Dear Director,

Please allow me to vent my feelings. In this electrical and electronic era, it is truly a pleasure to speak about acoustic music. Immediately my mind is full of images of wind-turbines with their silent and reassuring blades converting kinetic energy into other forms contrasted against the looming shadow of Nuclear Power Stations. The acoustic guitar is non –polluting, it has no background noise, no dependency on wires, pedals, batteries or loudspeakers. (All this is obviously now rendered false as technology has also invaded the world of the acoustic guitar.)
Despite its passion for uprooting rare and precious trees, the acoustic guitar loves the environment, is a ’must’ around a bonfire and does not create disturbing noise (unless it is a 12-string guitar which is being played at 4 in the morning by Bennato). I have always loved the acoustic guitar even after it ceased to exist in our country and strange conversions of classical guitars with metal strings began appearing while I looked across the channel and over the ocean for my idols who were playing the most breath-taking examples of this instrument. And yet, over here, it seemed to be seen as something like the U.F.O. out of the soap opera Roswell. To put it bluntly, when our home-bred Eko decided to make a few acoustic guitars (besides Bennato’s 12-string), you can imagine my joy at finally holding a ‘folk’ guitar in my arms (so it was called at the time – it’s no coincidence that Yahama continues to sign its acoustic models ‘FG’ -Folk Giutar). As I plucked “La Casa del Sole” (with ante-litteram gesture), the House of the Sun at once became as big as a palace and tall as a skyscraper.
With the electric guitar, you wait for your solo like a falcon for its prey. You are on edge, alert, anxious and the enjoyment of playing is lost. With the acoustic guitar, you can relax and watch the whole song unroll before your eyes. Do you want to question the perfect taste with which Lennon led his Liverpudlian quartet aboard his broken-down J-160 while Harrison waited for the opportunity to slip in a riff or a short solo? Harrison learnt his lesson well and when he proposed his (nicked) hit “My Sweet Lord”, he used a powerful acoustic introduction in Lennon style. Bob Dylan and his simple but not-to-be-overlooked plectrum, Donovan who taught his finger-picking to the Beatles, Paul Simon who was barely taller than his guitar but who endowed us with woven pieces of genius, James Taylor who sculpted the intro to “You’ve Got A Friend” in stone, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young who travelled fast on roads four lanes wide and the Eagles who gave us a pure distillation of cow-boys around a bivouac fire or the remains of a drinking bout of Tequilla on the Mexican border…all of this was and will remain priceless.
Then one day, while John Fahey (unlistened to) preached to the Americans about their musical traditions, a certain Leo Kottke attached a motor to his 12-string and some time later a visionary answering to the name of Michael Hedges left the world open-mouthed and gawping but with their ears full of emotions. New inroads had been laid and with our imaginary skateboards we launched ourselves down them trying to put these new tricks into practice marked out by ruinous pitfalls dividing the styles. One day, on the horizon of the Australian desert, the Crocodile Dundee of acoustic guitar (alias Tommy Emmanuel) appeared to show the world the invaluable work of the great and unforgettable Chet Atkins, bearing witness that, once again, six-strings and an acoustic sound box were all that were needed to capture the public’s attention (and Tommy kept them rooted to the spot – but that’s another story!).
Dear Director (just in case one exists), this is not a technical article but simply a faithful and militant testimony to acoustic music. I would like to offer my congratulations to the “fingerpicking.net” initiative that fills my heart with joy and redeems me for all those years spent tinkering with my acoustic boxes on the quest for something which resembled what I heard coming out of my record-player. I don’t know I have ever managed to hold a torch (even at a distance) to those amazing sounds but I know that I have never lost the desire to, and this is a wish which I hope everyone can share!

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