Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries (1984)

I was bumming around Europe in late summer in 1985 when I first heard this amazing acoustic-guitar masterpiece at a record shop in Amsterdam. It blew me away and Michael Hedges became another one of my guitar gods, though his subsequent releases failed to get me as ecstatically enthused.

Like most musical geniuses, the late guitarist was pretty erratic and unpredictable in his work, but he did manage to display all the defining elements of his artistry on this absorbing album.