Michael Hedges (December 31, 1953 - December 2, 1997) was a Grammy Award winning acoustic guitar player and singer-songwriter. During his lifetime he referred to his music with a variety of unlikely terms, including “violent acoustic”, “heavy mental”, “acoustic thrash”, “new edge” and “edgy pastoral”. He was often classified as a new age artist because of his long association with Windham Hill Records but his recordings reflected a mix of folk-rock, folk and new acoustic music and often included vocals, sometimes on a majority of the tracks.
Hedges died in a auto accident at the age of 43. He received a posthumous Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for his 1998 release "Oracle".