EP136 Harvey Reid on Troubadour Music



Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and music educator Harvey Reid talks to Jim about his book, The Troubadour Chronicles: A History, A Celebration and A Manifesto

Harvey Reid

Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and music educator Harvey Reid talks to Jim about his book, The Troubadour Chronicles: A History, A Celebration and A Manifesto. They talk about Harvey’s musical background, what a troubadour is, solo performance & collaborations, Jim & Harvey’s favorite troubadours & performances, Bob Dylan, musical education’s failure to support troubadours, over-emphasis on sight-reading & notation, music tablature, tunning variation, multi-cultural troubadour history, technical evolutions in music, Robert Johnson Recordings, COVID impacts on music, visionary black musicians, embracing the improper, and much more.

Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, writer and music educator Harvey Reid has honed his craft since the 1970’s in countless clubs, festivals, streetcorners, cafes, schools and concert halls across the nation. He has been called a “giant of the steel strings” and “one of the true treasures of American acoustic music,” and is considered to be one of the modern masters and innovators of the acoustic guitar, autoharp and 6-string banjo. He has absorbed a vast repertoire of American contemporary and roots music and woven it into his own colorful, personal and distinctive style. His 32 recordings on the Woodpecker record label showcase his mastery of many instruments and styles of acoustic music, from hip folk to slashing slide guitar blues to bluegrass, old-time, Celtic, ragtime, and even classical. Full Bio Here