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- Musician. Born in Sacramento, California, he was a acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter, noted for a wide range of musical styles. From 1974, until his death, he performed at concerts and recorded albums to include "Breakfast in the Field", "Aerial Boundaries", "Taproot", "The Road to Return" and "Oracle" which won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album in 1998.
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- Guitarist Hedges dies in auto accident
By Martha Irvine, Associated Press Writer
San Francisco – Michael Hedges, an acoustic guitarist and composer known for his unusual two-handed picking style, was killed in an automobile crash. He was 43.
Hedges died in a one-car crash on State Route 128 in rural Medocino County about 100 miles northwest of San Francisco, California Highway Patrol Officer Bob Burke said Wednesday. A work crew discovered the guitarist’s body in his wrecked 1986 TMW Tuesday morning.
Burke said it appeared Hedges’ car skidded off a curve and down a steep embankment a few days earlier.
Know for innovations such as simultaneously picking both ends of the guitar, the Grammy nominee described his own music as “heavy mental,” “acoustic thrash” and “new edge.”
In the early 1980s, he helped establish the Windham Hill label with his albums “Breakfast in the Field” (1983) and “Aerial Boundaries” (1984). He also collaborated with such musicians as bassist Michael Manring, guitarist Dweezil Zappa and Crosby, Still & Nash.
“He was a great friend and one of the most brilliant musicians in America,” David Crosby said Wednesday from his Southern California home.
A native of Enid, Okla., Hedges’ early interest in the guitar and flute led him to study classical guitar at Phillips University in Enid. He eventually earned a degree in composition from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He also studied electronic music at Stanford University, where he met Windham Hill co-founder and guitarist Will Ackerman.
“Michael tore my head off,” Ackerman once said of Hedges’ playing. “It was like watching the guitar being reinvented.”
In recent years, Hedges lived in Medocino, recording in his Naked Ear Music studio. There he incorporated vocals into albums such as “Taproot” (1990) and “The Road to Return” (1993), but had returned to instrumentals in his most recent album, “Oracle”.
Hedges is survived by his mother, Ruth Ipsen, of Fresno; sister, Carol Hedges of San Francisco; two brothers, Craig of Los Angeles and Brendan of Madera; and two sons.
Daily Press, Victorville, California. Thursday, 4 December 1997.
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1953 - 1997 (43 years)
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