OK, John Williams is terrific, but there is something about the tone that Julian Bream is able to entice from a guitar that I love. Granted, it drives my guitar teacher nuts, ("too much playing near the bridge"). Then again Bream is a lutenist and Williams is not. As a former lutenist myself, I feel compelled to plug him. That Sogovia bloke wasn't bad either, but he also said some very kind things about Elliott Fisk, who IMHO plays like a dead fish.

Artie McGlynn is fantastic, and like Dave MacIssacs, is a pioneer on the use of electric guitar in "traditional" music. Don Ross was good enough to win the Winfield Fingerstyle Competition--twice. Catspaw is is correct in pointing out that even the ten best is of limited utility. Still, for what he does I have heard none better than Tony McMannus. But for what he does, Ian Carr is no slouch either. Any name recognition here?

I happen to see Ian Carr and Karen Tweed in the Montague (MA) Grange. Maybe fifty people got the concert of their life. Ian Carr is a terrific accompanist, though he is a straight picker and he rarely takes the "head" in a tune. I was probably one of the few people in a room full of accordion zealots that was there to hear a guitarist. Is Tony McMannus in for the same, now that he is paired up with Alistar Frasier?