Calum Graham mesmerizes Cupertino with soulful strings
Canadian guitarist blends humor, heart, harmony in a night of music and storytelling
Gordon Yang, La Voz Staff
May 3, 2025
Calum Graham plays “Nomad,” a tribute in memory of virtuoso guitarist Michael Hedges, inspired by Hedges’ 1984 “Aerial Boundaries” album. The concert took place at De Anza’s Visual and Performing Arts Center on Thursday, April 24.
De Anza College’s Visual and Performing Arts Center came alive as Canadian fingerstyle guitarist Calum Graham took the stage for a 75-minute concert that captivated listeners across the San Francisco Bay Area on the evening of April 24.
De Anza College’s Visual and Performing Arts Center came alive as Canadian fingerstyle guitarist Calum Graham took the stage for a 75-minute concert that captivated listeners...
Long before the concert started, the lobby was already bustling with fans, snapping up Graham’s latest album displayed on a long table at the entrance. The whole space was inundated with energy and excitement.
As the hall lights dimmed and a soft blue glow emerged onstage, Graham opened with a piece that sounded clear and gentle like water drops. His fingers danced across the strings in a flurry of motion.
After a thunderous round of applause, Graham broke the silence with a dose of humor. Between each instrumental song, Graham charmed the audience with his easygoing humor and stories behind the music.
“I started playing classical music in the baroque period, but this piece wasn’t necessarily inspired by the baroque era,” Graham said as he introduced “12:34,” his duet album with fellow Canadian guitarist Don Ross. “but it was written at a time when I was broke.”
The audience burst into another wave of laughter.
Throughout the evening, one standout piece was “Maelstrom.” Graham introduced the song with its music video.
Graham and his team filmed it at Glacier Point in Yosemite. Its rhythmic structure felt like standing on the vast expanse of rolling hills.
One touching moment came when he introduced “Waiting,” a song he wrote for a friend who had a stroke.
“I wrote this next song for a friend who is learning life all over again at 65 years old,” Graham said. The guitar strings vibrated in the warm yellow light, evoking memories of life’s fragility.
Later, Graham introduced “Tasakaal,” an album he co-created with a neuroscientist in Idaho, designed to stimulate different brain frequencies for relaxation, meditation and concentration.
“Music has always been something that’s brought a lot of peace in my life,” Graham said. “And my hope is that this album brings a little peace to your life as well.”
When the microphone momentarily cut out, Graham didn’t miss a beat. He continued with “Farewell,” a piece to a late friend, followed by “The Nomad,” a dynamic song inspired by his musical idol Michael Hedges.
Even without the assistance of the microphone, the rhythm was so exhilarating that it evoked a horse galloping across a grassland.
The energy surged when “Lighthouse,” a song for his sister and Graham’s first vocal performance of the night, was unveiled. His sonorous voice, along with the guitar, reflected his strong support for his sister.
“She had a very difficult life growing up,” Graham said before his performance. “I hope she hears it one day.”
Though the concert had come to its ending time, Graham rewarded the crowd with additional songs: “Tabula Rasa,” co-created with Andy McKee and Trevor Gordon Hall and “Phoenix Rising,” a fan favorite with over five million YouTube views.
The final number featured a drum-like, high-energy piece, and as Graham clapped in rhythm, the entire hall joined in, ending the night on a high note.
After the show, fans lined up in the lobby to meet Graham one by one. Nestor Gutierrez, a longtime fan from Cupertino, said, “I’ve been listening to him for 10 years. His style is unique. I do like the way that he’s joking around. I wish this concert would be longer.”
“It is a really good experience as an audience to have an artist that is talking to you,” Sarah Gutierrez, Nestor’s wife, said.
Graham said the show was amazing, despite the technical issues.
“Playing live is like life — things happen, and you can’t let it get you down,” Graham said.
He spoke of picking up the guitar at 13, inspired by his father and other famous players, such as Michael Hedges and Antoine Dufour.
“With six strings and 12 notes, you can create another world to get lost and take people away for a little bit,” Graham said.
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Full Article :
https://lavozdeanza.com/ane/2025/05/03/calum-graham-guitar/#
30+ Best Fingerstyle Guitarists of All Time [Updated For 2023]
(click here to read the original article)
Before talking about the Best Fingerstyle Guitarists, let’s talk a bit about Fingerstyle Guitar.
Fingerstyle refers to any style of guitar involving the use of fingers and thumb, and is now associated with a wide variety of styles and genres of music. These include Classical music, Travis picking, Folk music to even pop and fingerstyle jazz.
I’m going to talk about some amazing artists that have mastered this art and are extremely adept at both the technical and creative side of their music.
I’ll include both contemporary and modern musicians in this list, but there’s no way I can include all of them (there are so many!).
Here are the best fingerstyle guitarists, in no particular order.
Tommy Emmanuel
There is a reason why Tommy Emmanuel is regarded as the fan-favorite Fingerstyle Legend. It’s not just about the complex technique and his mastery over the acoustic guitar (which is beyond comparison by the way), but he is one of the greatest performers in my opinion. I’ve seen just a handful of guitarists with as much energy and communication with the audience as the Australian guitarist. Besides his amazing fingerstyle and “boom-chick” technique, he is adept at adding percussive elements to his arrangements as well. Well, a lot of you might not know that he is a great drummer too, which explains the percussion part. He has given a lot of credit of his playing style to Chet Atkins, which is the next name on this list.
Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins was one of the most technical and talented musicians of his time. Initially inspired by Merle Travis, his playing style has inspired a number of artists, including Tommy Emmanuel and Mark Knopfler among others. He took the Travis picking technique and developed it into a whole new subgenre of country music by the name of Nashville sound. Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his unforgettable works and contribution to the American country music scene. He is also an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Musicians Hall of Fame.
Michael Hedges
Michael Hedges is the creator and pioneer behind the modern percussive acoustic guitar. His approach to playing the guitar using percussive effects, harmonics, tapping and fingerpicking led to rise of a new wave of percussive fingerstyle guitarists. Hedges has inspired artists like Andy McKee, Don Ross, Calum Graham, Mike Dawes, Preston Reed, Jon Gomm and many more. He also toured briefly with legendary guitarist Leo Kottke. Apart from the acoustic guitar, he also played the Harp guitar, TransTrem guitar, piano, harmonica and flute. Not only that, he was a great vocalist as well. Michael Hedges died young in an unfortunate car accident. Some of Hedges’ popular songs include Aerial Boundaries, Bensusan (tribute to Pierre Bensusan) and Ragamuffin.
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist and singer-songwriter of rock band Dire Straits. But he now plays as an independent solo artist. Unlike many other players here, Mark Knopfler tends to mostly play with his thumb, index and middle finger. Of course, that’s enough to make him one of the most talented and melodic fingerstyle players. Knopfler is extremely adept at both acoustic and electric guitar, and manages to keep his tone extremely clear even in his distortion solos. Here is one of his most popular and beautiful electric guitar solos of all time. It’s a live performance of the Dire Strait song Sultans of Swings.
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke is a legendary American guitarist known for his jazz, blues and folk fingerstyle playing. He often uses open tunings, and sometimes likes to tune his guitars a couple steps lower than the standard tuning. Influenced by folk and delta blues music, he picked up the trombone and violin first before trying out the guitar, and the rest is history. Kottke suffered partial loss of hearing due to a firecracker accident and developed tendinitis (tendon damage) due to his aggressive picking style. The right hand injury made him change his picking style to a more classical and jazz oriented one, involving more flesh and less nail and fingerpicks. He is one of the “Great ones” after all, and his live performances and recordings show no signs of any injury whatsoever.
Jerry Reed
A singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer and a well-loved actor – Jerry Reed is one of the greatest country music artists of all time. Apart from country, he has a notable contribution in even bluegrass and jazz music. Reed has a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance to his name, and was also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. Some of Reed’s most popular songs include “Guitar Man,” “East Bound and Down,” “Georgia On My Mind” and “City Of New Orleans”.
Paul Simon
12 Grammys, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an Oscar nomination, as well as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee – Paul Simon is an American singer, guitarist and actor, perhaps most known for his success with Art Garfunkel in the duo Simon and Garfunkel. Simon wrote some of their most iconic songs like “The Sound of Silence”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Mrs. Robinson”. The duo split up later and has been performing as a solo artist since then. A lot of people know for his songwriting and musician skills, but he is often underrated when it comes to his fingerpicking skills. His songs like “The Sound of Silence” and “The Boxer” among others are some of the most beautiful fingerpicking guitar songs ever written.
Andy McKee
Probably most well-known for his song ‘Drifting,’ Andy McKee is a revolutionary fingerstyle guitarist and a whizz when it comes to alternate tunings and creative ways to play the acoustic guitar. A marvelous example is the use of a beautiful open tuning and a banjo capo in his song ‘Rylynn.’ He began his journey learning electric-guitar inspired by guys like Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson. However, this got changed the moment he was introduced to acoustic guitarists like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, and Preston Reed, and we all know how well did that go. In fact, the top two as well as six out of the top ten overall most-videos on Candyrat Records’ YouTube channel are Andy’s songs. Most of you are already pretty familiar with his music, but if you aren’t, it should be the first thing to do right now.
Calum Graham
Calum Graham is a young Canadian guitarist who is greatly inspired by fingerstyle legends like Michael Hedges and Don Ross. It’s no surprise that his playing takes a lot of inspiration from those guys. Not only that, he is classically trained as well, which definitely can be seen in his picking and left-hand technique. His song “The Nomad” is actually the first percussive acoustic song that I learnt, and I can highly recommend it to you guys as well (for learning or just pleasing your ears)
(read the rest of the article at the link below)
PRESS
A big thank you to our amazing supporters for helping us exceed our fundraising goal! Together we raised more than $114,000 so that for people who are vulnerable can still count on Cool Aid to continue providing critical programs like health and dental care, compassionate support and food security.
Please join us in thanking our wonderful matching partners:
Andrew Beckerman, The Viveka Foundation, Knappett Projects Inc., Butler Concrete & Aggregates, TL Housing Solutions. We are also very thankful for the 60 businesses and people who helped with gifts to the Homecoming Auction this year.
A special thanks to Calum Graham for performing the Facebook Live concert in support of Cool Aid.
Your continued support of Cool Aid touches so many lives. We couldn’t do it without you!
All of us - including some great guitarists - Calum Graham boasts eight fingers and two thumbs on two hands. But it is his singular musical brain that governs it all. And when everything aligns cosmically the result is extraordinary. In fact is quite magical because when you put a guitar in his hands (he plays several kinds - acoustic, baritone and harp) the instruments sometimes becomes a chamber ensemble. On ‘Thread of Creation’, his six album, Graham takes us right into the heart of his magical world that included the iconic ‘Tabula Rasa’. With Graham's hands, the guitar reveals it's huge vocabulary of sounds, with minimalist electronic effects combined to make it sound as big as an ensemble. Graham brings his unique musical insight and musicianship to deploy all of the instruments capabilities effectively. From using harmonics and pizzicato to exotica such as bi-tone tapping and percussion you might wonder if his guitar has a drum set attached. Graham turns a simple one-to-five minute song into a poetic miniature. His music is inspired, original and daring and there are several examples of this on ‘Thread of Creation’ - such as ‘The Nomad’ and ‘Ma Lumiere’ - to name but two. Bassist Michael Manring makes ‘In Lak’Ech’ truly atmospheric; Antoine Dufour does likewise on ‘Absolution’. Meanwhile Graham emerges as the pre-eminent artist technician.
-Raul da Gama (taken from Wholenote Magazine Vol.25 No.5 - https://www.thewholenote.com)