Best female folk guitar players?

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 02:11 PM

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

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: PHJim
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 12:39 PM

Here's a nice relaxed version of Arkansas Traveler by Wil Maring:

Wil's Arkansas Traveler

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: PHJim
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 12:31 PM

Marcy Marxer and Rhonda Gouge do some flat pickin':
Marcy & Rhonda

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 12:08 PM

If you look at Rory on Youtube there's an old Russian lady on the sidebar playing with a lightbulb as a slide!

RtS

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: greg stephens
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 08:00 AM

Elizabeth Cotton probably the most influential(in N Atlantic folk circles anyway)

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 06:30 AM

Thanks to all of the you for the help in finding these ladies. As I seemed to not run into other females who were serious players in the sixties, I just wanted to make sure the other girls had figured out how much fun it is to play rather than just back-up a pretty voice.I learned from men.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Stower
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 06:04 AM

Here is the above-mentioned guitarist Emily Remler. She was a jazz player and almost always played electric, so not really what you're asking for, but this is a rare instance of acoustic playing (not that you'd know by listening with what it's fed through!).

She's a great one to watch for technique, Tigger, as she tended to use different right hand techniques within the same piece, as you'll see here.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: PHJim
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 01:54 AM

Rory Block made her first record with Stefan Grosman when she was 15 years old. It was called How To Play Blues Guitar.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 05:47 PM

Not sure she'd be classified as pure "folk," but I'd say some of Nanci Griffith's stuff falls in that category, and she's really excellent and innovative in her guitar work.    Sometimes she plays electric but she also plays acoustic guitar a lot.

Here is Nanci doing Love At The Five And Dime on Austin City Limits.   You can watch a close-up of her instrumental break at about 5:00.

Subject: Best female folk guitar players: Mary Flower
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 05:06 PM

Here is Portland, Oregon's own Mary Flower, playing "Terminal Rag".

You can find a lot more videos of her on YouTube and hear more at her website, MaryFlower.com.

She's one of the best blues and ragtime pickers I've ever heard.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 04:55 PM

The YouTubes I've found don't have the best sound quality, but you can get and idea of her technique and skill from these:

Kate Wolf:   Looking Back At You   Nina and Rick Byars are both backing up Kate, who is also playing guitar, but the fancier lead is mostly Nina, who is seen in close-up during the instrumental break at about 1:34 in the video.

You can hear Nina backing up Chris Webber in a house concert here: Canyon Acoustic Society house concert w Chris Webber (vocals) and Nina Gerber (guitar)

The sound on this YouTube video is a bit distorted, but the video really shows off Nina's nimble fingers and style:

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 04:01 PM

I'd like to hear her.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 03:52 PM

Nina Gerber, who played the exquisite leads on many of Kate Wolfe's recordings & live performances, is one of the best guitarists I've ever heard.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Stower
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 03:09 PM

Is there a particular reason you want female guitarists?

The wonderful Elizabeth Cotten on film here. She was left handed but played an unaltered right hand guitar.

Stower

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: foggers
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 12:59 PM

Wow good topic! Got to include the great Etta James and her Piedmont blues style.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 12:31 PM

I agree on Cindy Kallet, and I also recommend Caryl P. Weiss

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: JWB
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 12:06 PM

My favorite is Cindy Kallet. She uses creative tunings quite a bit, and mostly accompanies her songs, but can crank out excellent instrumentals as well. She's also published a book of her songs with tab for her guitar arrangements.

Cindy Kallet

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 08:23 AM

Great. Thanks for the information.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jan 12 - 11:10 AM

Pamela Wyn Shannon
Sarah McQuaid

Subject: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 20 Jan 12 - 06:54 AM

Can someone post links to good steel string,non-electric female guitar players?Preferably finger-pickers who take breaks. Not necessarily highly trained professionally educated,perfectly structured performers;playing by ear is fine. I want to watch actual playing if possible. blues too.Thanks.