Awesome Acoustic

This morning, there’s an army of builders stomping around our hail-damaged roof, making a racket while the dog barks at them every 10 seconds. Nothing a good pair of headphones and this cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck won’t fix. Let musician Jamie Dupuis’ phenomenal harp guitar performance be the cure for your stress, too.

This guitar will self-destruct in 10 seconds. Lingling Guitar shows off her fingerstyle acoustic skills with an energetic performance of Lalo Schifrin’s classic theme song from Mission Impossible. Check out her similarly impressive versions of Misirlou and Axel F for more delightful ear candy.

We’ve heard a zillion and one covers of Toto’s 1982 hit Africa, but we couldn’t resist posting this buzzworthy arrangement by musician Charles Berthoud. To create the looped and layered track, he performed various parts of the song using different acoustic bass-playing techniques, from thumping on its body to rapid-fire strumming to fingerstyle plucking.

Musicians Alexandr Misko and Alexander Boldachev performed this powerful acoustic arrangement of The Cranberries song Zombie as a tribute to fallen Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The duo’s nuanced performance serves to remind us not to be indifferent zombies and to stand up to oppression.

There’s no question that the members of 40 Fingers are incredibly talented guitarists. For this mini-concert, they performed an acoustic medley of hit tracks from Michael Jackson (and the Jackson 5), including excerpts from Black or White, Smooth Criminal, Beat It, I Want You Back, Human Nature, and more.

Another suburban family morning… grandmother screaming at the wall. Musician Kent Nishimura performs a wonderful acoustic guitar cover of the 1983 Police track Syncronicity II. Even without the lyrical genius of the original track, Nishimura’s interpretation is powerful and emotive.

We’ve heard several amazing performances by the talented guitarist Marcin Patrzalek. His latest is a cover of Derek & The Dominos 1970 track Layla. While nobody will ever live up to Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, Marcin’s percussive fingerstyle technique adds a new depth and dynamic to the rock classic.

Luca Stricagnoli takes on another Muse song with a performance of Hysteria on his unique triple-necked acoustic guitar. As his fingers fly across the three fretboards, Luca captures the original track’s massive energy despite being a solo musician.

We’ve seen guitars with lots of strings. This is the first time we’ve heard one where some strings are rubber bands. You might think they wouldn’t produce a very satisfying sound, but they play surprisingly well in the hands of a guitarist as talented as Bernth. It helps that he kept the original metal strings in the middle of his Ibanez acoustic guitar.

The musicians of 40 Fingers have wowed us with their Disney medley and Dire Straits covers, among others. You’ll want to put your headphones on and crank up the volume for this incredible multi-guitar performance of the Overture from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, which we also know well as the opening theme music from Trading Places.

We always loved the lyrics of INXS 1987 song Never Tear Us Apart. Here’s a wonderful new acoustic interpretation of the passion-filled track, performed on a Timberline harp guitar by musician Jamie Dupuis, accompanied by vocalist Emma McDaniel.

Guitarist Luca Stricagnoli performs one of our favorite Muse tracks, applying his extraordinary fingerstyle technique to Knights of Cydonia. His acoustic version plays right into the spaghetti western theme of the original’s music video. Want more? Luca previously covered Supermassive Black Hole and Starlight.

Musician João Fuss arranged and performed this fantastic classical guitar version of the Marilyn Manson track The Beautiful People. It’s still got the great staccato sound of the original but with a stripped-down fingerstyle approach. His acoustic covers of Black Hole Sun and Otherside are similarly wonderful.

Luca Stricagnoli is a master of acoustic guitar. His cover of the Arctic Monkeys’ track Do I Wanna Know? doesn’t involve as many guitar necks as some of his other arrangements, but it’s every bit as entertaining. Luca’s fingerstyle technique and guitar drumming add so much depth to his performance.

Musician Navzad Dabu provided late-night commuters in NYC’s Metropolitan Avenue / Grand Street subway station with a phenomenal private performance. His graveyard shift concert included back-to-back covers of a dozen Radiohead tracks. We would have stood there for the whole show and missed our train.

Guitarist Lucas Imbiriba brings his warm and soulful style to the Eagles classic Hotel California. His fingerstyle skills are truly impressive, and the track sounds fantastic in this stripped-down acoustic version. Check out his covers of Stairway to Heaven, Sultans of Swing, and Classical Gas for more delightful ear candy.