My effort to write about George Winston has been interrupted by a natural disaster. I will resume that series of posts after a few notes from downtown Montpelier, Vermont, now a federal disaster area. Our beautiful capital city has been ruined, gutted, by the flooding of July 9 and...
This is my second post about my friend George Winston, pianist, fan, and philanthropist, who died on June 4. Around the time I first met George – 1981 – my little finger was a mess, but I was trying hard to push my playing technique anyway. I wanted to...
I had just begun re-posting entries from my “Meetings With Remarkable People” series when I heard that my old friend George Winston died on June 4. I was overcome by a sense of loss. We had seldom seen each other in recent years, but we corresponded often, and I...
Looking at YouTube videos of John Fahey in concert recently, I recalled vividly the technique I once so admired. Plant your right hand little finger on the pick-guard; pick away with the thumb and two fingers, get that alternating bass thumping beneath your treble melodies. His left hand had little agility,...