Berkeley Guitar

LOCAL! Comp of three Berkeley-based guitar soloists: Sean Smith, Adam Snider, Matt Baldwin. Beautiful collection of instrumental, fingerstyle folk guitar, rooted in “American blues and rural guitar genres”, drawing from guitar soloist scene in Berkeley during the 60s i.e. John Fahey, Robbie Basho. Smith seems very improvisational and experimental in his compositions. Snider has a more traditional blues sound than the others. Baldwin feels more careful, and creates beautiful compositions. Recording debuts for Snider and Baldwin.
Favs – 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 11

Sean Smith
1 – Beautiful composition; starts out soft/simple, builds layer upon layer. Long and definitely worth it! (7:30)
2 – Soft & pensive, changes pace in the middle; song feels like its telling a story
3 – Slow & sleepy, more traditional folk sounding than his other two; towards the middle the song really imitates falling asleep/fading out
Adam Snider
4 – Cheery and bright; complex variations of traditional sounding riffs
5 – Bluesy w/mostly guitar picking & hardly any full chords, beautiful & catchy.
6 – Beautiful sound, very slow and distant.
7 – Solemn & darker than others; transitions into amazing, fast-paced finger-picking sections
Matt Baldwin
8 – Careful and sweet; has a traditional folk, roaming and wandering quality
9 – Complex variations, catchy and light feeling with a bluesy twang to it
10 – Softer & more serious; w/bits of crazy, more experimental sounding pickings
11 – Lovely & sweet just like the title; changes to a slower pace toward the end