Mike Dawes

The fun-loving fingerstylist

Surrey-born Mike Dawes is currently the guitar foil for the Moody Blues’ legendary singer-songwriter Justin Hayward, lending his modern style to classic tunes such as Nightsin Whitesatin. Now 31, Dawes started out playing the clubs solo, and knows how to develop a quirky, fun rapport with audiences as he metes out his daunting technique, which he has described as ‘the b*stard son of fingerstyle guitar’.

Influenced by everyone from Mike Hedges to Pierre Bensusan, Dawes is a leading exponent of the nu-school of virtuoso acoustic guitar. He peppers his work with percussive hits of the instrument’s body – emulating kick drum, snare and hi-hat – and uses a raft of open tunings, from DADGAD to an open C#m9 (C# G# D# E B E). Hammering-on chords over the top of the guitar neck is a theatrical flourish, but it also gives those notes a more even attack. Dawes’ signature guitar, made by German Luthier Andreas Cuntz, comes loaded with four pickups to capture all these nuances, and his effects rack adds distortion, pitch shift, delay and reverb as needed.

“Dawes has described his technique as

the b****** son of fingerstyle guitar”