CONTENT Info .................................. 3 Interview ........................... 4 Biography......................... 12 Discography ...................... 14 Reviews ........................... 18 2 Peter Finger – ACOUSTIC GUITARIST s someone who is involved in the music business as a guitarist, record label owner, magazine Apublisher, and festival organizer, it can sometimes be a challenge to determine Peter Finger’s primary activity. However, while all of his ventures have been blessed with success, it only takes a short listen to realize that Finger has a secure place among the world’s finest acoustic guitarists. Although there is no shortage of virtuosos in the world of guitar, Finger stands out as a unique talent. Playing an open-tuned steel-string guitar with a set of metal fingerpicks, he presents a musical depth, dynamic range, and rhythmic energy that few other solo instrumentalists can match. Praised for his original compositions (which MANFRED POLLERT PHOTO: make up the majority of his repertoire), Finger plays music B.B. King or Jimi Hendrix, and he also uses elements that would stand on its own without requiring flashy of world music or the improvisational elements of jazz playing techniques, yet it is impossible to not be impressed in his playing. Perhaps guitarist Tim Sparks has found with his seemingly effortless abilities on the fingerboard. a proper way in which to describe Finger’s accomplish- Impossible to categorize, the results fall under the general ments: “He has great passion and incredible chops, umbrella of “contemporary fingerstyle guitar”, but Finger’s and he’s always pushing the envelope of his playing. ability to magically fuse wide-ranging influences into a But more than that, Peter has found a singularity with cohesive whole sets him apart and transports him into the the sound that comes from his special tuning and all pantheon of acoustic players. Originally influenced by folk, the musical streams of experience which he pours into blues, and ragtime styles, Finger’s soundscape is just as his guitar. His music pulls the listener into a unique, likely to be informed by Bartok or Debussy as it is by haunting, and exhilarating universe.” 3 COVERPHOTO: MANFRED POLLERT ARTWORK: HERMANN OTTE Peter Finger – Interview by Teja Gerken How did your career and fun, but the experience was mostly frustrating, and as a guitarist get eventually the band broke up. During this time, my started? hometown had an annual folk festival, which I started to check out. For the first time I saw fingerpicking When I was about 13 guitarists, who played bass, rhythm, and melody years old, an uncle simultaneously. I was so impressed that I wanted to of mine gave me an learn playing in this style right away. old guitar. I was very excited about it, but I didn’t really succeed in Did you mostly learn by watching these players? “Peter Finger is one of my learning to play it at first. The guitar gathered dust for all time favorite guitarists! a few months, until I joined a youth group—something Yes, I would watch until I figured out what they were similar to the boy scouts—that needed someone who doing, and then I would practice at home until I could His music is highly refre- could accompany some songs around the campfire. The play it myself. It was a very intense period, and I shing and his playing group leader showed me a few chords, and I guess I quickly got to know people who were established in the made an impression. I was familiar with music itself, as scene. One guy had a huge collection of records by folk, absolutely wonderfull.“ I had already had seven years of violin lessons, and I blues, and ragtime guitarists, and he introduced me to Sergio Assad came from a musical family. After a short time, I could seminal players like Robert Johnson, Mississippi John play as well as the group leader, and a short time later, Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and also younger guitarists I started a band in my school. At first I played on my such as Stefan Grossman, David Laibman, and John little acoustic guitar, but then I got a red electric Renbourn. After a while, I was playing a lot of the guitar with four pickups for Christmas. I loved this country-blues and ragtime repertoire, which I really “Peter Finger is a truly guitar because I was certain that only a red guitar enjoyed. I also played guitar in a folk group, which unique musician – and would impress the girls. The entire band played through allowed me to fine tune my technique as a backup a converted radio as an amplifier. player. However, a year later I participated in the new- I love his work!“ talent competition at the folk festival playing solo, and Tommy Emmanuel c.g.p. How come you ended up specializing in the steel- I ended up receiving the first prize. This was the real string acoustic guitar? start of my career, because the prize included a recording session, which resulted in my first EP. I sent The band was so incredibly bad that we really didn’t this recording to Stefan Grossman, who had just started INTERVIEW experience any kind of success. We had a lot of dreams his Kicking Mule label. 4 This must have been in the early ‘70s… bottleneck guitar, and two months later, I was back in concerts, and during one particular show, I had a Rome to record them. Musically, the album isn’t all that defining experience while playing a blues. I began Exactly, it was 1973. He liked it, and said ‘yes, we can great, but it ended up being one of the most successful singing ‘I was born in Mississippi,’ and while I sang, I do something, why don’t you come by’. Grossman lived recordings for Kicking Mule, probably because of the said to myself, ‘what are you talking about?’ I began to in Rome during this time, and together with my specific title, Bottleneck Guitar Solos. Even though think about it, and suddenly realized that the blues guitarist-friend Detlef Dürr, I drove there in my there were a lot of records that featured a couple of wasn’t my music. After getting re-orientated a little, I mother’s old VW bug in February of 1974. Eventually, slide guitar tunes, none were purely about bottleneck tried to listen within myself and to search for my own the solo album I had planned on turned into a duo playing. It was the right concept at the right time. music. recording with Detlef Dürr. I had played bottleneck- slide on a few tunes, and Stefan came up with the idea Who was your friend with whom you made the duo How did you proceed in your development? of having me record a bottleneck album. He said ‘come record? back in a couple of months, and we’ll cut another This particular experience was the turning point, but record.’ I was 19 years old, and I would have probably Detlef Dürr just played guitar on the side while there were others as well, although I’d rather not done anything to be able to release another record in studying physics and mathematics. I think we were a remember some of them… The first step was to stop the US. I went home, quickly wrote about 20 pieces for pretty good duo in the context of the time, or at least singing. The most difficult aspect was to find a way to our music had a certain freshness to it. We were called be true to myself without alienating my audience. In Detlef and Finger. Detlef is now a mathematics professor the early ‘70’s, people loved it when you played blues at the university in Munich, and only plays music at and ragtime, and the shows generally did really well. It home. We had a lot of fun performing together. was tempting to continue in this direction, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t play music that I So your early guitar influences came from the blues didn’t really stand behind anymore. Influences from and folk scene? rock music began displacing the blues and ragtime pieces, and in 1976, I recorded the album Acoustic Rock Right. I played a lot of Gary Davis, Mississippi John Guitar for Kicking Mule. I now think that I had Hurt, Robert Johnson, etc. managed to develop a pretty unique guitar style, but unfortunately it wasn’t all that successful, because The classical influence in your guitar music came people wanted to hear ragtime and blues. later? I kept pursuing this new direction, and eventually augmented the rock influences with jazz and modern Yes, much later. During this time, I was very removed classical music. My father, who was a conductor, played from classical music. I wanted to distance myself from an important role in my development during this time. the things I grew up with. Back then, classical I had always had the impression that he wasn’t taking musicians tended to be very rigid in their thinking and me seriously with my music, which led me to really their behavior, and they seemed ignorant toward other practice and push my abilities. I wanted to prove to my styles of music, which kept me away from the general father that I could make a living as a musician, and classical music scene in my early 20’s. I did continue to also that the guitar is an instrument that can be used play classical music on the violin, but at the time, this for serious music.