Breakfast in the Field
Michael’s groundbreaking solo guitar debut, recorded live to 2-track, with no overdubs. “Wistful, soulfully probing tone-poems…” (Boston Globe), some with accompaniment by George Winston (piano) and Michael Manring (fretless bass). “Hedges’ clean execution and impeccable taste make this a very engaging work” (Guitar Player).
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Behind the Album
In early 1981, Hedges signed a record deal with Windham Hill Records, a young start-up label focused on instrumental music, based in Palo Alto, California.
When the label’s founder Will Ackerman saw Hedges perform at The New Varsity Theater, he signed Hedges on the spot. Released in October 1981, Breakfast in the Field was the culmination of Michael’s early guitar solos written during the previous eight years.
Several tracks include the masterful fretless bass work of Michael Manring; and pianist George Winston joined Hedges and Manring on the ensemble piece “Lenono.”
The music from Breakfast in the Field was primarily written in Enid, Oklahoma and Baltimore, Maryland during Hedges’ music studies at Phillips University and the Peabody Conservatory.
The album established Hedges as an innovative and kinetic guitarist-composer.
Words by Jake White, biographer
Photo credit: unknown
Liner Notes
Tracks
- Layover
2. The Happy Couple
3. Eleven Small Roaches
4. The Funky Avocado ¹
5. Baby Toes ¹
6. Breakfast in the Field
7. Two Days Old ¹
8. Peg-Leg Speed King
9. The Unexpected Visitor
10. Silent Anticipations
11. Lenono ¹ ²
Album Credits
Performances by:
Michael Hedges: acoustic guitar
Michael Manring: fretless bass ¹
George Winston: piano ²
All compositions by Michael Hedges.
Produced by Will Ackerman.
Recorded at The Music Annex, Menlo Park, CA.
“This is an essential recording for any guitarist, lover of acoustic music or Windham Hill.”
– Windhaming.com
Michael Hedges on his songwriting approach to “Funky Avocado” at a 1987 concert
“This tune has a little bit of a cross cultural bent to it, but it has more of an American bent to it. From the time where I lived above a health food store just down the street from a gay disco called The Pink Hippopotamus. I used to be trying to write music up there, trying to… maybe it would be just after dinner and I’d be trying to get some work done, and The Pink Hippo was always sending me back ‘boom boom boom’ and maybe the bass line would come through, ‘bum Bum BUM bum Bum BUM,’ so rather than trying to compete with it, I decided to try to incorporate some of the elements. So that’s how ‘The Funky Avocado’ came about. It starts out with a medium R&B tempo, slows down into some heavy rock and it finishes up in a fit of disco fury”.
– Michael Hedges
Album Stories
The Slow Series: Layover
In 1983, Michael Hedges’s friend Randy Lutge filmed him playing several of his songs slowly, so that others might more easily learn them. Watch him play “Layover” in this format.
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The Slow Series: Two Days Old
In 1983, Michael Hedges’s friend Randy Lutge filmed him playing several of his songs slowly, so that others might more easily learn them.
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Michael Hedges & the Harp Guitar
In 1984, Michael Hedges walked into a San Francisco guitar shop and discovered his next musical pursuit: an acoustic relic from the 1920s called a harp guitar.
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The Early Days of the New Varsity Theater
Michael’s longtime friend and manager of the New Varsity Theater, tells the story of first meeting Michael at the New Varsity Theater.
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Titles/Tunings Database by Stropes Editions Ltd.
A new tuning database for several artists, including Michael Hedges. Search by title, album or tuning, and use tones to tune up your guitar, right on the page!
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Transcriptions by Stropes Editions ltd.
Browse transcriptions of Michael’s music by John Stropes. “Because It’s There” “Hot Type” “Ragamuffin” “Ready or Not” “The Happy Couple” and “Two Days Old”
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