This is probably one of my more obvious influences…

Back in pre-internet Panama, it was pretty difficult trying out new music that wasn’t mainstream. There was a store that let you do special orders, but that could get very expensive, very fast.

Luckily, my family had access to the library in one of the U.S. Military bases, which had a relatively small but eclectic music selection. Everytime I ran into something I had read about in a guitar magazine or somewhere else, I’d check it out.

One of these was Michael Hedges’ Taproot, which I loved from the minute I pressed play and heard this gorgeous tune:

And when I heard The Rootwitch, I was sold:

A few years later, right before I was going to start my studies at Berklee, I got the very shocking news that he had died in a car accident. This only made me delve deeper into his music.

As soon as I got to Boston, the first thing I did was go to Tower Records and buy Aerial Boundaries. Pretty soon I had his entire discography along with Stropes’ book, and was learning as much of his music as I could. Needless to say, it’s a huge part of my musical DNA and the reason why I got seriously into acoustic guitar and fingerstyle playing.

To this day, Michael is unique among other acoustic guitarists. Few come close to the emotional deepness of his music (among them Stefano Barone and Jon Gomm).

It’s a shame that his musical legacy hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Thankfully there is now a ton of unreleased concert footage to be found on Youtube, and a new generation of guitarists are being influenced by him.