An Interview with Peter Finger

How did your career as a guitarist get started?
When I was about 13 years old, an uncle of mine gave me an old guitar. I was very excited about it, but I didn’t really succeed in learning to play it at first. The guitar gathered dust for a few months, until I joined a youth group something similar to the boy scouts—that needed someone who could accompany some songs around the campfire. The group leader showed me a few chords, and I guess I made an impression. I was familiar with music itself, as I had already had seven years of violin lessons, and I came from a musical family. After a short time, I could play as well as the group leader, and a short time later, I started a band in my school. At first I played on my little acoustic guitar, but then I got a red electricguitar with four pickups for Christmas. I loved this guitar because I was certain that only a red guitar would impress the girls. The entire band played through a converted radio as an amplifier.

How come you ended up specializing in the steelstring acoustic guitar?
The band was so incredibly bad that we really didn’t experience any kind of success. We had a lot of dreams
and fun, but the experience was mostly frustrating, and eventually the band broke up. During this time, my hometown had an annual folk festival, which I started to check out. For the first time I saw fingerpicking guitarists, who played bass, rhythm, and melody simultaneously. I was so impressed that I wanted to learn playing in this style right away.

Did you mostly learn by watching these players?
Yes, I would watch until I figured out what they were doing, and then I would practice at home until I could play it myself. It was a very intense period, and I quickly got to know people who were established in the scene. One guy had a huge collection of records by folk, blues, and ragtime guitarists, and he introduced me to seminal players like Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and also younger guitarists such as Stefan Grossman, David Laibman, and John Renbourn. After a while, I was playing a lot of the country-blues and ragtime repertoire, which I really enjoyed. I also played guitar in a folk group, which allowed me to fine tune my technique as a backup player. However, a year later I participated in the newtalent competition at the folk festival playing solo, and I ended up receiving the first prize. This was the real start of my career, because the prize included a recording session, which resulted in my first EP. I sent this recording to Stefan Grossman, who had just started his Kicking Mule label.