After hearing Tuck Andress play “Europa” on “Best of Tuck and Patti” I’ve been hungering to know more guitarists that play in a similar style or adopt a similar approach. I’m really impressed by how the tone colours and the fancy techniques like hammer ons and beating on the strings give so much texture to the music. The tone of his guitar and his chording is also really nice.
Any other artist/album recommendations? Thanks!
I thought I had that CD but it turned out to be Tears of Joy.
Listening to it now—and loving it—his style is as I’d remembered it. It’s a really personal synthesis of a certain kind of jazz guitarist and the best finger-style guitarists. I can’t think of a single person who is just like him but all the techniques I’m hearing are familiar. I’d suggest you listen to a lot of guitarists. Some will be like him in some respects; others in others.
You should definitely check out Joe Pass’s solo recordings (his ‘Virtuoso’ series) and Jim Hall who probably deeply influenced Tuck’s way with ballads. Earlier guitarists who would be worth listening to are Tal Farlow, George van Eps, Jimmey Raney but don’t expect too close a match. These guys just supply elements.
On the folk side, listen to Martin Simpson especially his early Topic CDs. (There’s one called The Collection that collects many of the best tracks.) Listen to Michael Hedges. Duck Baker is great. Also Al Pettaway, El McMeen, Pierre Bensusan and Seth Austen. This only scratches the surface but I think it is the surface of what you want. I really mean that. I could name over 100 guitarists in this vacinity but you might drown working through them.
Oh, for his bluesier string-bending stuff, Davey Graham and Bert Jansch were the first to blend bluesy folk with jazz.
Come to think of it, I even hear Jimmy Hendrix (when aiming for a clean sound) and Curtis Mayfield in the mix.
speaking of Tuck, here’s an Internet classic:
Bad Gigs
By Tuck Andress (Tuck & Patti)
Borrowed guitar, different string spacing, bridge or nut sliding during string bending or vibrato, wrong strap length or strap breaking during solo, unwound guitar string used as backup strap gradually cutting through shirt and shoulder, sleeve snagging on bridge suddenly locking up hand, wrong pick, dropped pick, broken pick, no pick, pick stuck between strings, finger caught between strings, wrong strings, dead strings, sticky strings, blood on strings, broken strings, no extra strings, jar of honey spilled all over strings, vintage L-5’s gig bag shoulder strap breaking immediately before album release concert for 5,000 people causing guitar to fall on concrete and creating crack from tailpiece to neck which gradually splits apart during performance with action getting higher and higher, amp too far away, amp too close, amp broken so play through bass amp or P.A., tone all wrong, overdrive bypass switch broken, cymbal in ear, band too loud, audience too loud, band downstairs too loud, bad monitors, no monitors, in-ear monitors broken so Patti is heard acoustically but Tuck is heard only through house PA 50 yards away resulting in Tuck being unavoidably out of sync with Patti by 1/6 second for whole show, guitar buzz, RF from nearby transmitter louder than the music itself, brownouts making organ pitch fluctuate randomly over an octave range, power outage, equipment plugged into 230 volts immediately before show, earthquake during show in high-rise, outdoor desert performance at 131 degrees with sand-blasting winds, sub-freezing outdoor mountaintop performance with snow storms and 40 mph winds, high altitude dizziness, no sleep, no food, too much food, wrong food, food poisoning, fever, locked bathrooms, way too many liquids before long show, nagging suspicion that zipper is down, contact lens falling out during moment of peak concentration, compromised hand position due to repeatedly sliding full width of stage while trying to keep playing but not collide with Patti on yacht in rough Finnish Gulf of Bothnia, charts blown away by wind, charts on thermal fax paper, charts in wrong key, charts without bar lines, charts with bar lines all displaced by two beats, charts in bass clef or C clef, chord charts with do/re/mi (France) instead of C/D/E and everything else in Portuguese, realization that Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, George Benson, Chaka Khan, Bobby McFerrin or Steve Gadd just walked in, drunks falling on stage, drunks disrobing on stage, drunks grabbing instruments or band members, band members falling asleep during song, pigs frolicking in sawdust-covered frat house knocking over band equipment, thinly veiled animosity between bride’s and groom’s families erupting into violence during heartfelt version of My Romance, nightly juggling of playing and operating the lighting console/footswitches and talking to audience members and trying to reign in tempos and egos of various fellow top-40 band members, arrival at duo gig with unbelievably loud, aggressive fuzz-wah hard rock bass player to discover that assignment is to back up elderly white-haired and white- suited gentleman singing unfamiliar country songs to unforgiving patrons, crowded upscale happy hour dance floor unraveling into pandemonium as normal-looking customers all collapse to the floor and writhe around on each other while astonished saxophone-playing duo partner walks out leaving helpless solo guitarist playing The Hustle for 25 minutes, funk bass player imprisoned in lounge band insisting on popping strings throughout sensitive ballads, accidental imprisonment of Patti in wine cellar out of earshot during guitar instrumentals, onstage and on- instrument living creatures with varying numbers of legs, belligerent drunken bowling alley lounge customer demanding that funk band play Debussy’s Clair de Lune while remainder of band looks expectantly at guitarist, drummer watching ball game on portable TV with headphones throughout performance, guest singer repeatedly changing keys at random moments, realization that the people who have just boldly picked up instruments and are unexpectedly sitting in are Herbie Hancock and Wah Wah Watson, guns drawn at rehearsals to settle disputes about form of song, marginally famous singer resorting to the dreaded “Do you know who I am” line, drummer and delusional would-be front man jumping off the drums in the middle of a song and mistakenly chanting “we don’t need no drummer to keep that funky beat” to a dance floor packed with suddenly hostile former dancers, unstable band member deciding that it is his responsibility to educate the audience over the microphone, bass player playing random notes and rhythms because he is not a bass player at all but nonetheless booked the gig, drummer announcing that he killed somebody just before the show, swimming pool party turning into orgy with splashing on inexperienced solo electric guitarist sitting beside pool doing his first solo gig and fielding endless requests for the same song he had just played yet again, bride’s and groom’s special song evaporating from mortified solo musician’s mind at the crucial moment, band member disappearing suddenly when his chair falls backwards off riser, unstable enormous man peaking on LSD brandishing artificial limb removed from his companion at audience and threatening band to “sing with this”, mirrors on back wall of club causing introspective young guitarist to question meaning of his life at early stage in career.
How about contemporary guitarists, does anyone use a similarly textured approach to playing? It would be cool if Tuck would release a new solo album. I thought of Martin Taylor the British guitarist - he does lots of walking bass and multiple melody lines - he doesn’t use as many texturing effects techniques though.
Tuck and Patti’s website is a great read for any musician I think. I spent one whole afternoon going over their anecdotes and articles instead of doing the work I should be doing…
rh, I was going to pick out the one I thought was funniest but my list got too long. Even non-musicians like me would have fun reading things like this—what a movie that piece would make. 
Yeah, Taylor has some similar influences. I can’t think of any other contemporary jazz figures. I don’t try to be comprehensive but I’d have thought that most contemporary jazz players were in the Schoffield or Frizell bag which is what you are not looking for.
Apart from Graham and Jansch, the folk guitarists I mentioned are contemporary. Mel Bay has a three disc collection called Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar Solos which comes with a book giving the sheet music to each track and a bit of background about each guitarist. Everyone I mentioned has a track on it. It’s agood quick way of getting to find out what you like and would like to hear more of.