Glenn Jones: Portrait of Basho as a Young Dragon

Join us for an evening of music and conversation as part of the New York Guitar Festival. Featuring a stellar lineup of performers curated by New Sounds' John Schaefer, who also hosts the evening.
Glenn Jones is a master of American Primitive Guitar, a style invented in the late 1950s by John Fahey, whose traditional fingerpicking techniques and wide-ranging influences were used to create modern original compositions. Jones, who led the post-rock ensemble Cul de Sac, brings his own madeup tunings, the use of custom-crafted partial capos, and a highly skilled picking style on both banjo and guitar, to create personal compositions that are lyrical, emotive and elegant. What sets him apart from the myriad guitarists playing today is his ability to tell stories with the guitar and banjo, and to convey a range of emotions. This process starts with the compositions themselves and carries through to his selection of recording environment and engineer.

[@amacallan9]

Beautiful. Love the echoes of "Cathedral et Fleur de Lis".

[@roberteadie6603]

It just does not get better than this.

[@superstarajl]

I love this song and this performance. So great. I always come back to it.

[@TheRamsberg]

This is the best voicing for a guitar piece I've heard.

[@bobanbu]

do you know what the tuning is? cpo at G but assume low e set to D, so capoed at GCG? other strings?

[@TheRamsberg]

Good question, and a good challenge. According to my ear, the three un-capoed strings are F# G# C#.
Very curious, looking at the circle of fifths, GCG are are two notes a fifth apart, and the F# G# C# are a trio cluster of fifths, which are the fifths at the opposite side of the circle. Just a semitone off the bass strings.
@@bobanbu

[@chrishartz2397]

Killer…love him..

[@BeneathWaves]

Incredible

[@antosdc]

Another great track from one of my favorite artists. I love you Glenn!

[@TheIkaraCult]

Glenn is wonderful

[@rdedeene]

Very beautiful. Emotions conveyed through the guitar. A real art!
Guitarplayer from Belgium

[@attilafuredi5224]

BEAUTIFUL

[@nospillblood]

Amazing

[@hartspunken4830]

I like this version even more than the one on Fleeting.

[@sankalpabhattarai8616]

does anyone has tabs for this?
or any other songs of glenn?

[@StoyTheOld]

Hard to believe there's been only 53 views .

[@zatoichimasseur6767]

10,000 now bro.

[@Morphdog9819]

Our little secret. ;)

[@sidneywillis640]

Anyone knows which capo he is using?

[@scottrussell7423]

He makes his own partial capos. I just read about them in an issue of Acoustic Guitar. Let me know if you want details. I think he actually sells them, too.

[@sankalpabhattarai8616]

@@scottrussell7423 do you have any tabs of any of his song?

[@scottrussell7423]

Sankalpa Bhattarai Yes, but only one tune I’m afraid.

[@sankalpabhattarai8616]

@@scottrussell7423 which one?

[@sankalpabhattarai8616]

@@scottrussell7423 and where can i get the tabs?

[@bobgreen623]

I play this kind of thing (not as well as this, of course) on a Guild M-20, a smaller bodied guitar as I find dreadnoughts a little unwieldy, and I can get lost in organising improvisations into tunes for hours. I love playing around with open tunings, drones etc. Mine has a sweeter tone than this, but this big-bodied Guild sounds beautiful.

[@ElectricGypsy]

Dragoon.

[@rabokarabekian409]

Basho the poet or Robbie Basho who is more the progenitor of the style of this performence than Fahey (who disliked Robbie)?

[@MakingMoosic]

Anybody know what tuning this is?

[@eno8759]

Open D , capo third .
That’s what works for me but i see there’s a partial capo at work , so improvise

[@cagaredda]

God exists

[@melindalemmon2149]

And yet we have a more sure word...of prophecy.

[@rabokarabekian409]

Only yours I assume.

[@attilafuredi5224]

Evidence: we are existing.

[@gjcs23]

and his name was Robbie Basho