Joe Willson

Joe plays fingerstyle, solo acoustic guitar, bringing a broad range of music to the audience, with a strong groove, tasteful arrangements, and selections tailored to the listeners.

What is fingerstyle?

Fingerstyle guitar unlocks the guitar’s potential to play any type of music, from “Ain’t She Sweet” to Steely Dan’s “Josie”

In the late 40’s, Chet Atkins combined some of the backwoods and blues styles he had heard and developed a distinctive solo style which featured a strong rhythmic bass line played by the thumb on the low strings, and chord and lead parts played with the fingers on the high strings.

This style caught the attention of the world - players from all backgrounds and in all musical genres took notice and began to incorporate the ideas. More new fingerstyle arrangements and compositions are being written every day.

If you close your eyes, you can hear a bass player, a rhythm player, a lead player, percussionists, and even horn sections.