This month Stuart Ryan checks out the acoustic style of a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, once part of the succesful duo The Civil Wars.
A native of Tennessee, Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter John Paul White spent his early years in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, so music was in his blood. His style covers folk, traditional country, Americana and also hints at rock.
White found success when he partnered up with fellow singer-songwriter Joy Williams to create The Civil Wars in 2008. The pair was put together randomly at a writing session where the brief was to create singles for country group Gloriana. Instead, they hit it off and began writing music for themselves. The Civil Wars found huge success when their track Poison And Wine was featured in the TV show Grays Anatomy. They were soon on tour across the USA promoting the tracks that would become their debut album, Barton Hollow. The album won two Grammys, the duo toured with Adele and co-wrote with luminaries such as Taylor Swift and T-Bone Burnett.
The Civil Wars released their second album in 2013 but sadly this was to be their last. There has been much speculation as to why the duo split at the height of their powers but the real tragedy is that White and Williams would never release any music together again (or, apparently, even talk!).
If you had to give White a label he’s probably the quintessential Americana guitarist. You’ll generally find him playing acoustic guitar in stripped-down Americana or country settings, on many occasions just accompanying himself. His playing is creative and his parts are melodic. White’s influences range from the country of Chet Atkins to Roy Orbison, but he doesn’t describe himself as technical, preferring to use the guitar to ‘find’ ideas as he plays. He is both a fingerpicker and strummer so his range on acoustic is wide and, as you’ll discover in this article, creative use of a capo adds a further dimension to his playing.
White is not afraid to capo high up on the neck, and this is an area many acoustic players neglect. It can be tempting to see a capo as a tool just to raise the key a few semitones. However, explore the higher frets and you’ll discover a whole new tonality that can be a springboard for new ideas. Up at the 7th fret you’ll discover brightness, clarity and, if you are in to recording, a lovely absence of the low-end, low-mid mud that acoustics can often be guilty of. One caveat before playing – capo’ing this high requires a good capo, something that can keep all the strin
