NEW ALBUMS: SUFJAN STEVENS AND FLEET FOXESSummer 2017 has seen a bumper crop of

releases by some of the big players of acoustic

guitar-centric indie, with two long awaited

new releases by US artists Fleet Foxes and

Sufjan Stevens among the season’s offerings.

The fi rst reviews are now in for Fleet Foxes’

new album Crack-Up, released in June via

Nonesuch Records. Crack-Up comes six years

after the 2011 release of Helplessness Blues

and nearly a decade since the band’s 2008

best-selling self-titled debut topped best-of

lists around the internet.

Culture website Vulture said: ‘[For Crack-

Up] the band shakes off its penchant for

baroque arrangements for a string of two-

and three-part epics with sudden shifts in

tone, while singer Robin Pecknold peppers

personal refl ection with musings on beautiful

mountains and cryptozoological wonders

like nymphs and monsters. It looks heavy on

paper, but in headphones, Crack-Up is light as

a warm afternoon breeze.’

Meanwhile Sufjan Stevens followed up

his 2015 release Carrie & Lowell, which

reached #6 on UK album charts, with a new

collaboration with The National’s Bryce

Dessner, composer Nico Muhly and Stevens’

long-term collaborator James McAlister. Fans

can apparently expect: “Grand orchestrations,

subtle guitar work and deep electronic

textures [that] hang like constellations around

sing-song melodies, and atmospheric fusion of

elaboration and simplicity.”

WHISKEY IN THE JARIconic brands Bushmills Irish Whiskey and Lowden Guitars – two of Northern Ireland’s fi nest exports – have joined forces to create a limited edition guitar made from Bushmills Irish whiskey barrels and ancient bog oak.

For the limited edition Bushmills x Lowden F-50 guitar, of which only eight are available to buy, George Lowden personally selected Bushmills Irish Whiskey barrel wood for the 12th fret and back inlays, the bindings, rosette and head facings, ancient bog oak for the back and sides of the guitar; and sinker redwood for the soundboard.

The design includes a cross symbol formed of a cooper’s hammer and luthier’s chisel, representing the coming together of these two crafts. On the back, two lines echo the staves found in a Bushmills Irish Whiskey barrel and “represent the passing of skills from one generation to the next.”

George Lowden said: “We scour the

world for the best tonewoods which are the real ‘stars’ of our guitars, determining how they sound, feel, and play, so my sons and I relished the opportunity to work with the Coopers to select the best Bushmills Irish Whiskey barrel wood for the guitar.

“The three woods used to create the guitar play an integral part in making the Bushmills x Lowden so unique. The barrel wood is steeped in over 400 years of whiskey making heritage and used throughout to perfectly compliment the other tone woods. The back and sides are made up of ancient bog oak to offer a mellow, warm sound and when paired with sinker redwood on the soundboard, it helps extract a clarity and sparkle from each and every note the guitar produces.”

The eight guitars retail at £8,500 each. To fi nd out more visit www.lowdenguitars.com/bushmillsxlowden

String snappage is one of those pain-in-the-

neck facts-of-life that many newer guitarists

don’t see coming – to their peril. Now

London app developer Gismart have released

DoubleTune, a brand new tuning app for iOS

with unique Tune Guard mode – which, they

say, makes the tuning process fast, accurate,

intuitive and fear-free for inexperienced

musicians who are afraid to snap the strings

while tuning a musical instrument.

DoubleTune has several tuning modes

such as standard guitar, ukulele, open string,

drop tuning, double-dropped tuning, custom

tuning, manual chromatic tuner, tune-by ear

mode and pitch fork. There is also unique Tune

Guard mode, a smart feature that helps tune

string musical instruments safely and avoid

breaking strings. With Tune Guard users are

alerted with visual red signal and highlighted

string when it is too tight and about to break.

This mode is recommended for beginner

musicians with lack of experience in tuning

string instruments to keep the strings safe.

Info: https://gismart.com/

APPY AS LARRY

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VIN GARBUTT - RIP

you’re working your squeezing muscles.

You’re carrying packages, squeezing a

shampoo bottle, brushing your teeth, lifting

something. But there’s very rarely the

opposite action of stretching.”

Blues guitarist Kelly Richey, a carpal

tunnel syndrome sufferer, told the site

that instead of doing traditional ‘crunches’,

she swore by an ‘isometric’ routine – a

constant hand stretching motion that

pushes flexibility in the extensors. She

added: “I diligently committed to doing these

different hand strengthening exercises

daily, and they have really helped my

playing in terms of hand strength, dexterity

and accuracy.”

Folk legend Vin Garbutt – known to many

as the ‘Teesside Troubadour’ – has died at

the age of 69, following heart surgery. The

Middlesbrough-born folk singer had a four

decade career, recording his fi rst album, The

Valley of Tees, in 1972, and continuing to tour

worldwide right up until recent years.

In 2001 Garbutt won the ‘Best Live Act’

award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards,

and Teesside University awarded him an

Honorary Degree of Master of Arts for his

cultural contributions to the North East of

England that same year. Synthetic Hues,

Garbutt’s 16th and fi nal album was released

in 2015. A tour was originally planned for this

summer.

His family posted the following message

on Facebook: “It’s with great sadness and

extremely heavy hearts that we must inform

you that our beloved Vin passed away [that

morning]. He

loved the life

he shared with

you all, and we

know how much

he’ll be missed.

Although we

won’t be able to

see him again,

we’re grateful

that we will be

able to listen to

him for the rest

of our lives.”

Undertaking regular strengthening exercises

to prevent against repetitive strain injuries

to the hands while playing guitar seems like

a no-brainer, doesn’t it? One medical device

company is now suggesting otherwise.

Digital Music News has recently published

a report suggesting that conventional

wisdom surrounding hand exercises for

guitarists has been getting it all wrong, with

an overemphasis on strengthening that

ignores the need for maintaining fl exibility –

sometimes damaging the ability of guitarists

to play in the longer term along the way.

Scott Kupferman, creator of the Xtensor (a

contraption that claims to increase strength

and fl exibility in this area), said: “Every day,

Six of the world’s most distinguished

instrument builders have come up with a

novel way to make a lasting difference in the

lives of sick children. Luthiers Steve Grimes,

Beau Hannam, John Kinnard, Jay Lichty, Jake

Maclay and Joji Yoshida will set themselves

the challenge of building a tenor ukulele

from just two trees between them, with the

proceeds from the sale going to The Ukulele

Kids club – a well-established charity in both

the US and the UK that helps hospitalised

children by giving them the gift of music.

Explaining how the idea came about, the

group said: “Several luthiers and friends were

discussing an often-asked question in the

acoustic instrument world, ‘how much does

the wood contribute to tone and how much

does the luthier contribute?’ The challenge to

answering this question stems from the fact

that there is great variability from tree-to-tree

in the same species.

“They quickly agreed that they would need

to constrain the source to a particular tree.

Excited, they agreed that if they could get half

a dozen of the world’s best luthiers to each

LUTHIERY FOR CHARITY

build a tenor ukulele from the same exact

tree, it would allow the world to see and hear

the unique aesthetics and tonal voicing each

brings to virtually identically wood sets. The

group determined right away that such an

interesting project could be used to educate, to

KEEPING NIMBLE?

entertain and to raise money for a charitable

cause. Thus, Luthiers for a Cause was born.”

The ukes will be completed later this year. For

more information and to donate directly, visit:

www.luthiersforacause.org and https://uk.theukc.org

JULY 2017 ACOUSTIC MAGAZINE

DONATE YOUR UNUSED UKES NOW!

ATO THE UKULELE KIDS

CLUB, VISIT HTTPS://THEUKC.ORG/

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