From the November 2016 issue of Acoustic Guitar | Author: Kenny Berkowitz

After dropping out of Stanford University with five credits before graduation, Will Ackerman collected $300 from friends and recorded a solo acoustic guitar music album called The Search for the Turtle's Navel. He still did not participate in paid performances, but he has already begun to gather fans, and passersby listened to him performing under the arches of the university’s old Union building.

Forty years later, it is difficult to overestimate the impact of Ackerman's first reflective music album on the world of acoustic guitar, although it can be heard by a new generation of guitarists seeking Ackerman as a producer. "My biggest dream in 1976 was to sell 300 records-this was the lowest order for Monarch Record Pressing," Ackerman said when calling from his farm in Wyndham County, Vermont. "I fully expect to have 173 such records for the rest of my life, and I have no ambition to start a record company. Although I received great praise for my excellent demographic analysis of the record market in the 1970s, it was not the case. In the era when disco dominates the radio wave, you have to completely lose your mind to think that the market is ready for solo acoustic guitar. But its sincerity makes it work. It is sincere and people appreciate it, which is why the brand grows. "

Todd Boston, the guitarist produced by Ackerman, said: "He is a great businessman, but he has a personal side. He wants to connect with the people he works with, because he is the happiest when working with friends."

At first, Ackerman divided his time between music and woodworking. Windham Hill grew slowly, releasing two albums in 1976 and one album in 1977. By 1980, after roofing friends and recording George Winston’s folk song piano album Autumn, guitarists Robbie Basho (Ackerman’s guitar teacher) and Alex De Grassi released the album (Ackerman’s cousin)-Ake Man decided to focus on music full-time. Winston's first album made all the difference. Although it was not played, Winston helped Wyndham Hill find its natural audience, attracting a surprising number of people who were looking for intimate, solo living room music, so peaceful and so contemplative, it could simply become an atmosphere a part of. This sound began when Ackerman himself mixed Erik Satie with folk fingerstyle, and it quickly became a musical movement.

"In an era when disco rules the radio wave, you have to completely lose your mind to think that the market is ready for solo acoustic guitars." — Will Ackerman

But when Ackerman talked about the highest peak of Wyndham Mountain, Winston's piano work was where he started. It all started the night after a concert with DeGrassi. When Winston asked: "Do you mind if I play the piano while you sleep?"

"This is very important," said Ackerman, who first met Winston as a guitarist. "There may be 30 million records out there."

Then once, when Ackerman was walking along Palo Alto's University Avenue, a friend caught him personally and took him to hear Michael Hedges for the first time. Ackerman is known for offering Hedges a record contract with a napkin.

Other highlights followed closely, such as Ackerman's first performance at Carnegie Hall, and his wedding performance for Prince Takanaki and the princess at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. In the early years, Windham Hill published a series of stories by Ackerman, DeGrassi, Hedges, Winston, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Shadowfax, and Liz. This was before marketers started selling music under the name "New Era".

Wyndham Hill made Ackerman a fortune. It grew so large that he signed a distribution agreement with A&M in 1982 and began the long process of leaving the company. "It has become a company, and by 1984, I started to feel bad and went to almost every hospital in the United States," Ackerman said. "Finally, I met a doctor and he said,'You are depressed.' I said,'What do you mean when I am depressed? We are selling millions of records. I drive a Mercedes. You should see me dating The girl who was in. But he said, "You are very depressed. "At that time I packed up old contract trucks, drove across the country, bought some land in Vermont, and then restarted construction."

'When I hear a sound that sounds good, I start to explore. I really waited until the tuning resonated with my feelings, until something said, "This is the landscape I should be manipulating now." —Will Ackerman

Thirty years after leaving Windham Mountain, Ackerman is still in Damerston, Vermont, still building, playing guitar, and recording. New England Roads released in 2010 is his latest new album. Getting rid of the shackles of operating a record company, he created a brand new business model to train the second generation of independent acoustic musicians, and a rotating group composed of Wyndham Hill alumni and the best of Ackerman Village Imagination Road Studios. Advanced technology provides support.

Ackerman worked closely with engineer Tom Eaton to produce 15 albums in 2015 and 19 albums this year. The best of this wave of solo guitarists - Lawrence Blatt, Todd Boston, Vin Downes, Raphael Groten, Trevor Gordon Hall, David Lindsay, Darin Mahoney, Todd Mosby, Matteo Palmer, Jeffrey Seeman and Neil Tatar - obviously owe the classic Windham Hill sound, without the groundbreaking recordings of Ackerman, De Grassi and Hedges, the music created would be unimaginable. But everyone has taken the acoustic guitar into a new direction, exploring deep-feeling and individual paths that are notable for their warmth, clarity and vision.

Ackerman, 66, thinks he is a better producer than Wyndham Hill. He attributed this to his partnership with Eaton: "The best engineer I know." Ackerman said that Eaton gave him "a new life as a producer." For Ackerman, making other people's albums has always been more important than making your own albums. Even today, his website still says "producer, guitarist, founder of Windham Hill Records".

For Ackerman, working in a recording studio is like a therapist, pushing musicians as far as possible, holding them up when they cry, and helping to strike a balance between vulnerability and productivity, thereby promoting The best studio performance.

Young musicians working at Imaginary Road witnessed Ackerman's professional ethics.

After months of phone and email correspondence with Ackerman, Todd Boston stopped by the studio to check some remaining details before recording "Touch of the Sun." "I thought we would only discuss logistics, but on the contrary, we had an incredible conversation about our lives and history," said Boston, who can play guitar, Dotal, bass and flute. "I learned a lot about Will that afternoon. Recording with Will is beyond my imagination," Boston added. "I feel like I'm in an incubator, using the metaphor of this young life body as a metaphor for the need to nurture and protect. Will really provides such an environment that allows me to do more than what I did before I walked into his house. Good things."

In the 40 years of acoustic guitar manufacturing, the acclaimed Froggy Bottom Guitars from Chelsea, Vermont has created only one iconic model. The model was designed with Will Ackerman, and luthier Michael Millard called it a master. "As a performer, producer, and acoustic music engineer, no one else can influence the audience like Will," Millard said.

Ackerman's main writing tool is a pair of Froggy Bottom guitars, which he calls FB3 and FB9, and uses Daddario lights to perform string music on them. "I was totally fascinated by the sound of my K-model Froggies," Ackerman said. "It's a question of immersion. These two instruments do better than any instrument I've heard. The sound is absolutely all-encompassing. When I picked it up, there was no daydreaming, nothing else-only that It’s a sound, it’s all-encompassing, and I don’t want to experience it before I write."

In the summer of 2014, Trevor Gordon Hall entered Imaginary Road to record Mind Heart Fingers with Ackerman and Eaton. "I rehearsed very well," Hall said. He played a six-string guitar and built a two-octave kalimba in the lower round. "I want to play with Will, so I make sure that my fingers are at the top of their game. When I entered there, I realized that I was totally unprepared because I was really not there. Will and Tom's intentions for the player Very sensitive, ensuring that every moment has a specific feeling. This is how they run the conversation, this is the way they mix, this is the way they master, this is what the music conveys. This has changed the way I play forever , Forcing me to rethink whether this kind of music is what I believe in or I have rehearsed it many times.

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"It's a very sandpaper experience in the studio. I feel I was treated roughly-in a good way-Will continued, "Try again, try again, let's feel as much as possible a bit. "On the weekend, I felt... refined."

"[And Ackerman] was a very sandpaper experience in the studio. I think I was treated roughly-it was a good way. It was the weekend when I felt... refined.' — -Trevor Gordon Hall

How does Ackerman describe his studio aesthetics? "My standards remain the same-that is,'Can music move me?'" he said. "Of course I appreciate guitar skills, but what is more important to me is,'What do you have to say? Honest? Does it have to do with things that resonate with other people on an emotional level? Obviously, these are subjective. Judgment, but they have guided me well for more than 40 years, so when I hear someone really tell me the truth, I feel that I am in line. This is still my main criterion.

"Fortunately, the lighthouse that Windham Hill built many years ago still shines on many people, whether they are my age or younger," Ackerman continued. "The people I worked with today came here for the same reasons as the people I worked with before. I think they are smart, and I think they are telling the truth. This is how I handle things."

In all recordings, there was almost no time to compose, so when Ackerman was preparing to write, he flew to Italy to spend a few weeks alone, doing nothing but improvisation. It's hard to imagine, given the beauty of the return: guitar music 1970-2004 (Decca). This album contains re-recordings of some of his most famous works, showing dozens of ethereal open tunings he has used over the years. However, Ackerman could not pick up the guitar for a few months and not write notes for a few years. He did not hear the evolution of performance or method, and in the decades after he started to find his own style, he continued to create new tunings for each piece of music, with one exception-"Hawk Circle" (1980), It reuses the settings from the 1977 "Song of Anne". He didn't understand why it worked so well, but once he started writing, Ackerman found that this feeling still existed: He grabbed one of his main writing guitars, started random tuning and detuning, and then listened to the correct notes.

"This is completely arbitrary," Ackerman said. "When I hear a sound that sounds good, I start to explore. I really wait until the tuning resonates with my feelings, until something says, "This is the landscape I should operate on now. "I'm totally untrained. I don't read music notes. I have been struggling with all this open tuning reasoning because it is very extreme. Obviously, this is important to me, and I finally come to the conclusion , That is to completely remove the frontal lobe in the writing process. I don’t know where I am, so I didn’t go from G to A minor to F. I firmly let myself get rid of any thoughts until I only have voice to guide me."

If Ackerman follows these voices during his upcoming trip to Naples, he may have an album with new material. But even though 6 and 12 years have passed since the New England Highway and the return, he doesn't seem to be worried. "I never regarded playing guitar as my job," he said. "Maybe this is a game I play, but I tend to think of playing guitar as my hobby. My job has always been as a producer. I am now a better producer than ever; I know This is true. I have no regrets. I can walk across my front lawn, walk into the studio, and work with all these people who keep coming back year after year. God knows, there are some insults to age, but in general , I have never cherished life more. I have never appreciated people so much. I have never realized that I can do this job more.

"I am lucky to have what I think is the best marriage in the world, and I have a pair of very cute dogs. So how bad can life be?" 

This article originally appeared in the November 2016 issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

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