Lewes Guitar Festival - Peter Finger

Sometimes people are blessed with a surname that pretty accurately describes what they’re all about. A good case in point is Peter Finger, the internationally acclaimed virtuoso guitarist from Germany who opens this year’s Lewes Guitar Festival. Finger is a fingerpicking guitarist, who first made an impact in his late teens playing songs inspired by American Blues greats like Robert Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt. He tells a funny story about how he came to broaden his repertoire. “During one show I had a pretty defining experience while playing a blues. I began singing ‘I was born in Mississippi’, and while I sang, I said to myself ‘what are you talking about?’ [he was actually born in Weimar, near Leipzig]. I began to think about it and suddenly realised that the blues wasn’t my music. After getting re-orientated a little, I tried to listen within myself and search for my own music.’”
He stopped singing, and started increasing the rock and classical elements into his guitar playing, even though what the public wanted was ragtime and blues. He composes his own music, attempting to combine the best elements from various styles to create an exciting and very unique style, which he calls ‘new acoustic guitar’. You can hear classical counterpoint in his tunes, blending seamlessly with jazz improvisations. Folk lends him the ‘relaxed presentation, and how you make music for an audience’. Striking originality, then, meets wonderful technique. Finger, a guitarist’s guitarist, is a great choice to open the latest edition of this ever-more-prestigious festival. AL