Life on the Fretboard with Michael Watts

Martin Simpson is a true icon of the global acoustic music scene. As a guitarist, he has done a huge amount to push the boundaries of the acoustic steel string instrument - showing it can be an expressive and lyrical voice. As a songwriter, he is a masterful storyteller whose poignant lyrics are shared with a disarmingly gentle, no-frills delivery that makes those of us who grew up in the North of...

Rob Luft is a rising star of the European jazz guitar scene whose intricate and lyrical playing melds textures from around the world into a striking musical voice. Rob is an extraordinarily creative person and a bit of a chameleon, home with everything from soulful standards and improvised fusion madness to Balkan time signatures and the joyful lines of Congolese soukous. He has even composed and...

Claire Tole-Moir is Head of Popular Culture at Bonhams, the world-famous auction house in London. On a daily basis, she is in direct contact with some of the most iconic and culturally impactful works of modern art, sculpture, photography, film and artist memorabilia of the last century.  So if you fancy a Man Ray photograph; a golden ticket from the original Charlie and The Chocolate Factory film...

Lord of the Les Paul and Mariscal of the Marshall Stack, Scott Gorham shot to worldwide prominence with the legendary rock band Thin Lizzy. He created what would become known subsequently as "The Twin Guitar Attack" - a harmonised lead guitar style developed alongside players such as Brian Robertson and Gary Moore, driving home the larger-than-life persona of frontman and bass player Phil Lynott....

Derek Gripper plays Malian Kora music on a vintage Hermann Hauser classical guitar...and if that doesn't get your attention, nothing will!  John Williams himself describes feeling that this was, and, I quote, "absolutely impossible until I heard Derek Gripper do it." So that's pretty cool.  We talk about his work translating the music of this beautiful African harp to the nylon string guitar, and...

Canadian-born Jocelyn Gould is a JUNO award-winning guitarist, vocalist, composer and professor of jazz studies who performs at the highest international levels. Jocelyn is one of those musicians that I could listen to for hours. She is a force of nature, too. She tours constantly. I was delighted to fly back from Norway in time to catch up with her in the days around her debut at one of London's...

Adrian Utley is one of the most versatile and creative musicians the UK has produced. His work with artists such as Jeff Beck, Patti Smith and Glenn Branca is testament to this.  Shooting to prominence in the mid 1990s with Portishead, Adrian's beautifully judged, nuanced playing - with its unique jazz and soul sensibilities - set the band apart from their contemporaries in what would become known...

Barrie Cadogan (also known as "Little Barrie") is one of the world's first call electric guitarists when it comes to classic soul, rock, punk, and rhythm & blues. He has worked with some of the biggest indie artists performing today including Morrissey, Paul Weller, Edwyn Collins, Liam Gallagher, and Primal Scream. That's a hell of a CV by anyone's standards, but Barrie is perhaps best known for t...

Bruce Springsteen and Thurston Moore adore his work and rightly so...Wizz Jones is a lynchpin of the UK folk blues guitar scene and has been since the early 1960s. When London was an epicenter for artists from the USA such as Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Jackson C. Frank, and Bob Dylan - Wizz was right there. Wizz was also there to hear some of the fi...

Emma Tricca is a massively talented singer-songwriter, a poet, and beautiful fingerstyle guitarist.  Italian by birth, Emma works between Rome, London and New York making gorgeous psychedelic folk rock records - her latest is called 'Aspirin Sun' it is out now and it's rather wonderful.  You may have seen Emma on tour with such luminaries as Robyn Hitchcock, Dinosaur Jr. or Nick Mason's Saucerful...

Will Ackerman is a visionary composer, fingerstyle guitarist and producer. As the founder of Windham Hill Records, he achieved international success with his own music and that of artists such as Michael Hedges, George Winston, Alex De Grassi and others.  Windham Hill's sumptuous, detailed sound is widely acknowledged to be a milestone in the evolution of the acoustic guitar. Let's face it: When t...

Welcome to Episode 3 of Life on the Fretboard: A series of face-to-face conversations between British guitarist, writer and filmmaker Michael Watts and exceptionally talented individuals who live a life on the fretboard.  For this episode, Michael's guest is the frighteningly gifted Australian fingerstyle guitarist Alan Gogoll, whose gentle, whimsical music is given voice via one of the most intri...

Jon Gomm is a virtuoso singer-songwriter whose astonishing command of extended acoustic guitar techniques is coupled with thought-provoking lyrics and a dry, often anarchic sense of humor.    In this episode of Life on the Fretboard, Gomm shares his thoughts with host Michael Watts on having the guitar as part of his identity as well as a sanctuary, his horror of sonic paradigms and deeply dodgy g...

The Fretboard Journal is proud to welcome you to the very first episode of Life on the Fretboard, a new podcast hosted by British guitarist, filmmaker, and writer Michael Watts.   For his first episode, Michael talks with the astonishing Scottish guitarist Tony McManus. Described by the late John Renbourn as "The Best Celtic Guitarist in the World," McManus has toured the world delighting audience...

Life on the Fretboard is the newest addition to the Fretboard Journal's family of podcasts. With each episode, British guitarist, filmmaker, and writer Michael Watts interviews extraordinary individuals from the world of guitars. For his first season, Watts will focus on some of his favorite acoustic fingerstyle guitarists. Episode one with Tony McManus launches on January 9, 2022.