Best female folk guitar players?

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.

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

Pamela Wyn Shannon
Sarah McQuaid

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Genie
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 11:34 PM

This African woman developed her own unique, innovative style, having gotten a guitar with no instruction as to how to play it.   She's not finger picking, but she's quite remarkable!

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Genie
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 11:45 PM

Another unknow who's not too shabby:
Lindsay Adler"Triple Spiral Waltz" Celtic fingerstyle guitar

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: PHJim
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 02:12 AM

Genie - RE your 11:34 post. The person shown playing the guitar is "Botswana Ronnie". Ronnie is definitely not a woman, therefore he is ineligible for this thread.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Azoic
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 03:28 AM

I think June Tabor

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,John Foxen
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 03:16 PM

Kristina Olsen is a fine guitar player in folk and blues style.
She is also a splendid songwriter and provides music and tab for her guitar parts on her website.
There are plenty of examples of her onYoutube.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: PHJim
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 12:48 AM

Perhaps not exactly folk, but what is folk anyway?
Girl Django

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 07:11 PM

When I was younger, I learned a lot from Joan Baez's guitar playing. Folk guitar is funny - its not really about being superfast - or anything. Its about, getting it right.

I saw Julie Felix a few years ago, and she joined the session after the gig. I just had to ask her how she did this pretty little thing in her accompaniment to the The Plane Crash at Los Gatos. Just a flick of the fingers across the top of the guitar, but it was so artful, and so right. So Spanish.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 07:19 PM

Gillian Welsh

Patti Griffin

B~

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tony Rees
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 03:05 AM

Thought I might revive this thread with a plug for Molly Tuttle, a terrific new female flatpicker, see samples here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Molly+Tuttle . Also +1 for Nina Gerber too, though not really adequately represented on youtube, in my humble opinion.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tony Rees
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 03:12 AM

I just learned, courtesy of Wikipedia, that Molly is the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association's Guitar Player of the Year award (in 2017). Also I should mention Alison Brown - best known for her terrific banjo playing, but occasionally she switches to guitar and is pretty impressive on that too...

Regards - Tony

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 03:57 AM

T he best that i have heard is the guitarist in the lancashire group Scolds Bridle,liz moore, as regards song accompaniment

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 05:20 AM

Molly Tuttle is pretty impressive on a variety of fretted things. Like many people in that genre, she started really young so her technique is really developed but she's certainly not a sterile technical player.

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Janis Ian yet - not flashy, but really accomplished.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 08:39 AM

Julie Ellison, now no longer playing:

Julie Ellison - Dish Rag

Julie Ellison - The Cat and The Butterfly

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 08:47 AM

Not forgetting The Carrivick Sisters:

Carrivick Sisters - Today Is A Good Day

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 09:23 AM

Rob, you beat me to it with the great Julie Ellison! Her partner told me a while ago that she'd been forced to stop playing - bad news indeed.

And I'd agree with others about Molly Tuttle, a fabulous flatpicker and frailer, as well as a great singer and a very nice young woman. Molly has suffered from Alopœcia since she was three years old, and is a big supporter of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation in the US, appearing without her hairpiece at their meetings and conferences. A very courageous and inspiring young woman.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 09:24 AM

And I had the pleasure of supporting the Carrick Sisters at a gig last year - Charlotte is a superb player.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 09:26 AM

Carrivick! Bloody predictive text!

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Roger Knowles
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 05:25 AM

I saw Molly Tuttle recently and would definitely put her on the front row of lady players.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 06:32 AM

yes thanks some great clip ,well i suppose maybelle carter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQxocFAHPIU

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 09:24 AM

I'm surprised that Peggy Seeger's name has not appeared here. If you want to know how to accompany a song on the guitar (or banjo for that matter) then listen to Peggy's many, many recordings.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 10:24 AM

Besides being a fine singer and songwriter Janis Ian does a great job accompanying herself on gtr. Santa Cruz even honored her with a signature model.
Second Molly Tuttle and Mother Maybelle, who could do a lot than just the "Carter Scratch".

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 11:43 AM

Joni

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 01:46 PM

Nancy Kerr is very good.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Brian Peters
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 02:28 PM

Surprised there's been only one vote for Sarah McQuaid, and that 6 years ago.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: kendall
Date: 07 Jul 18 - 10:22 PM

I cant recall her name; it was a long time ago she was at Indian neck. slight of build, red hair. I was quite taken with her music.

By the way, I CaNT REMEMBER MUCH OF ANYTHING THESE DAYS.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 04:49 AM

Reminds me of the old days when Melody Maker had a folk page, written by Karl Dallas and then Colin Irwin.

One year they did a poll, and one category was 'Best Female Folk Singer'.

Some wag nominated 'the tall one in The Spinners'.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: KarenH
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 06:07 AM

As the OP included blues, could I mention Memphis Minnie? You won't find any videos of her, but if you google you will find videos of female player Del Rey teaching her style, which involved open tunings. You need long fingers to reach some of the notes.

Not finger picking or country blues but Rosetta Tharpe (This Train).

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 09:51 AM

Bonnie Raitt

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,KarenH
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 09:52 AM

Sorry That Bonnie Raitt was my suggestion.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 10:03 AM

Mary Flower is a good un.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Jul 18 - 11:26 PM

This lass is amazing:

Gwenifer Raymond

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: medievallassie
Date: 09 Jul 18 - 02:08 AM

I'm going out into left field just a teeny bit and going to mention the actress Charro. She exploited her gorgeous shape and was known mainly for her catch phrase "Gootchie, gootchie" in the 70's but she was an amazing flamenco guitarist and cultural folk guitarist. Hopefully there are some YouTube videos of her performing as a musician rather than just her acting parts. Thanks go to this thread for reminding me of her!!! Headed now to YouTube....

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 09 Jul 18 - 05:50 AM

Christine Pizzuti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx-WWY_s9dw

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,RA
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 04:06 AM

Marisa Anderson is good.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 03:26 PM

Molly Tuttle

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 04:08 PM

Some wonderful slide guitar from Kristina Olsen at Stonehaven Folk Festival 2 weekends ago: she only did the one slide number: could have done with more. But the rest of her playing was great too.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Observer
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 05:31 PM

Anna Massie

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tony Rees
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 05:34 PM

I was interested to check out Charo (note the spelling) from a post above and was pleasantly surprised... see e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMcdFV1kNv4. You can always find new people via mudcat!!

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 06:28 PM

I'll second Anna Massie, and on a variety of instruments.
Jenn Butterworth too.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Guest Eddie
Date: 17 Jul 18 - 02:57 PM

A couple of people have mentioned Sarah McQuaid and I would certainly agree! Sarah is an expert in DADGAD, plays a variety of traditional and self-penned material. Here she is with "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zYgO28c_1c

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,Lin
Date: 17 Jul 18 - 10:27 PM

Besides having an incredibly beautiful folk voice I think that
Joan Baez is a great guitar player and she has been playing guitar since the late 1950's when she was still in her teens.

The other female folk guitarist who I think is really good is
Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Jul 18 - 08:33 PM

Genie, it brought a smile to my face when I saw you'd included Lindsay Adler among those listed here. She lives in my home state of RI so I've been able to hear her many times and have her recordings which are all too few. She plays all the instruments you see around her in that video. She also has a lovely voice and is a talented visual artist. In fact she teaches art and music in one of RI's public school systems.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 26 Jul 18 - 03:39 AM

Gabriella Quevedo is a fingerstyle acoustic guitarist, whose main repertoire is not folk, but acoustic covers of rock standards. Such as:

Tears in Heaven

Stairway to heaven

And loads of other stuff on youtube.

Her style has at times a Spanish classical sound, but with folk influences too.

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 27 Jul 18 - 11:24 AM

Kajsa Ohman, who I met when I lived in Montana, was originally out of the Southern California folk scene. Took lessons from Clarence White. Great singer and songwriter too. I don't know if she is still playing, but if you get a chance to hear her, do so.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: oldhippie
Date: 27 Jul 18 - 03:51 PM

Nancy Tucker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urHQrcDQ-jg

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 29 Jul 18 - 06:40 AM

Guest Lin; And Joan Baez recognised that her sister Mimi was an even better guitarist.

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: open mike
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 11:57 AM

http://www.ninagerber.com/ Nina Gerber
is a very talented and versatile musician, consummate performer, tasteful accompanist, and wonderful teacher of all things guitar, acoustic, electric and everything in between!

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,harpgirl is alive
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 06:34 PM

I lke this girl a lot but I dont know her name


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xx-WWY_s9dw

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: GUEST,harpy
Date: 31 Jul 18 - 11:10 PM

Could someone make me a clicky?

Subject: RE: Best female folk guitar players?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 06 Aug 18 - 06:01 AM

harpy's clicky
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xx-WWY_s9dw


Her name is Christine Pizzuti
https://www.discogs.com/artist/5819177-Christine-Pizzuti