Neil Haverstick

Born in St. Louis, Neil Haverstick first picked up the guitar during 1965, spurred on by the wave of British Invasion acts that included the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Cream. A single Yardbirds track, “Over Under Sideways Down,” and its Jeff Beck solo proved especially magnetic. By the closing years of the decade, blues masters John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters had also shaped his approach, while his listening broadened to encompass jazz, folk, classical, and flamenco. In 1976 he met saxophonist George Keith and began performing with him. After years of playing throughout Colorado, Haverstick encountered the 19-tone guitar in 1989 through its maker, John Starrett. Captivated by the instrument’s sonic palette and its unconventional interval patterns, he mastered both the guitar itself and a pair of alternate tunings that employ 19 and 34 notes per octave rather than the usual twelve. He joined the faculty of the Swallow Hill Music Association as a guitar instructor in 1990 and, around the same time, appeared in Guitar Player Magazine after taking first place in its Ultimate Guitar Competition’s experimental category. Four years later he performed at New York’s American Festival of Microtonal Music. His first album, Acoustic Stick, arrived in 1997; three years after that he issued the recordings Other Worlds and The Gate. Haverstick is also the author of the books “The Form of No Forms” and “19 Tones: A New Beginning.” He has served as an opening act for B.B. King and Steve Miller.