Guitar Visionaries

ECM Records Steve Tibbetts, Master of Postmodern Neo-Primitive Guitar

Guitar Visionaries is a podcast dedicated to guitarists who take the road less traveled - the tireless innovators working in jazz, rock, prog, experimental, ambient, noise, neo-grass and more. We kick off the series with one of my favorites, Steve Tibbetts. Since 1981, Tibbetts has been creating some of the world's boldest, most varied, and edge-pushing guitar music for ECM Records, with over 14 releases, including his newest, Close (2025), and his dazzling, two-CD career retrospective, Hellbound Train (2022). Without a doubt, Tibbetts has one of the widest palates in the world of guitar, with a style that fuses elements of rock, ambient, jazz, experimental, and world music. His work features alternately tuned 12-string acoustics that trigger lush, orchestral samples from a vast library he has created – Tibetan long horns, gongs, and even his wife’s tuned wine glasses. And no one can make a more fearsome sound with an electric guitar. Tibbetts combines a vintage Stratocaster with a Marshall JCM 800 to create feedback that he compares to “sheet metal being torn to pieces.” Tibbetts can tap and slur with the best of them, with his electric sounding like an uncaged animal and his acoustic melodies bearing a sitar-like tonality. He complements this with electric kalimba, dobro, percussion, and piano to complete his always melodic compositions. Minnesota-based Tibbetts has traveled widely. He has lived and collaborated with musicians in Tibet, Nepal, and Bali, infusing his music with colors and beats that are truly unique. For more info, https://stevetibbetts.com/ [https://stevetibbetts.com/] In this episode, Tibbetts tells all about his influence (from Harvey Mandell to Sultan Khan), his many works with ECM, the creation of his unique instruments, and his process ("It's pure chaos"). Tibbetts also graced this podcast with some live music, performed on his modified Martin acoustic. The podcast is hosted by Sal Cataldi, a musician and writer based in the Hudson Valley, New York. Cataldi is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and its raga and dub-driven quartet offshoot, Spaghetti Eastern Electro Dub. He is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books, and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com [http://NYSMusic.com], where he is the book reviewer. Sal is also the host of Reading Is Funktamental, a monthly one-hour podcast and radio show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, he speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more, including musicians like Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason and Robyn Hitchcock.