10 Best Acoustic Guitar Albums of the 80s • Acoustic Tuesday 241

Synthesizers. BOOMING snare hits. Shredding. The 80s aren’t known for acoustic guitar playing. But that’s will change in this episode of Acoustic Tuesday!

We’ll be taking a look at the 10 best acoustic guitar albums of the 80s, paying close attention to some of the best flatpickers and fingerpickers of that decade. I’m not talking about one-off power ballads that use an acoustic guitar in the intro. I’m talking about whole albums that pushed the genre of acoustic guitar music.

You’ll recognize some classics on here like Tony Rice’s “Church Street Blues,” and Michael Hedge’s “Aerial Boundaries.” With each of the albums chosen, I’ll highlight my favorite song off the album in the hopes that you can check them out for yourself.

In addition to discussing the 10 best acoustic guitar albums of the 80s, you’ll hear a very important story from TAC Family member Johnny. He noticed that he actually enjoys playing guitar now more than he did when he was younger. Why is this? Be sure to listen to him tell his story about building a routine that lets him find more fun, focus, and progress on his guitar journey.

Last but not least, we’ll also cover some of the latest acoustic guitar news. From chatting coffee with one of my favorite acoustic duos to checking out the beautiful craftsmanship of metal engravers and inlay workers, this episode is sure to scratch that acoustic guitar content itch.

Featured in this episode…

  • Mule Resonator Guitars
  • Small Glories
  • Doglio Coffee
  • Carter Vintage Guitars
  • Eric Skye
  • SantaCruzGuitarCo
  • Martin Guitar

Related Articles

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. ‘Cold on My Shoulder’ is, of course, a song by the legendary Gordon Lightfoot; Tony Rice appears to have been a big fan of GL, as he did great bluegrass-oriented covers of a number of Lightfoot songs.

  2. I’ve heard quite a few of Kate Wolf’s music, and I think she might be qualified for total acoustic. In fact, I noticed her name on one of the albums you mentioned that featured a variety of musicians. Also, I notice that most of it is Blue Grass genre. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining because they stick to their roots. 🙂

  3. One of the best Acoustic albums from the 1980’s Bruce Springsteen Nebraska 1982
    For an honorable mention and one my personal favorites.

  4. Tony, forgot to tell you; no matter what brand coffee you like try sprinkling a few dashes of salt on top of the coffee before you brew it. It does mellow it out and you’ll recognize the difference. Don’t know how it works but it does. Don’t taste the salt just taste the difference in outcome. Try it, you’ll like it. Mike (Chief).

  5. I’m a 73 year old combat veteran. I use a french press with 8 O’Clock coffee, half cafene half de-caffinated. I enjoy one cup, feed and walk my chocolate lab, then have breakfast with the second. The third, well that depends on my schedule. But somewhere along the line, I will check in on the daily challenge, pick up my Breedlove and play. I have been adapting the daily challenges to fingerpicking where necessary and have noticed a distinct improvement. Thanks Tony!

  6. Tony, I look forward to Acoustic Tuesday every week. Based upon you guitar reviews and my budget I purchased a Taylor 114 CE that I use for my practice on your lessons. Then based upon one of the recent Acoustic Tuesdays guitar reviews I purchased a Gibson 50,s J-45. What a beautiful guitar with such a mellow sound vs. the brighter sound of the Taylor. I also have an old Ovation Balladeer I purchased in my youth 1980’s if I remember correctly. That guitar opened up my desire to learn more but like many of our TAC members life happens and I put guitar not only on the back burner but let the fire go out. When I purchased a Les Paul Classic from Sweetwater Music I got an e-mail from you and decided to join the TAC team. But , as you said in our current Acoustic Tuesday I became enamored with some of the you-tube teachers that were teaching some of my favorite songs. So, after about a month or so with TAC I requested a refund and went to you-tube. After 2 days I recognized the error of my ways and missed the rigor of TAC teaching, and rejoined! Now I am almost complete with the Fret-board Wizard (something worth mentioning in the Acoustic Tuesday presentations. Looking forward to the 30 days to play but will go back and re-take the fret-board Wizard again, it is so full of technique and I love the retention quizzes. To date my favorite is the improvisation section. Almost complete there then we will write a song together it seems.

    Very pleased to be a TAC member. At 68 years old on June 23 I now know more about the guitar than ever before! Love your lessons and can’t wait to start the 30 days to play utilizing the skill sets you taught in the fret-board wizard. What a great and fun way to really learn to play the guitar. I love learning technique.
    See you next Tuesday.
    Mike Hobbs A.K.A. Chief

  7. Good show. My two cents on the coffee. I use a Jura Impressa 8 from Switzerland. Put coffee beans on the right water on the left and push the button. It grinds the beans and compresses them, heats the water and forces it through the compress grounds. Makes one or two cups at a time. Welll worth the wait. There is also a slot to put ground coffee in for the impatient. loved the albums of the eighties.

  8. In 1979/80, I took guitar lessons at Utah State Univ. from Michael Christianson. Search for him on the web and he is playing an absolutely beautiful piece. I don’t know the name of this song. It is absolutely beautiful.