Harvey Reid

Harvey Reid cultivated a prominent early music career in southern Maine. In his youthful pursuits of national touring, he took the stage with the biggest entertainment artists in the world of his genre which seemed to stimulate his quest for mastering the craft of the Troubadour. He did that and beyond. His palate of skillful musical virtuosity and achievements now leaves him now on a stage with a mere few.

Moreover, his extensive and deeply substantive musical accomplishments have been vastly cultivated here in Maine with only infections from the influential elements that fueled his ambitions and musical mind wherever that may have been. And this is not an end note. His works are far from over as he continues more each time he takes the stage. Especially with the amazing brilliance of his accompanying wife Joyce Andersen. A masterful vocalist, violinist/fiddler, guitarist… together whatever they pursue in music genres it’s a portrayal of pure wonderment and perfection.

Reid is the Personification of Maine music artists. and that is what the Maine Music Awards Entertainment Hall of Fame is all about.

Together, Reid and Anderson are the ultimate Ambassadors for Maine in music and family living. A fluent representation of sheer Harmony that is a personification this World may never truly find.

Wayne Koss _{Maine Music Awards Entertainment Hall of Fame Founder & CEO}

Reid is revered among industry greats and the general masses for his solo acoustic fingerstyle guitar work. He is also a skilled flatpicker and autoharp player who performs and records with dobro, mandolin, mandocello, bouzouki, and six-string banjo among other instruments.

Reid is married to Joyce Andersen, an accomplished fiddler/singer/songwriter in her own right. They often perform as a duo showcasing their combined talents that provide an extraordinary experience with the two sums creating a masterful wholeness of dynamics and ranges of immense musical styles and variations that amaze.

{Reid & Andersen’s 4 CD, 80-page hardback book “Song Train” (January 2007) was featured in “Acoustic Guitar Magazine” for its innovative and down-home approach to helping beginning & intermediate guitar players make more music. Andersen’s songs “Strange Elation” (from CD “Right Where I Should Be”) and “Filled with Love” (from CD “Love & Thirst”) were featured songs on Sing Out Magazine’s CD compilations.}

Harvey Reid: Musician, Instrument Innovator, Author…

Harvey Reid has been a full-time musician since 1976 and has released 32 recordings on the Woodpecker label containing nearly 500 tracks of original, traditional, and contemporary acoustic music.

Reid won the 1981 National Fingerpicking Guitar competition and the 1982 International Autoharp contest and has performed over 6,000 concerts in most of the 50 states and a number of countries in Europe. Reid also won Bill Munroe’s Beanblossom bluegrass guitar contest in 1976. His 1989 CD Solo Guitar Sketchbook, which has remained his best-selling recording, was chosen by Guitar Player Magazine for their Desert Island Top 20 Acoustic Guitar list.

In 1992 Reid released another direct-to-digital solo all-traditional recording, Steel Drivin’ Man which earned Reid a place in the Acoustic Guitar Magazine Top 10 Folk CDs of All Time list.

He is responsible for quite a number of musical innovations, in addition to his considerable body of recorded and published work. Reid is one of the first artists to start his own record label, and he has successfully run Woodpecker Records since 1982 when he released his first LP of solo acoustic guitar, titled Nothin’ but Guitar. After one more LP release in 1983 and 2 cassettes in 1986 and 1987, Reid released in 1988 what many consider to be the first indie CD, titled Of Wind & Water. Reid’s DAT recordings from that period were possibly the first releases to be done direct-to-digital master, without any edits or overdubs and he was among the earliest to embrace the digital revolution in independent music.

All of Reid’s recordings feature extensive use of a number of types and nearly two dozen configurations of partial capo and he is the first modern person to compose, arrange, record, and publish guitar music played with this device. Reid self-published a book in May 1980 about it, titled A New Frontier in Guitar, which is also probably the first desktop-published book ever made. It was done with a beta version of Scribe software, a Xerox Alto computer (the predecessor to the Apple Macintosh), and a prototype Diablo laser printer. Also in 1980, Reid co-founded the Third Hand Capo Company with Jefferson Hickey and has been responsible for spreading the partial capo idea around the acoustic guitar world. He has now written 6 books on the subject and is actively working at present on a series of instructional works showing how to use this device to expand the capabilities of the guitar.

He also combines the partial capo with alternate guitar tunings — e.g. the so-called Liberty Tuning uses the second string raised by a semitone (B → C) plus the partial capo on the 4th fret of the second to fourth or second to fifth strings. In 1984 Reid also co-wrote the first college textbook for folk guitar, Modern Folk Guitar which was published by Random House Publishing and remains in print and in use in university music departments.

Reid is also responsible for the appearance of the Fishman Acoustic Blender amplification system and has been involved with the evolution of several on-stage acoustic guitar amplification tools. He was the first artist to endorse the Taylor Guitar brand and has been involved with a number of instrument and equipment manufacturers, helping to design and stage-test gear for modern acoustic musicians.

Reid has become a role model for younger musicians pursuing musical careers outside the usual channels of the music industry.

Harvey Notes from April 2023:

 I was only in California for less than 6 months as a baby and have rather deep roots in Maine. My mother was born in Bath, and her family has been in Bath & Phippsburg since the 1600s. She married a guy from Pittsburgh who took jobs in at least 8 different states while raising kids, though my family has visited family in Maine all through my life. My grandmother went to high school with LL Bean, her family made castings for sailing ships. My great-grandfather was mayor of Bath twice; Bath Marine Museum even started in his former house at 963 Washington St.

I started playing regular gigs all over Maine 45 years ago in 1977 at age 23, and before buying my house in Maine in 1994 I lived in my van for about 4 years (much of which was in Maine), then I lived in Portsmouth NH on the river for 12 years where I could see Maine out my window.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

HARVEY REID

Harvey Reid Recordings and Books

• 1980 “A New Frontier in Guitar” (book)
• 1982 “Nothin’ but Guitar” (LP)
• 1982 “Duck Soup Guitar” (book)
• 1983 “A Very Old Song” (LP)
• 1983 “Sleight of Hand” (book)
• 1984 “Modern Folk Guitar” (book)
• 1984 “The Christmas Project” (cassette)
• 1986 “The Coming of Winter (cassette)
• 1987 “Heart of the Minstrel on Christmas Day (cassette)
• 1988 “Of Wind & Water” (CD)
• 1989 “Solo Guitar Sketchbook” (CD)
• 1990 “Overview” (CD)
• 1992 “Steel Drivin’ Man” (CD)
• 1994 “Circles” (CD)
• 1995 “Artistry of the 6-String Banjo” (CD)
• 1996 “In Person” (2-CD)
• 1998 “Fruit on the Wine” (CD)
• 2000 “Guitar Voyages” (CD)
• 2001 “The Great Sad River” (CD)
• 2002 “Dreamer or Believer” (2-CD)
• 2003 “The Autoharp Album” (CD)
• 2004 “Kindling the Fire” (CD)
• 2005 “The Christmas Project” (CD)
• 2006 “Capo Inventions” (book w/CD)
• 2007 “The Song Train” (4-CD/book)
• 2009 “Blues & Branches” (CD)
• 2009 “The Wreck of the Isidore” (book w/CD)
• 2010 “Capo Voodoo: Book 1- The Cut Capo Chord Book” (book)
• 2010 “Solo Guitar Project: Vol 1” (digital album)
• 2010 “Solo Guitar Project: Vol 2” (digital album)
• 2010 “Capo Voodoo: Solo Guitar” (CD)
• 2010 “Capo Voodoo: Songs” (CD)
• 2011 “Songs from a Long Road” (CD)
• 2013 “The Autoharp Waltz” (CD)
• 2014 “The Liberty Guitar Album” (CD)
• 2014 “The Liberty Guitar Method” (CD)

Record Label	Woodpecker Records
Website	HarveyReid.com

The official website for “The Song Train” by Harvey Reid & Joyce Andersen, a Critically acclaimed, masterpiece of beginning guitar education. Written & Recorded by Harvey Reid with Vocalist/Fiddler/ Guitarist, Joyce Andersen. website: Songtrain.net