[Bounded Four Decades] -- I spent much of 2023 revisiting albums that turned 40 that year. No surprise that I wanted to continue that work in 2024. And this week in 1984 saw a bunch of releases, most of which were even dated January 1. So, I had many options for the first Flashback of 2024. I'd like to tell you I made this week's choice due to a desire to ease into this new year. But, really, it was a memory. A memory of this artist and how I found this album.
I don't recall how I first saw live footage of Michael Hedges performing. My best guess is PBS, via a Windham Hill concert taped at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA. Dad was a Windham Hill fan, and he knew I liked Shadowfax, one of the featured performers. Anyway, during that July 1986 performance that I viewed on TV, Hedges monologued to introduce his song, "Because It's There," briefly told a story about guitar shopping in Texas, and saying that he purchased a "longhorn model" (see 0:20 through 0:59 of the previously linked video). He was referring to a harp guitar, the "longhorn" of which was a second, curved neck with additional strings (the "harp" part of the guitar).
That performance, and his covers of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and Sheila E.'s "A Love Bizarre," made me a fan. And it led me to track down what he had recorded at Windham Hill. Spoiler: He had not yet put his covers on an album. But, still, this brings me to this week's Flashback.
Aerial Boundaries was Michael Hedges' second album for Windham Hill, but my first in my reverse chronological order. I somehow skipped 1985's Watching My Life Go By until much later. And, oh, what an experience this record is. Hedges's use of alternate tunings and his two-handed percussive technique wrought more music out of a guitar than I had ever thought a single person could achieve. Though he isn't completely alone: Mike Manring adds fretless bass on "After the Gold Rush" and "Menage a Trois," with Mindy Rosenfeld (whom Hedges had married in August of 1981) joining in with flute on that latter track. Writing for AllMusic, Daniel Gioffre referred to Aerial Boundaries as "one of the finest acoustic guitar albums ever made." The reviewer at Windhaming, a site that was dedicated to the first 100 Windham Hill albums, wrote: "This is one of those few albums that served to define a genre by showing all that it is capable of, while simultaneously & immediately appealing to both casual listeners & those most in the know" [quoted text via michaelhedges.com]. It's an album that, I think, certainly helped define and popularize ambient acoustic music in the mid to late 1980s.
My favorite tracks: "Aerial Boundaries," "After the Gold Rush," "Spare Change," and "The Magic Farmer."
Flashback: Aerial Boundaries (January 1, 1984)
And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
I'll see you in seven!
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