parts.

When I started performing, I played acoustic music, partly because that way you don't have to worry about interacting too much with other people creatively. Asserting myself in that way was not really a strong point for me.

'Funny' is really cool live. You break it down into an acoustic set, and sometimes I'll do that one unplugged and off the mic, depending on the venue.

I consider the guitar a tool for the most part. I do pick up the acoustic now and then, I certainly don't have any routine. Usually the only time I practice is when the band gets together. Hendrix has always been one of my favorite players, but I was a sucker for Nugent in the late 1970's.

I can't think of any punk who's put on an acoustic and hasn't just tried to sound like James Taylor.

I tend to write on an acoustic guitar or the piano. I have kind of a rule: if I can't sit down and play this and get the song over, I don't take it to the band, because most any good song, you can sit down and deliver it with a piano or a guitar.

My personal tastes... I actually like quite a bit acoustic and more mellow kinds of things. I quite like American music, like The Fray, I'm a massive fan of them, and The Killers.

My favorite music isn't necessarily the songs that One Direction come out with. That doesn't mean to say I don't secretly really love some of our songs, which I do. My personal tastes... I actually like quite a bit acoustic and more mellow kinds of things.

My dad always played a lot of music, so I heard him playing all the time, and then I decided that I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I got an acoustic and started taking lessons. I wanted to be able to shred like Yngwie Malmsteen.

With my projects, I really like the extreme high-tech stuff, but I also like the other end, the acoustic things. So it seems like those meet on an iPad, where you make shapes but the sounds coming out of it are really acoustic.

For me, the best thing I can do is play live. The best way for me to put over what I'm trying to do is to play live. Whether it's an acoustic show, electric or whatever... if I shine at all, that's where it all really happens - it just took me a while to rediscover that.

I have been playing acoustic music for a very long time, and it's something that I am very comfortable doing, so if I made a record, it would probably be a mixture of that and some other things that I'm interested in.

Musically, I like to have a lot of different outlets. I like to have an outlet for my acoustic music, but at the same time I like to pick up my Telecaster and rock out. I grew up on classic rock, which led me to blues stuff and that led me to jazz.

I grew up playing the saxophone. I joined the jazz band in high school, but somewhere along the way I realized the guys who strummed acoustic guitars at parties were the ones who got the attention. So I asked a friend to show me a few chords, and when I moved to L.A. I spent a lot of time practicing my guitar.

One of great threats facing marine mammals in the ocean is acoustic pollution - noise pollution - which is impeding the whales' ability to find food and communicate with each other.

My first time doing music was on acoustic guitar. I had a friend from Texas who taught me so much country, I entered a few country competitions. But eventually, I got tired of it.

My folks got me a single cutaway Kay. It was acoustic but it also had a pickup. That's the guitar I learned to play on.

I got this Christmas gift with the entire Beatles catalog. I had fun trying to duplicate what I was hearing on these records, only using the instruments I had at hand - an acoustic guitar, and that's all. It was endlessly amusing to me to try to imitate John Lennon and Paul McCartney's harmonies using the guitar.

We're excited and encouraged by the acoustic analysis. These sounds give us additional hope that a few ivory-billed woodpeckers do live in the White River and Cache River region.

I don't think we're going to have a plan. If it comes out heavier, I think we'll all definitely think it's cooler. But there's a lighter side. Who knows? We might just decide to do an acoustic record. We really don't have a plan set in stone. I know we definitely set out with 'Karma and Effect' to make it heavier. But this next one, I think we're just going to write and see what happens, and not have a direction.

I have all this technology-you know, I built this really cool recording studio in San Francisco-but when I write, it's with an acoustic guitar and a yellow notepad. I keep it very simple.

He's a bluegrass fanatic and loves acoustic music. He approached us, and it was a mutual thing. We did it through Ricky, and it worked out to be a great situation. We had a wonderful time in the studio. It was a mutual love affair with the music, and he brought us so many great songs.

He delivered, but at first I had my doubts. He was quite brutal about taking a machete to songs if he thought they had too many verses; one song he completely halved. And he didn't like my acoustic guitar playing. Did you notice that, Chris? He would accidentally lean on the mute button. But I'm surprised and delighted with the way the record has turned out.

He's considered one of the finest in contemporary folk acoustic guitar. He's been voted in numerous guitar magazines as one of the greats. I'm excited to hear him.

When he comes in and listens to a song that you're asking him to play on and he turns to you and says, 'Hmm, that chorus goes a little long, doesn't it?' you (acquiesce): 'Yes it does. Yes, of course , Mr. John Paul Jones, sir. You are absolutely correct.' It really was one of the most special things that happened to me in my entire life. Sitting down with an acoustic guitar, teaching John Paul Jones a song I'd written while he's playing it on piano - it was too much.

He's always been a good, smooth acoustic player, but the electric seemed like an untamed beast for him until this year.

He's been working on his electric guitar since we've been off the road, ... He's always been a great acoustic player, but the electric always seemed to run out of his hands. Now, I think he finally tamed the beast.

My stuff was more of a folk coffeehouse thing, with more acoustic guitar, just me doing a single, and then adding on instruments and voices, with emphasis on lyrics and singing and light kind of acoustic jazz.

Previously it was acoustic guitars, now it's taking a turn into more electric guitars.

I wrote all my songs on my main instruments, and the songs I would record in my bedroom were just acoustic guitar, mandolin, and sometimes bass. I really like the texture the mandolin added to my music, but my fingers were too big to play it... I could only do little riffs and whatever.

Just because you're totally acoustic doesn't mean you have to play old music. We're straight-ahead but not dated, ... Besides, if the lights go out, you can still hear the band.

My parents got me a $25 Kent steel-string acoustic guitar when I was around 12. The following Christmas, my parents bought me a Conora electric guitar. It looked almost like a Gretsch. It cost $59, and my mom still has it.

It hasn't got the scuzzy rock of the Vaselines, or the more refined scuzzy rock of Eugenius. It comes from writing songs on an acoustic guitar. I bought one again and, playing it in a public place, the songs just started to flow out.

I think with the acoustic bass it allows you to explore the fuller dynamic range.

I think at that point we were aspiring to be a Led Zeppelin kind of a band where you could pick up your acoustic instruments or you could go out and rock or you could play a country song. I love all those bands we got mentioned with, but it never felt like we fit into that group very well. So the fact that they're still saying, 'The band that survived grunge' is kind of funny.

I was not a musician at the time. I had an acoustic guitar and I used to sing folk music and Bob Dylan songs. I loved rock and roll though.

I wasn't really aware that the blues was making the transition from acoustic to electric then, but that doesn't mean it didn't have any effect on what I was doing at the time.

We haven't gotten into touring the acoustic stuff yet,

Mick playing great guitar helped, ... I sleep downstairs and the studio is upstairs. One night I thought I was hearing this old Muddy Waters track I didn't know, but it turned out to be Mick working on a slide part for Back of my Hand . He's always been a good, smooth acoustic player, but the electric seemed like an untamed beast for him until this year. When I heard him this time I thought, 'My God! The boy's finally got it'.

We'll try a couple with just these acoustic guitars.

What we devised for The Full Monty was a little sort of odd band full of slightly unusual instruments that you wouldn't normally put together, like a harmonica and an acoustic guitar and a baritone sax.

I've always loved acoustic music because I've always loved to hear someone's words or just watch them and just get into them. The distancing thing about rock is it's so assaulting.

When the time is right to release another Mike & The Mechanics album, the three of us get together and we start writing new material out of an acoustic setting.

We had a nine-piece entourage at one point, and that was a lot of fun. But I think our fan base really resonates with the acoustic stuff.

We began like any other borderline awful local garage band aspiring to impress the ever-feared and revered local promoters. Handing out fliers just wasn't converting to any new faces at the shows, so we started playing our acoustic guitars outside every concert, high school, and college campus. We had something like a colonel's map of schools and addresses and times pinned on the wall, and every day we'd attack a different locale.

We want this place to be used every day, we want other student organizations to use it. We eventually want acoustic concerts in the basement, coffee to be available regularly. We want students to come and study, to watch TV.

We've been doing a few dates as an acoustic duo. The music that we've been working on is a big departure for both of us. The audience for Train will be very surprised at the direction of these songs, and it's really a very different sound from what I do in Luce. I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'll just say that conceptually we took some real chances with both the arrangements and the lyrics.

When people come to see us, they'll get so many flavors of acoustic roots music. It makes it hard to sell us. 'What are you? Are you a Celtic group?' Well, sometimes.

We're not one of those bands that ever writes while jamming. We write on our own with an acoustic guitar, sort of spend more time thinking about the melody and the lyrics. The band part of it is just a way to present the songs that we've written.

We know about man's impact on the ocean in terms of fishing and overfishing, but we don't really know much about what's happening underneath the water. And in fact, shipping has a role to play here, because shipping noise has contributed to damaging the acoustic habitats of ocean creatures.

Don't look for us to be pulling out the acoustic guitar and the stools on this trip.

Dorsey played the upright bass and steel guitar, as well as acoustic guitar. Johnny played acoustic guitar and together they were fabulous songwriters and singers.

When I was small, my parents came back from Tijuana, and my dad bought me a very small acoustic guitar. I loved it. I started making up my own songs right away.

When I was very young, my Uncle Lynn would play a Gibson acoustic on the porch when we visited, ... He would also play boogies on the piano.

You are so much more exposed. With an acoustic instrument, so much is laid bare to the ear, and there is no room for error. Playing a Bach suite is like lying naked for all the world to see.

I started doing some acoustic things. When my character was out at sea on a tanker, running his fleet, he'd just noodle around on his guitar. So I did an Eric Clapton song, and then I wrote a song to be used as a theme for a story line. That's how it started.

And when I started, I also programmed the drum machines with the intention of taking them off and replacing them with acoustic drums.

It was all built on two acoustic guitars, and in such a sparse and stripped-down way that if you tried to elaborate on it later you'd lose the whole essence of it.

The record is prettier and more emotionally direct. That came organically, because we wanted to use more acoustic instruments. We appreciate making a connection with an audience rather than identifying with a specific style. So we put more of ourselves into the album and drew that out.

We did a couple of acoustic songs on the first record. These (songs) just worked out for this record. I'd like to look into doing that more; we really enjoy that acoustic stuff.

After 40 years of not playing, I admit I'm totally in love with my guitar. It's a Froggy Bottom acoustic steel string guitar. All I have to do is hit a couple of clean chords and the endorphins are right there. It's like the top of my head has come off and stardust and magic have fallen in.

After 40 years of recording acoustic music, it is not very often that a new band catches and keeps my attention, ... Old School Freight Train has done that and more.

The thing with One Direction songs is that you can probably break them all down to an acoustic guitar and vocal.

Once we played for the Princess of Monaco in Paris. We were the biggest ducks ever, wearing rented tuxedos. We trashed the party, took a bunch of girls and champagne in limos underneath the Eiffel Tower, and set up an acoustic show. It was like a Hilary Duff movie.

Actually, I think that a lot of the interviews and acoustic sessions and other things that artists fill their time with are really pointless and suck the energy out of the artist.

That one song made me realize just how much I missed playing acoustic guitar without all the other stuff, ... And it also reminded me of the songs I loved growing up.

Also, I haven't heard an synthesizer yet that I can truly say has the resolution and is capable of the nuances of the acoustic piano, so I don't even try and compare those anymore.

And I hope to soon have an acoustic night. I'll host it and also perform.

There's something about approaching universal truths with the simplicity of the acoustic guitar. You can take it anywhere, and it helps me reach listeners of all ages and walks of life.

This year, with the acoustic shows we've done the response has been amazing. It would not be surprising if that was the direction we went with the next record, but, that said, we are still a rock band,

We had about 30 songs. I picked some I thought my mom would really like and some I liked. We went in with piano and acoustic guitar, and overdubbed organ on some of them, and a couple harmony vocals. We were just really loose with it.

I've also just come off a year and a half playing acoustic shows which is fantastic for the hands, and changes your head a little bit.

This is an acoustic house - not an amplified one, like the Buell next door,

I never really enjoyed playing acoustic before. But now I really kind of like it. I find myself playing in that style a lot more. I still deep down prefer playing electric guitar. There is a lot of energy there. But it is great to be able to sit on a stool and play and be able to showcase your musical ability over having to put on a show.

I most enjoy sitting down with the acoustic guitar and just fiddling around and trying to come up with something like a hook or some sort of melodic line. That's something that I do habitually.

I'm flattered with the response. It is a testament to our musicianship and the emotions behind that tour. We're not usually an acoustic band and this CD caters to a crowd that might not normally give us a chance.

The message from this study is that there is no easy escape from this acoustic snooping. The type of keyboard you use doesn't matter, your typing proficiency doesn't matter, and the background noise can be overcome.

It took a while once we started recording ('In Your Honor') for us to really know if we were actually going to go through with it and actually make a double record with the acoustic stuff. It was a risk, sure, but when we were done recording, we felt pretty strongly that we'd made a great record.

I had different bands. I played with the Acoustic Warriors for the most part, without girl singers. It was the same kind of sound, acoustic guitar, bass, with violin and sometimes accordion, and the guys would sing, that kind of thing.

It's an amalgamation of the different types of shows I've done. There will be some songs where I'm playing solo on the more acoustic tunes and others will be full-blown, plugged-in rock-out numbers. So the show will be done in many stages.

After doing the solo records, I was playing a lot of acoustic shows and just began missing the band dynamic. So getting back to Son Volt was, for me, finishing unfinished business.

After I did the solo acoustic tour last year, I felt like I was in a position to start working with people again. I think the shroud of Husker Du was finally laid to rest, and people who wanted to were able to hear those songs for what was probably the last time. So having personally cleared the slate, it just seemed like a good idea to get some people together.

The Forgotten Arm. I don't know if we'd do an acoustic thing or bring the band back or what we'd do -- or if it's just time to start writing songs.

The early influences, in many ways, were in Baltimore. I was passing open windows where there might be a radio playing something funky. In the summertime, sometimes there'd be a man sitting on a step, playing an acoustic guitar, playing some kind of folk blues. The seed had been planted.

The idea was to take these great songs, take them out of their production style and their dated recording style, and show them for the songs that they are--as if you had just played them on an acoustic guitar. It's all about timeless songwriting, really.

It's the only place in town to catch acoustic solo sets.