1. Michael Alden Hedges was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter.
17 Facts About Michael Hedges
1. 2.
Michael Hedges was known as a virtuoso who used unorthodox playing techniques, and much of his output was classified as new age music.
3.
The son of Thayne Alden Hedges and Ruth Evelyn Hedges Ipsen, Michael Hedges was born in Sacramento, California.
4.
Ulrich, who Michael Hedges credited as his biggest influence from his academic training.
5.
Michael Hedges studied as a composition major at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where he applied his classical background to steel-string acoustic guitar, studying electronic music.
6.
Michael Hedges made a living by playing and singing in bars and restaurants in Baltimore while a student at Peabody.
7.
Michael Hedges was contacted in February 1981 by William Ackerman who heard him perform at the Varsity Theater in Palo Alto.
8.
Michael Hedges made extensive use of string damping as employed in classical guitar, and was known to insist strongly on the precise duration of sounds and silences in his pieces.
9.
Michael Hedges played guitar variants like the harp guitar, and the TransTrem guitar.
10.
Michael Hedges was a multi-instrumentalist who played piano, percussion, tin whistle, harmonica, and flute.
11.
Virtuoso bassist Michael Manring contributed to nearly all of Hedges' records.
12.
Michael Hedges listened to Martin Carthy, John Martyn, and the Beatles, but his approach to composition owed much to Igor Stravinsky, Edgard Varese, Anton Webern, and Steve Reich, in addition to experimental composers such as Morton Feldman.
13.
Michael Hedges saw himself as a composer who played guitar, rather than a guitarist who composed music.
14.
Michael Hedges was often categorized as a new-age musician because of his association with Windham Hill.
15.
Michael Hedges was married to flautist Mindy Rosenfeld but the couple divorced in the late 1980s.
16.
Michael Hedges was the father of two children, Mischa Aaron Hedges and Jasper Alden Hedges.
17.
Michael Hedges was thrown from his car and appeared to have died nearly instantly.