Carl Weingarten is an American guitarist, photographer, and founder of the independent music label Multiphase Records. Described as "one of the best indie musicians working today" by the San Francisco Chronicle, Carl is best known for his atmospheric sound and use of the slide guitar and Dobro. Weingarten has played a significant role in the progressive independent music scene since the 1980s, recording numerous solo and collaborative instrumental albums.
An early practitioner of the recording/performing technique called Looping, Carl’s techno-pop trio Delay Tactics used tape and later digital delays as the heart of their sound. Carl has since toured nationally as both a soloist and session guitarist, adding his unique atmospheric guitar in rock, jazz and ambient music settings.
Carl’s music has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and the syndicated radio programs Hearts of Space, New Sounds, and Echoes. His 2002 CD escapesilence was voted the #1 album on the annual Echoes Listener’s Poll. In 2012 Carl’s CD Panomorphia, was honored by the Zone Music Reporter during an awards ceremony in New Orleans as ZMR’s best “Chill/Groove” CD of the year. Carl’s follow up CD Life Under Stars was nominated in 2015 by Zone Music Reporter in the Best Instrumental Album category.
To find out more about Carl's recordings, visit the DISCOGRAPHY page.
“Slide guitar is as rootsy as it gets, but Carl Weingarten has taking the technique into realms that would astonish Elmore James and perhaps even give Ry Cooder pause. Tapping the strings both in front of and behind the slide, scraping it against the strings Weingarten creates washes of delayed and looped tones for a cinematic journey in sound. Honing his art over three decades has produced a singular voice that honors the slide’s history while pushing it into the future.” --Guitar Moderne
"Carl’s brand of instrumental music is often labeled “ambient”. Influenced early on by the blues, Weingarten is proficient at guitar, slide guitar and dobro. He’s also a champ at looping, a demon at digital delays and a master of the mighty EBow. Weingarten doesn’t rely just the normal tools of the trade to make new music, he comes up with a few of his own. That’s a good part of why his music stands a bit apart from others in his field. While, say, Pinhas bolsters his ambience with a metal edge, Weingarten supplements his with the earth-bound sounds of the slide guitar and other blues and rock-inspired tones." --Something Else!
"Carl Weingarten, a great, unheralded and underrated, often experimental guitarist." --John Diliberto - Echoes
(Review of CD compilation, Hand In The Sand)" Weingarten manages to combine these varied influences into a conceptual whole that is linked by a rich melodicism that pervades every track, and a concise playing style that is clearly heavy on substance while not forgoing style. Included in the collection are the previously-unissued "Holograph Blues," as well as two tracks from his forthcoming release, Local Journeys , due out in the spring of '05. Hand in the Sand serves as a captivating introduction to an artist who, with an economical and almost ecumenical approach, has been creating compelling work for over a decade and is certainly deserving of a wider following." --John Kelman - All About Jazz
While dobro and slide guitar are usually associated with country and blues, Carl Weingarten breaks the mold to make them into impressionistic, melodic instruments. That he's a consummate player with a firm vision for his instruments is beyond question . . . Weingarten is an excellent, daring talent." --Chris Nixon - All Music Guide
"To call Carl’s music “innovative” and “unique” borders on understatement. While his recordings are guitar-based, he often takes the instrument in expansive and experimental directions that defy categorization. In addition to electric and acoustic guitar, he has charted new territory on traditional instruments such as dobro and slide guitar, which he taught himself to play after becoming enamored with the blues early on. However, there is nothing traditional about the context Carl uses them in, which can be quite atmospheric and gives some of his work the feel of an impressionistic soundtrack." --Michael Diamond
