Mary Flower
Sunday, May 12 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
NOTE: This Workshop requires a separately purchased ticket in addition to General Admission. Get Tickets
Fingerpicking Blues and Rag Guitar in Open Tunings
Mary will explore the differences and similarities of a few different and rich open tunings, G6 and D minor. Slacking certain strings of the guitar creates open chords and makes for easier left hand fingerings Whether playing slack key style or bottleneck slide, this style was a primitive approach to improvising on guitar.
G6 was used inventively by the great Bo Carter (the king of the double entendre) whereas the dark D minor tuning was owned exquisitely by Skip James of Bentonia, Mississippi. Class will explore chords and improvisation in these tunings through songs and exercises from Mary’s collection of originals.
Levels advanced beginning and up are welcome. Taping (video or audio) of the class is encouraged and students will leave with hand outs.
About Mary
An internationally known and award-winning picker, singer/songwriter and teacher, the Midwest native relocated from Denver to the vibrant Portland, Oregon music scene in in 2004. She helped develop the curriculum at Denver’s Swallow Hill Music School and has many instructional materials out there for blues, fingerstyle, and lap-slide guitar playing. Mary Flower is very much a guitar geek’s guitar geek; always learning and playing spreading the guitar geek gospel.
She continues to please crowds and critics at folk festivals, teaching seminars and concert stages domestically and abroad, that include Merlefest, Kerrville, King Biscuit, Prairie Home Companion and the Vancouver Folk Festival, among many. Mary Flower’s immense finger picking guitar and lap-slide prowess is soulful and meter-perfect, a deft blend of the inventive, the dexterous and the mesmerizing. Her supple honey-and-whiskey voice provides the perfect melodic accompaniment to each song’s story.
A finalist in 2000 and 2002 at the National Finger Picking Guitar Championship, a nominee in 2008, 2012 and 2016 for a Blues Foundation Blues Music Award, and many times a Cascade Blues Assn. Muddy Award winner, Flower embodies a luscious and lusty mix of rootsy, acoustic-blues guitar and vocal styles that span a number of idioms – from Piedmont to the Mississippi Delta, with stops in ragtime, swing, folk and hot jazz.
Flower’s 11 recordings, including her four for Memphis’ famed Yellow Dog Records — Bywater Dance, Instrumental Breakdown, Bridges and Misery Loves Company — show a deep command of and love for folk and blues string music. For Flower, it’s never about re-creation. Her dedication to the art form is a vital contribution to America’s music.
“A world class finger-style guitarist and lap slide player.” – Downbeat Magazine
“There are few musicians in the genre bringing as much creative spark and low-key mojo to this century-old music…” – Acoustic Guitar Magazine
“Marries acoustic blues with touches of ragtime, folk, and jazz…the interplay is always interesting, often provocative, and sometimes breathtaking.” – Living Blues
maryflower.com
