Aaron Larget-Caplan guitar, spoken word
Irina Muresanu violin
Charles Coe spoken word
Jeffrey Lependorf spoken word
Trevor Neal spoken word
Release Date: March 6, 2026, Navona Records

“Aaron Larget-Caplan is a master arranger and master guitarist. His Guitar America 250 is fantastic. Very clever; the rhythm is rock-steady and impressive”
~ FANFARE (Full Review)

Videos

Album Playlist

Two and a half centuries of America are commemorated by guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan on GUITAR AMERICA 250, an exploration of the United States’ musical history. From The Star-Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful, American composers Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, and John Cage, to Paul Simon’s America and Eddie Van Halen’s 316, Larget-Caplan journeys through the soundscapes of a diverse nation, exploring its ideals and contradictions, and its reinventions and dreams. To punctuate the music and further explore the foundations of America, the album includes a magical premiere of a duo by Florence Price with violinist Irina Muresanu, spoken texts for two poems, an essay, and a poetic interpretation of the Bill of Rights.

Spoken Word Video

"Radiant and haunting. Nothing borders on predictable or cliché. In all of his arrangements, Larget-Caplan’s command of both his instrument’s capabilities and his materials is first-rate."
– The Arts Fuse (Full Review)

"Price’s Adoration is an absolutely beautiful piece [for violin and guitar], performed beautifully.”
– Soundboard

"Larget-Caplan is a first-rate guitarist with a strong command... of the guitar’s emotional range and evocative capabilities."
– Infodad.com

"GUITAR AMERICA 250 showcases Larget-Caplan’s expressive and distinct playing, and on the last track, “Bill of Rights, Amended”, he handles spoken word that’s a good reminder of what our actual rights are and will hopefully always be. An effort that explores the ideals, contradictions, reinventions and dreams of the nation provides further insight into the artistry of this eloquent commemoration."
– Take Effect Review (Full Review)

"Boston-based Aaron Larget-Caplan gives us a unique representation of the United States of America through music and the spoken word in a creative project inspired by its 250th year."
– American Record Guide (Full Review)

"It lays out the story of America writ large, encompassing the grandeur of the country without grandiose declaration."
– David Liptak, Composer Eastman School of Music

"The whole album is beautifully played, you are truly an artist who has something to say."
– Frederick Hand, composer New School of Music

"Larget-Caplan’s GUITAR AMERICA show was a terrific concoction of a hypnotic rasa entranced ride and elegance string work with spoken word Bill of Rights sidebars that unfolded the scope & breath of the performance into something more sprawling and impactful than the sum of its parts. Classical guitar heads and Eddie Van Halen fans can meet in the lobby and compare complimentary notes."
– HyperLocal Cape Cod

"We were, as with the others you sent earlier bowled over by your ability to keep tabs on the different simultaneous voices you somehow have the skill to maintain! It sure is lucky you have 5 hands working that fingerboard on your guitar! The voices, some of them going separate ways all at once and your giving each an “individual touch!” was amazing! We thought intermixing poems and The Bill of Rights spoken was very good programming."
– Susan and David Barron, Artists-Poets-Performers

"I love GUITAR AMERICA, but I feel that so many people who also would love it might be turned off by misconstruing what it’s really about - which definitely is NOT glorifying particular political personalities or political parties. To me each track rises above contemporary politics. That’s the real genius of this album. From a purely musical perspective the guitarist took songs of no great musical substance, then added his own harmonies and counterpoint which, along with performances that left me transfixed, totally changed this music from what I was taught as a child. I hope music lovers of any political persuasion will look at this album as unique, and listen to it from that perspective. It's so much more than a re-hash of songs we've known all our lives. Believe me - it’s not what you think it is. I was enthralled by the solo guitar arrangements of two "America"'s - two songs sharing that title, one by Leonard Bernstein from his classic Broadway show, West Side Story, and the other by Paul Simon from his 1968 Bookends album. But maybe the biggest shock was how Larget-Caplan turned the staid Irving Berlin perennial God Bless America into a compelling piece of music, exploiting one of the guitar's most exciting capabilities - the tremolo. (I wish Berlin were around to hear it.) I hope music lovers will take a listen to this profoundly beautiful gift to America in this 250th anniversary year."
– Fan, Amazon.com