Acoustic Essentials

There’s something about stripping down a song to its barest essentials that gives you a profound appreciation of the music. Perhaps that’s why, even as digital recording technologies have evolved and newfangled gadgets have become more accessible, artists continue to make music with a less-is-more approach: just a voice, an instrument or two, and no wires, plugs, or amps. The same fragile intimacy that informed singer/poets like Nick Drake in the ’60s reverberates in Iron & Wine’s hushed 21st-century reveries. Pared-down, harmony-rich ballads by The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, and Crosby, Stills & Nash have an organic exuberance that echoes through modern pastorals by Fleet Foxes and Laura Marling. The raw confessionals of country outlaw Mary Gauthier have antecedents in the romantic, rugged narratives of Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson. Across space, time, and style, these unfettered songs share a truly timeless quality.