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Michael Hedges "Taproot"

 


Talk about an album that changed my life in more ways than one...  I was thinking about this last night, how around 1994 my musical tastes took a major left turn away from alternative rock based offerings and instead headed straight into what was once called New Age music and then ultimately jazz, eventually even leading me into world music.  Michael Hedges was certainly a huge part of that left turn and I would have never seen it coming even just two years prior.

As many of my stories go, this was an album that I originally picked up as part of the ol' Columbia House/BMG "get 10 CD's for a penny" routine which gave me the opportunity to try multiple albums with little to no commitment.  I remember perusing the catalog one day and seeing this album listed, a bit to my shock, and I remembered Michael Hedges' name from a Windham Hill video that a friend of mine was watching a few years earlier.  I recall seeing this semi crazy looking guy playing an acoustic guitar to a rather large audience on my friend's TV and asked, "Who the hell is that?!"  Of course he replied "Michael Hedges" to which I probably answered something like "who the hell is Michael Hedges?!"  I think my initial impression of the video was that this guy was a kook; in a matter of minutes, though, after seeing the crazy manner in which he was playing, that kookiness turned into "holy sh*t" and nothing but awe.  Thus, Hedges' name was permanently planted deep in the recesses of my brain but wouldn't come up again until this record club perusal.

And so, seeing it on the list, and considering I had to choose anywhere between 8-16 CD's, why not?  I took the plunge, added it to my list, and received it a few weeks later.  It probably sat in the corner unopened for a bit of time until one day I popped it into the CD player.  My initial listen of a song or two told me that it was nice but I wasn't sure if it was something I'd take too seriously.  And then, who knows how much later, I probably tried it again with only modest additional interest.

It wasn't until we took a trip up to Cambria, CA, driving from the Phoenix area, that the album landed for me.  For whatever reason, I brought "Taproot" with us and played it, and I think the visuals of driving up the coast were exactly what I needed to get into this album.  In fact, by the time we returned from this trip, I was completely gaga over this album and couldn't believe how much I loved it.  I distinctly recall playing this and Neil Young's "Freedom" album over and over (an odd pairing, I know).

It's hard to talk about instrumental albums sometimes with words.  I mean, inherently, they're instrumental songs...no words...so it seems almost strange to try to whittle them down to a few phrases.  There is just something so incredibly visual and soul soothing about this album, though, and I don't really even think of it as "songs" for it seems like it needs to be played from start to finish.  For me personally, of which I went on to buy every single Hedges album afterwards, this is by far my favorite, and artistically speaking I considerate a masterpiece above other masterpieces of his work, the very ultimate Hedges ever was able to accomplish in his unfortunately short life span.  To this day, I tend to take this album on road trips, especially where it's visually stimulating.

One of the true artistic shockers on this album is that it ends with not an instrumental but a song sung by Hedges, thus setting him up to next release an album of non-instrumental tracks.  "Carry Your Heart" has to be one of my favorite songs of all time, one that makes me tear up every single time I hear it, and I can't help but sing along in harmony with the likes of David Crosby.  It's even more amazing that the lyric is word for word a poem put to music for the words flow perfectly over the music Hedges' composed, and it's not a super straight forward arrangement either; it's almost like the words were meant for this music.  I love Hedges' vocal work as well but this song in particular showcases his voice in a manner that he was never able to duplicate, and the amount of emotion that is conveyed in this one song, again wrapping up an amazing masterpiece album, is simply mind blowing.  For anyone that would have an interest in Hedges' work, I can't recommend this one enough but you do need to give it the opportunity to grow on you, especially if you're new to his style.

I was fortunate enough to see Hedges perform once at the Coach House, not long before he passed away.  To say that it was jaw dropping is putting it mildly and I only wish I had had the opportunity to see him more than that one time.  I also wish I had physically spoken to him.  Just seeing him play both physically and witnessing his presence was something that I really can't describe and I consider a true gift.  When Hedges died, it rocked my world and I was fairly devastated along with many other fans.  There have been many imitators but there was only one Michael Hedges. 

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