The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #142778   Message #3294581
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
22-Jan-12 - 02:11 PM
Thread Name: Best female folk guitar players?
Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
Mimi [Baez/Farina/Melvin] was noted for her creative style of guitar playing. Even Joan, an excellent guitarist herself, acknowledged in her autobiography that Mimi was the better guitarist. Rick Turner of Acoustic Guitar magazine described Mimi's guitar playing as "innovative," "fully formed and very original," "sophisticated and driving." Mimi learned much of her technique while living in Paris and hanging out by the Seine River listening to French and Algerian street singers. She also learned a great deal from Bruce Langhorne: "We were both highly influenced by the guitar of Bruce Langhorne," she said. "His whole concept of rhythm added a vitality that we wouldn't have had otherwise." Nevertheless, Mimi forged her own distinctive style. She developed a version of the Travis style with a thumb pick and two fingers, and employed unusual combinations of strums and arpeggios, smoothly integrated into the flow of the music. She also used modal tunings that created a strange alchemy with the diatonic structure of the dulcimer. Yet her style was somewhat self-effacing, never calling attention to itself but rather complementing and blending with the dulcimer. Perhaps Richard said it best when he described the dreamy, evocative style of her playing as "weaving modal memories." From http://www.richardandmimi.com/mimi-bio.html