Artist Features
New Release From Edward Hamlin, Aloft
JGT contributor Joe Barth talks to fiction writer and guitarist Edward Hamlin about his new album, Aloft.
Edward Hamlin, of Boulder, Colorado, has two main passions in life: writing fiction and playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar. He has written Sonata in Wax and Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories, plus other publications. Born in New York and raised in Chicago, he was part of the Chicago blues scene before relocating to Colorado, where he focused on acoustic guitar. He has just released a new album, Aloft.
JB: Before I ask about the new album, could you tell me a little about yourself? When did you start to play fingerstyle guitar in Chicago, and in those early years, what was most helpful in your personal development as a guitarist?
EH: I’ve been playing guitar for fifty-two years now, and fingerstyle since July of 1980. I can date it so precisely because that’s when I was knocked flat by Alex De Grassi’s record Slow Circle, which I bought on impulse while visiting a friend in Los Angeles. I lay on the floor and listened to that disc, and it literally sent shivers down my spine. I’d never heard anything quite like it. Definitely, a peak experience of my musical life. I was able to thank Alex for that when I met him later, which was nice closure personally, though I’m sure he’s heard the same thing from plenty of players before me. From that afternoon in LA forward, pretty much all my composing work switched to fingerstyle.
Celtic music got under my skin sometime in the ‘90s, and that’s been a huge influence on my writing too. Once I was drawn into the altered tunings world, I eventually found my way to the DADGAD tuning, of course, which led me to the music of Ireland and Scotland. I play very little traditional Celtic music, actually, but there are Celtic effects and sonorities in my own compositions. I can hear them in tunes like “The Girl at the Gate” and “Chinook.”
JB: What are three of the most influential solo guitar albums to you and your personal development as a guitarist, and why?
EH: Slow Circle for sure, for its melodic complexity, its use of counterpoint, and the beautiful way Alex leverages altered tunings. Then it’s got to be Don Ross’s Passion Session, which showed me that you can blend intricate fingerstyle with really gutsy rhythmic figures. I also love that record sonically, with all the natural church reverb. Then, Stephen Bennett’s Ten taught me a lot about crafting a memorable melody. Some of the tunes on that record are a perfect balance of impeccable technique and pure song, which is something I constantly strive for. Stephen’s also got such a wonderful ear for American melodic idiom.
JB: You are both a writer and a musician. Which came first, literature or the guitar, or did both develop at the same time?
EH: I’ve done both for as long as I can remember. For many years, they were in a kind of dynamic tension that worked really well for me. If I wrote something that was emotionally exhausting, I’d go off and play guitar to decompress; then the pendulum would swing back the other way. They drew on different parts of the brain, different skills, and somehow it was all held in balance.
Then, about fifteen years ago, I started getting recognition for the fiction, and that kind of seized the wheel. I played less and composed less for some years there. So, it’s been really great making this record and giving the music pride of place again. Of course, the last book I published just happens to be a musical mystery . . . so, there you go. They’re still deeply intertwined for me. I like it that way, even if the balance shifts toward one or the other creative mode from time to time. It’s all good.
JB: What do you appreciate most about the years you focused on playing blues guitar?
EH: Without that experience, I don’t think I’d be so dogged in seeking out strong rhythmic figures. Most of my tunes have a strong pulse, and some of that definitely goes back to the blues. I’m not a fan of the more ambient, New-Agey school of fingerstyle, nor am I particularly drawn to the really percussive stuff. There’s a sweet spot in there that I aim for. I think the blues help me stay on track.
JB: When you moved to Colorado in 2007, was it because of a music opportunity?
EH: Not at all. My wife and I took a leap and relocated out here for mostly personal reasons. Fortunately, we had portable job skills, and we had no kids in school, so we saw our opening and took it. Never looked back.
In Chicago, we lived across from a commuter train track, which wasn’t great for a home studio. I literally had the train schedule taped to the wall so I could plan takes around it. Moving to Colorado, on the edge of the woods, has been a distinct improvement.
JB: Your new album, Aloft, is mostly original music for the solo acoustic guitar, plus the added Scottish and Irish tunes. Talk briefly about your composing process.
EH: I work exclusively in altered tunings, so a lot of ideas well up from exploring the unexpected voicings you can find with those. You might have access to a drone effect that standard tuning wouldn’t give you—I find those in DADGCD, for example, or Orkney tuning. Once I have a melodic idea, I go looking for a strong rhythmic figure to mate it with.
Fiddling around in a tuning you’re not that comfortable with can generate interesting ideas because it’s easy to stray out of key, which can lead you places you didn’t think you were going. In composing as well as in writing fiction, I try to capitalize on happy accidents. I treat nothing as a mistake until it’s proven otherwise.
JB: I love the opening song “Still Reckless” with its guitar-bass duo and its syncopated pulse.
EH: I’ve been evolving that tune for two decades now. It keeps morphing and growing under my fingers. The riff that forms the key melodic figure actually grew from a technique De Grassi uses in both “Western” and “Slow Circle I,” a kind of rolling triplet effect.
My setup for that tune is a cut capo on the second through fourth strings, second fret, over a DGDGBD tuning. Same setup as “Margaret’s Waltz.” Tricky till you get used to it, but so, so rich.
JB: I love the arco double-bass on “Margaret’s Waltz.”
EH: Me too! That’s the awesome Craig Butterfield, a stellar player and a lovely man. I met Craig when my wife and I hosted him and the composer and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Jones for the annual Mahlerfest here in Boulder. He was principal bassist for the festival orchestra, though he’s just as comfortable playing jazz, newgrass, you name it. When he was staying with us, Craig would take his bass out back and play into the woods behind our place . . . lucky deer!
JB: “One More Surrender” has the most jazzy sound. Talk about composing that piece.
EH: That one’s so far back in time I don’t recall much about the process, honestly, but I do know that my playing of it has evolved toward a somewhat lighter touch on the strings. There was an earlier arrangement on my “Rooted” CD that was a bit grittier and faster. And it had a whole blues bridge in the middle that I’ve since dropped. These days, I like that tune shorter and tighter and a little more fleet-fingered. Adding the second guitar part was also something I’d planned to do for a long time. It’s minimalist, but I like what it adds.
JB: You close the album with the reflective “Distant Friends.” Is there a story behind this song?
EH: Way back in MySpace days, I connected with an Italian duo, Anita Camarella and Davide Facchini, who were reviving WW2-era Italian swing tunes, with Davide playing Atkins-style guitar under them. Cool stuff, very original. We corresponded for years over the internet until they came to Nashville to play Muriel Anderson’s All-Star Guitar Night. They drove all the way to Colorado after the gig, and we had a delightful week or so together here.
Since then, I’ve helped them with English-language liner notes and lyrics, and they’ve helped me with Italian for a novel of mine. I wrote “Distant Friends” soon after their visit to honor our friendship.
JB: Talk about the gigs you do in Colorado and how you make a career in music and writing work for you.
EH: At this point, I’m really a studio rat. With the demands of the writing work, I haven’t kept up any sort of performance schedule, though that may change with the new record, who knows. I’m trying to stay fluid and see where things lead me. That’s been my approach for years, and it’s seemed to work well.
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