Grammy Award Winnner Will Ackerman
New age grammy winner parties with fans at house concert
This award-winning guitarist brings his instrumental stylings to admirers around the world via relaxed concerts in their homes
When Grammy award-winning musician Will Ackerman entered Canada one warm summer day in 2006 it wasn’t to perform at the NAC or Centrepointe Theatre or Barrymore’s. Despite Ackerman’s international acclaim as one of the world’s finest guitarists, when he stepped out in front of his audience it was, surprisingly, only his second time performing in Canada. And it was in a private residence in rural west Ottawa.
Ackerman, 57, who lives in Windham County, Vermont, was the featured performer at a house concert in Woodlawn, Ontario (on a picturesque property where generations before have farmed and likely enjoyed a fiddle tune or two.)
Will Ackerman is a recording artist with more than a dozen albums to his credit, and a sought after producer with an impressive collection of Platinum and Gold records on his resume.
Sitting casually on a kitchen chair among 60 ticket holders, Ackerman’s open-tuning style of playing, prefaced by stories of great passion, created an interesting vibe during his 90-minute set.
Beginning with Processional, first recorded in 1970, he was joined off and on throughout the night by long-time friend and collaborator, David Cullen. The Impending Death of the Virgin Spirit (1970), The Bricklayer’s Beautiful Daughter (1975), Anne’s Song (1977), and Unconditional (1997) were all performed on guitars loaned to him by the Folklore Centre. His guitars, shipped ahead of time to avoid problems at the boarder, were delayed at customs.
Many of the songs that were on Ackerman’s set list are on his compilation CD Returning, an effortthat earned him a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album in 2004. But his sound really defies labeling. And “new age” isn’t a description he relishes.
Ackerman’s music is sleek and sophisticated. It’s clean and clear. It’s like the man himself – intuitive, larger than life yet warm and inviting. His performances are not just about the relationship between his fingers and the guitar. There is something more. It’s as if his whole body is coaxing each note from some place deep within.
“My goal is to get to the feelings before they are encumbered by thought,” he explains.
Oddly, Ackerman doesn’t read music – not even tabs. He doesn’t record his songs on paper as he is composing; rather he videotapes himself during a process that seems more spiritual than methodical.
But none of that mattered, or it only added to the music’s mystique, on that summer's evening.
Fans, many of whom said they had never dreamed of being able to hear Ackerman perform live in Canada, drove hours to attend the intimate gathering.
Having Ackerman play here was a dream come true for Janice Street, an admirer of his tender touch on the guitar since she first heard his music more than 10 years ago. Ackerman’s music speaks to her, she says. She calls it “acoustic imagery” - the creation of a picture that evokes emotion without ever a word being said.
Street was considering a trip to Rhode Island to catch Ackerman in action when she discovered, through his website, that he enjoys performing in private homes. It took about five months of preparation but once the word was out the tickets weren’t difficult to sell.
Ackerman says he accepts this type of gig because of the raw, up front and personal environment it offers, without the trappings of the big stage – no light, or sound systems – where he can engage in a dialogue with the audience and exchange emotions.
In the 1970’s, while working as a general contractor, Ackerman founded Windham Hill Records with $300 in $5 bills.
Before long the record company was making $30-$40 million a year and had offices in eight countries.
“The Windham Hill name became synonymous with a style of music,” he notes. “People were insanely loyal to what we were doing.”
Ackerman sold Windham Hill Records in 1992 and settled in to produce and write at his Imaginary Roads Studios in Vermont.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Ackerman’s first album, In Search of the Turtle’s Navel.
A writer, performer and producer Ackerman’s music has attracted an enormous following in markets worldwide, including Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain. At concerts he hears stories of people being married and buried to his tunes. Canada, he admits, has been difficult to break in to.
According to Ackerman, he came to this place in his life in a sort of round about way.
An orphan adopted at a young age by an English professor, his appreciation for the written word came naturally and so too did his love of music.
At eight years old the Kingston Trio was a huge influence on him, as was the new folk music of the 1950’s. He also recalls going to a concert and being blown away by a new girl named Barbara Streisand.
His first guitar had nylon strings. After playing an electric guitar in a high school rock band he won his first steel string guitar in 1967, in a bet.
“I was introduced to open tunings. It was a sound I understood,” he says.
On that night we were glad he did.
