Richie Havens: "How I Play in Open D Tuning"

In this Talking Guitar podcast, Richie Havens describes his unique approach to playing acoustic guitar. Throughout his career, he performed nearly all of his songs in open-D or open-Dm tuning, with his thumb coming over the top of the neck to fret the strings. Keeping time with his feet, as seen in his Woodstock footage, was an essential part of his distinctive sound. Our conversation took place on July 22, 1987. Portions of this interview appeared in the October 1987 issue of "Guitar Player" magazine. Richie Havens passed away in 2013 at the age of 72. If you’re interested in unique approaches to acoustic guitar, check out our Talking Guitar podcasts of historic interviews with Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Suzanne Vega, Jerry Garcia, and the granddaddy of them all, Nick Lucas. Thanks to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for filming the intro and outro and enhancing the sound of the 39-year-old master tape. For nearly 300 other blues-, rock-, and guitar-intensive podcasts, interview transcripts, and articles, visit the magazine version of "Talking Guitar" at https://jasobrecht.substack.com/. #richiehavens #acousticguitar #jasobrecht #talkingguitar #nikhunt This podcast © 2026 Jas Obrecht. All right reserved.