Some people believe that Eric Clapton introduced the acoustic guitar to pop and rock music with his 'Unplugged' album in 1992. Others think it was MTV who started their legendary concert series of the same name in 1989. The truth is the acoustic guitar, beyond baroque and classical music, has always been there.

But in the 1960s the instrument gained an enormous boost in popularity as the instrument of choice favoured by folk legends such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan to accompany their songs.

The decade would see more and more pure instrumentalists placing the acoustic guitar completely at the centre of their music. When the makers of the WDR Rockpalast decided to give this a forum in 1979, they could rely on four great musicians from their own country Germany who had made fingerstyle guitar enormously popular.

WERNER LÄMMERHIRT (born in 1949, died in 2016) opened a Rockpalast concert evening with the Michael Wynn Band on  August 31, 1979. Another great fingerstyle guitarist Lämmerhirt became known as a live and studio accompanist for singer-songwriter Hannes Wader. His influences came from American country blues and folk, and he made this music popular in Europe like no other. Lämmerhirt was also active as a singer/songwriter early on, first in English, later also in German.

In addition to his recordings with Wader, Knut Kiesewetter, Alex Campbell and others, he recorded the album 'With Friends - For Friends' with guitarists Klaus Weiland and Sammy Vomáčka following his solo debut 'Ten Thousand Miles' (1974). By the end of the 70s, Werner Lämmerhirt was already an icon of the European finger style scene. His Rockpalast appearance shows him with an Ovation guitar, whose plastic body and piezo pickup system were groundbreaking at the time. On some pieces he even switched on a phaser effect, favoured by electric guitarists and keyboardists liked to use at the time. Lämmerhirt was no purist in terms of playing either. He would frequently mix folk picking with sometimes poppy, then jazzy chord combinations. His catchy melodies, raw blues energy or ragtime lightness is impressive and often peppered with little surprises, e.g. when he sings and thus contrasts his multi-layered, technically incredibly lively guitar playing with a calm, warm voice.

Kite Flight - live @ WDR Studio L. Cologne / Germany, 31st August 1979

Robbien - live @ WDR Studio L. Cologne / Germany, 31st August 1979

Wintertime Has Come - live @ WDR Studio L. Cologne / Germany, 31st August 1979

Das sind die Stücke zu dem Gitarrenheft, das 2015 bei Schell-Music erschienen ist.

03 Gondelfahrt Ins Tal

Bluesette - Sample

The image of the guitar has changed fundamentally since the middle of the 1960's: The electric guitar dominates the imaginative world of rock, pop and jazz fans. As a result of this the electrification of pop music led to the good old acoustic guitar with its sounding body almost falling into oblivion, but in folk music as weil as classical music it still sets the tone. This separation between electric and acoustic guitar was already complete in 1974. After all, the blues giant Jimi Hendrix had already created his own unique electric style and bands such as Led Zeppelin had made the booming loudspeaker sound an everyday thing. So it seemed the obvious thing to draw special attention to the alternative: The manifold "acoustic guitar scene", in which it is the natural sound of the strings which gives quality to the music.

The ones who made their mark on the acoustic scene of the time were rough fellows, including not only street musicians but also members of regular bands and respectable citizens doing orderly jobs. But one thing united them: The fact that their music symbolised the hope of a free, untrammelled life and embodied an alternative to the bourgeois narrowness of everyday living. The "hobo" was regarded as a hero, the tramp who commits himself to occasional work only until he has earned enough money to live on for the next few weeks.

With its 22 titles this compact disc combines practically all recordings on the double album Acoustic Guitar Scene, which appeared in 1975 and which was recorded in 1974 in Conny's Studio, the recording studio of the most significant recording technican of the German folk and rock scene, Conny Plank. The unsophisticated atmosphere of the live sessions, the guitar sound free from electronic alienation and above all the vital consciousness of the songs make the disc a great listening experience. Above all, however, the disc introduces the most significant folk musicians of those years. Pure and unadulterated and on acoustic guitars, as it only right and proper.

Klaus Weiland - Improvisation 2

A german lullaby featured in the daily eastern german "Sandmännchen" (sandman) TV-show. I recorded it (among others) for my son's 5th birthday. It was arranged and played on my lovely Stevens baritone guitar.

Das Sandmännchen

05-You gotta move Mississippi Fred McDowell

For this recording I mixed the arrangement from Alex deGrassi and Franco Morone and added some own ideas. 

Written by Turlough O'Carolan 
Arranged by Alex deGrassi, Franco Morone 
Recorded & produced by Richard Haslinger 
Mixed and Mastered by Markus Schlesinger 

Played on a HR MJ-FB, one of my homemade, handcrafted guitars. 
Top: Spruce 
Back/Sides: Pear 
Scale: 650mm 
Built: 2023 

Tuning: DADGAD 

Visit me also on: 
web: www.HR-guitarmusic.at
youtube: www.youtube.com/@hr-guitarmusic8675/videos
facebook: www.facebook.com/HRguitarmusic


Sheebag Sheemore (cover)

"Der Mond ist aufgegangen", a composition by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz from the 18th century based on the poem "Abendlied" by Mathias Claudius, arranged for solo acoustic guitar and played by Markus Gahlen.

Abendlied / Arr.: M. Gahlen

Comparaison de son: 
l'étude V de Fernando SOR, 
AVEC MICRO EXTERNE
jouée sur guitare Antoine Pappalardo 1981 
cordes d'Addario clear nylon

dessin Diane Conti-Verdier

Fernando SOR étude N°5; guitare Pappalardo, micro externe

Herzlichen Dank für die Zustimmung zur Veröffentlichung meiner Versionen dieser wunderbaren Stücke an: Harry Sacksioni, Joachim Storl, Martin Kolbe, Peter Finger, Ralf Illenberger, Sigi Schwab, Steve Hackett, Suse Lämmerhirt, EMI Music Publishing Germany GmbH und Kiesewetter Music Publishing. Außerdem danke ich herzlich Volker Schatkowski – ohne sein beherztes Mentoring wäre meine Musik nicht da, wo sie heute ist. 

Thanks a lot for allowing me to publish my versions of this wonderful music to: Harry Sacksioni, Joachim Storl, Martin Kolbe, Peter Finger, Ralf Illenberger, Sigi Schwab, Steve Hackett, Suse Lämmerhirt, EMI Music Publishing Germany GmbH, and Kiesewetter Music Publishing. Special thanks to Volker Schatkowski for his stout-hearted mentoring.

05-You gotta move Mississippi Fred McDowell

Atschebe