{"id":6175,"date":"2017-02-23T10:51:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T18:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=6175"},"modified":"2017-02-23T10:51:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T18:51:23","slug":"muriel-anderson-beyond-classical-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/muriel-anderson-beyond-classical-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Muriel Anderson: Beyond Classical Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"
From the Spring 2017 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em> | BY KATHLEEN A. BERGERON<\/h6>\n

Muriel Anderson is sitting onstage in an art gallery in Salisbury, North Carolina, talking to a group of guitarists who have come for a master class, a few hours before her own evening performance. She\u2019s relating to them how, one day while she was playing a small gig in Chicago, Jimmy Page, lead guitarist and founder of the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin, came and sat to listen to the music. They ended up passing the guitar back and forth. \u201cI asked him, \u2018Teach me a song you wrote,\u2019 and he showed me this\u2026\u201d And she begins to play to the master class the opening lines of \u201cStairway to Heaven,\u201d the band\u2019s most famous tune. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a funny moment. The song is so overwhelmingly popular, especially among young men enamored with learning to play rock guitar, that some exasperated music store owners are reputed to have posted signs in the electric guitars section, saying \u201cNo \u2018Stairway to Heaven.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s particularly odd to hear that song at a master class given by someone with such heavy credentials: She studied with Christopher Parkening, has recorded more than a dozen albums, as well as instructional CDs and songbooks, and was the 1989 National Fingerpicking Guitar Champion, to list just a few of her accomplishments. But for Anderson, it was just another encounter with fellow amazing guitarist. The list of people she has sat in with is staggering\u2014Doc Watson, Parkening, Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel, Earl Klugh, and Les Paul among them. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, another encounter, similar to the one with Page, resulted in an entire album of music in the flamenco style. Anderson was in Europe attending a music festival and walked by a booth promoting the signature line of guitars of the German flamenco duo, Tierra Negra. Tierra Negra\u2019s Leo Henrichs relates that, \u201cWhen we got there one morning, we found Muriel with one of our guitars playing her song \u2018Angelina Baker.\u2019 We immediately grabbed guitars as well, and started jamming with her for the very first time. You could say that the first communication between the three of us was nonverbal\u2014it was musical.\u201d Their connection was strong enough they ended up making an album (2009\u2019s New World Flamenco<\/i>) and going on a 50-show U.S. tour together. <\/span><\/p>\n

As her concert begins a few hours later, Anderson is back onstage with two instruments: a thin-bodied, flamenco-style guitar made of cypress, and a 21-string harp guitar. Anderson also plays steel-string guitar, although on this tour she is using only the two instruments onstage. Her performance is a tour de force of guitar music and more: Pieces include many of her own compositions, as well as works from George Harrison, J.S. Bach, Don McLean, and Isaac Alb\u00e9niz. At one point, she plays a Japanese folk song, making her guitar sound like a koto, the 13-stringed instrument of Japan. She later plays her guitar like the individual instruments in a bluegrass band\u2014guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle. <\/span><\/p>\n

Clearly, this woman has the talent to be a standout in any genre of guitar music she might choose. But her appreciation of music is so universal she would probably be hard-pressed to confine herself to any single one. <\/span><\/p>\n

She agreed to answer a few questions about her music and her particular approach to it.<\/span><\/p>\n