Kinloch Nelson

This is American guitar music born not of the blues, but glistening, plaintive chaconnes and tone poems with their roots in Segovia medievalism, European folk music, and the Northern folk renaissance. Beguiling and strange, this is a real find. Sometime in late 1967, my high school friend Carter Redd and I began playing guitars together, experimenting and working on songs of the day: Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Donovan.

Fingerstyle guitarist Kinloch Nelson joins us on this week's FJ Podcast to talk about Partly on Time: Recordings 1968-1970, his new (and highly recommended) anthology on Tompkins Square. The backstory on these demo and previously unreleased recordings is simply incredible.

Over the years I have played a lot of different styles of music. I started playing as a kid in the 1950's when half the cowboys in the movies, on tv, and on the side of lunch boxes rode horses and strummed the guitar. The first song I learned was "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley", from a baby sitter in 1958 or '59.

Here's a tour of the process in pictures, starting with the blue print, parts layout and order of assembly, more or less. Do try this at home. Typical artificial fingernail systems can compromise the health of the nail by covering up the nail bed. Here's how you can "fiberglass" your fingernail tips, not the entire nail, using a bit of cloth and some superglue.