Guitar Visionaries is a podcast dedicated to guitarists who take the road less traveled - the tireless innovators working in jazz, rock, prog, experimental, ambient, noise, neo-grass and more.

We kick off the series with one of my favorites, Steve Tibbetts. Since 1981, Tibbetts has been creating some of the world's boldest, most varied, and edge-pushing guitar music for ECM Records, with over 14 releases, including his newest, Close (2025), and his dazzling, two-CD career retrospective, Hellbound Train (2022).

Without a doubt, Tibbetts has one of the widest palates in the world of guitar, with a style that fuses elements of rock, ambient, jazz, experimental, and world music. His work features alternately tuned 12-string acoustics that trigger lush, orchestral samples from a vast library he has created – Tibetan long horns, gongs, an ...