Michael Hedges - Baby Toes

1985 Kent State performance. Symbiosis with the guitar, is all I can say. Tuning: D2A3D3G3C4D4. See http://www.nomadland.com/ for information on Hedges and a fund for his children.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Michael
• Hedges
• Baby
• Toes
• acoustic
• guitar
• kent
• state

[Morgaledh]

Yeah, he said somewhere that his very first album for WH was just him "minding his manners"... I actually wished he hadn't said that, because I'm convinced his technically more masterful stuff is on Breakfast and Aeriel Boundaries (though Taproot... wow...) I listen more to the first two anyway.

No one ever played like him, and no one ever will. What a shame we lost him when we did.

[type3secretion]

i don't think he meant technique, but the flavor/style of the songs, and I think it was mostly for Breakfast he was speaking

[FabioDona]

Thank you so much for putting all these videos up!

just a correction regarding the title of the piece

this one is actually called "Baby Toes", from his first album, "Breakfast in the Field"

[type3secretion]

Ya - got my Hedges "baby" songs mixed in the labeling. :) Thanks. I've got a performance of Breakfast in the Field somewhere I hope to put up soon. Peace.

[ProtoCosmos]

I remember it was 1986 and hedges was playing his heart out,and as he was retuning for the next piece,he said; " I'm dedicating this next one to the guy that stole the stereo out of my car last night." I thought he'd play some really percussive,violent piece,but no. He played "Baby Toes". He was really something to experience in person.

[kjdulin]

Wow, could've cried listing to this. What a sensitive piece of music.

Thanks

[mcgigglish]

@Morgaledh Well he used to change his mind about things. I bet he was totally into these lovely tunes when he was writing them - then moved on.

I think I remember him saying "who wants to listen to an album of just acoustic guitar - not me!" in an interview later on. So I think the "minding his manners" comment was more to do with where he was at when he said that...He felt like being a bit crazier about then, maybe :)

[pthombeaux]

@richyo1000 Yes, the outro! It casts a certain spell. The whole song...it's one of those tunes that is a landmark in one's musical experience. Since I made the discovery of this song, "Baby Toes," I just cannot stop going back to it again and again to regain the emotional feeling it produces. Wonderful.

[411man4]

is it just me, or is anyone else thinking of buckethead hearing him?

[richyo1000]

easy to learn, almost impossible to play! i think that's my favourite outro ever!

^_^

[mcgigglish]

Beautiful.

I think he plays omething different from the album at 0.39 - 0.43 (not having the bass accompaniment, I suppose)

Wonderful, warm bass notes. He looks more himself here than in the big arenas. Fantastic video.

[francescogal]

I've no words to express what I felt...I only heard my heart crying

[midsmack]

Yeah, I kind of think that I like Breakfast in the Field the best because its tunes are the most haunting. "The Happy Couple", "Two Days Old","Baby Toes", and "Lenono", are examples of his ability to be so expressive and reserved at the same time. Maybe that WAS him "minding his manners", but I think the reservation allowed even more of the tension required for exceptional beauty in music.

[jazzpsalti]

he still takes some serious harmonic risks on the Breakfast in the Field record. The title track and "two days old" and this one, all three of those tracks have some chords that are too weird for windham hill, "ECM Records" chords as I like to call them :)

[schuey999]

We are all conduits for music and ideas. Michael just had zero resistance to his circuitry. Pure as can be.