How is it possible to play this way?

[Montreal 007]

I saw many video's and it seems that Richie (using his thumb) plays and inverted barr chord.....Usually you barr with your index finger and you play 'UP The Neck" with your other fingers....Richie barr's with his thumb and uses his fingers "DOWN the Neck" Going in ther opposite direction of a normal Barr chord. I can never play this way. But i repeat my question, is there a way to duplicate the chord using a more generic style of play.

[MissouriPicker]

Havens and others often do their own style of barre chords. I always thought he was a splendid rhythm guitarist. People too often get hung-up on what makes a great guitar player. No doubt that people like Santana, Chet Atkins, Jimmy Paige and many others know the guitar inside and out. I wish I had their skills. Still, there's a great deal to be said for people like Richie Havens, Johnny Cash, and Neil Diamond (and of course there are others) who were/are extremely powerful rhythm guitar players. It kind of all depends on the total package. Havens had a strong stage presence and a driving guitar sound. It worked very well for him.......Here's another guy who played that style with open tunings. He did some fingerpicking with it at times too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHa2fMpMBss

[handers]

The sound for Richie in my view comes from his Right hand. It's the loose strum that creates that vibe. The chords are not special even if he uses a thumb over top to play them. Mostly they cover the strings 3-6 so you could do the same with your fingers 1-4, leave the top two strings open In a couple of places he plays the top 2 frets lower for 7th chords but this isn't what makes the vibe. It's his strum. That's hard to do with the loose feel and getting the right string-noise to fundamental-tone ratio. Medium thin pick and a really loose wrist.

hans