In the recording studio of a dear friend, there sits a beautiful oak desk that once belonged to someone who changed the way the world communicates. This genius inventor who lived in Princeton wrote the equation on the back of an envelope on his ferry ride to work in New York. That equation changed pretty much everything in modern communication.
Here is the thing: I cannot remember the nam e of the man even though he changed the planet. My friend got the desk at his estate sale after the man died. No one cared about his legacy. He just vanished into history. My friend, who is also a literal genius scientist, knew who the man was but just bought the desk because it was a nice desk for a cheap price. The world is carried along by what the man did, but no one, except a few, know and appreciate what he did.
The same is true for Michael Hedges, the guitar genius who died in a car crash back in late 1997, almost two months shy of his 44th birthday.
For those who are not up to speed, Michael Hedges was a guitarist and composer who literally redefined the acoustic guitar via his recordings on the Windham Hill record label. He was nominated for a Grammy for one album (Aerial Boundaries) and won a Grammy for the last album he released while he was alive, Oracle. An album of demos for an upcoming album was released after his death. He was respected by both Frank and Dweezil Zappa, Steve Vai, and countless other more well known guitar heroes of his day. While he was alive, he won every acoustic guitar magazine best player award and was called "the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar", but more on that later.
Now, here's the thing: other than a Wikipedia page, a few fan sites, and Michael Hedges' all but abandoned website, you will find very little on the man who changed the face of acoustic guitar. By all accounts, his legacy is vanishing deeper and deeper into oblivion. There are no new videos of him performing as of about a year ago even though it is a known fact that he professionally recorded many many live shows. His vaults are closed.
As I wrote in my book, "Not the Yearbook You Expected" (available on Amazon), Michael Hedges literally changed my life. My worldview changed at a crappy dinner theater in Morgan, New Jersey. I walked in one person and left another. There was guitar playing before Michael Hedges and there was guitar playing after Michael Hedges. Ask anyone who has ever seen him live, not on video, but live - everyone, I assure you, will say the same.
For the record, I did meet and speak with Hedges about five times after shows he did in Jersey. I found his Music too late in the game to try to be an obsessive disciple. I was working two to three jobs and my life was a mess. The one thing I DID take away was that guitar did not limit Music, but that the guitar was infinite in the possibilities of Music. His approach flipped everything I had ever experienced and learned inside out and on its head, from black and white slides to technicolor movies.
By all accounts and history, Michael Hedges was the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar. I wasn't born when Hendrix changed the world, but I did see Michael Hedges and from what I have heard from those who saw Hendrix, it was the same. So, why, I ask, is there nothing, and I mean NOTHING written about the legacy of Michael Hedges?
I have heard rumors, talked to people in the know, and made my own theories as to why a man who could be called one of the greatest composers of the 20th century has been pretty much forgotten. In the end, all I can say is that it was a perfect storm on many levels for something like this to happen.
So what happened after the death? When you went to see Michael Hedges, you were seeing pictures from a land you never knew existed. He was an explorer and we all went to see where this whole thing was going. So what happens when the explorer dies? People who followed have to figure it out for themselves. And, as happens many times, the leader passes away just before the awaited triumph.
Michael Hedges' career was linked from its beginning to Windham Hill Records, a record label that was the center for the New Age movement in terms of Music. While many of the artists on the label were stunningly talented, the Musical Culture looked at everything that came out of the label with, at best, skepticism and and at worst vile antagonism. Will Ackerman, the man who started the label, knew how to market very well and the label took off.
When reading interviews, you can tell that Michael Hedges was not comfortable being involved with a label that made Music he wouldn't normally listen to and which put reins on his creative desires. He couldn't make Music the way he wanted. After Ackerman sold the label off to the majors in 1992, Hedges came out with one mostly vocal/song album "The Road to Return", but it tanked. After the fans began to dwindle at shows (at least here on the east coast) and the guitar magazines stopped talking about him, he came out with another mostly solo guitar album, "Oracle," the year before he died and it began to have a positive effect on his career. I saw him at his last ever show and he was on fire. It was breathtaking.
So, after his death and a few passing tributes in a post grunge era guitar world, the story of Michael Hedges pretty much vanished from the landscape. Sure, there were the few compilations put out by the record companies to get what they could, but then it was gone. And then, with he void in full force, the doors opened up....
The advent of the internet allowed people to consume Music and ideas faster than any time in human history. Youtube allowed everyone to share their interpretation of what they considered talent with the world. People began to copy his style and hit the web with it. Imitators came out and made traction, one even being called the "female Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar". I have seen this person live. I have seen Michael Hedges live. I do not believe in the comparison is valid in any way.
People copy his technique and style, but unlike the actual Jimi Hendrix, Michael Hedges' death happened just as the guitar based Music market was to have its steady decline. American Idol and EDM came along and took popular Music into the territory without instruments. So, the progress he made on the instrument has stalled and it looks like it will never regain its feet. While there are many hours of his work on Youtube thanks to the devoted fans that have them, it looks like there is nothing new left to have. Even new transcriptions of his work have stopped. Without demand, the supply dries up.
I was too old and too busy to become a clone of Michael Hedges. What I did instead was follow the same path he did and studied classical composition to broaden my view. And, yes, I did use whatever techniques from Michael Hedges that I could figure out. Since I was already writing before I experienced Hedges, I had a direction, but there is no doubt that I looked at the places he went and longed to find a similar world.
By my second EP, I was already branching into working with cello and songs with vocals. This was partly because I wanted to and partly because, even back then, the solo acoustic guitar world was shrinking, including college radio airplay. Without a major label, or any label behind me, I just kept writing, recording, and playing live. But once a year I would go to see Michael Hedges play just to get another glimpse at a brave new world that I was both enchanted by and pulled towards. Even though I knew I could never make it there, I was always inspired and full of life to keep going.
But now, almost 20 years on, I can barely talk to anyone about Michael Hedges as they either have no idea who he is or all the memories have been dredged up and worn thin. The enchanted land is a fading memory. Since I have been tied to no company, I have made and released classical, ambient, blues, rock, a rock-opera with video, solo-acoustic guitar, and other genres of Music. I kept walking, at times barely crawling, just to move ahead.
People will copy Michael Hedges as time goes on and the undeserving ones, who are popular making Music that sounds like a diluted and horribly excited version of what he did, will continue to make their money and keep their fame, such as it is. And those who loved Michael Hedges will keep on doing so, holding the memories of that magic and the memory of that moment when their lives changed when they first heard him.
But, I know that when I sit down to write out cello parts or sit at the desk to write out new material, I am sitting at the desk of a ghost, the memory fading, but not totally. As for what the others write upon, you'll have to ask them.
