The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #22498 Message #1288678
Posted By: GUEST
04-Oct-04 - 08:07 PM
Thread Name: World's best guitar player has website
Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
Probably unwisely, I have chosen to refresh this thread, and in the process expose myself once more to the vituperation of all those who will go to great lengths to point out the futility of talking about "the greatest" anything, far less guitar players.
But hey, they don't come any more pachydermatous than I ...
Four and a half years on, I would like to provide a link to a radio program on WGBH Boston, recorded in June 2002, in which Tony McManus is interviewed by Brian O'Donovan. Why it has taken me so long to hear this interview, I do not know, but I listened to it for the first time tonight.
I have never heard any musical interview in which the interviewer and the interviewee were so lucid, intelligent, and both so au fait with their subject. My attention was held all the way though (I don't know how long the interview lasted, I lost track of time, but I guess about 45 minutes, maybe an hour)
The best part of it, obviously, is the music. These are live performances remember, no editing, dubbing, or post production, and I cannot hear even one single fluffed note, despite the awesome technical requirements of some of the pieces.
My favourite, mainly because this is the only chance to hear it (he hasn't recorded it on CD yet) is the amazing "Easy Club Reel". Anybody who has tried their hand at flatpicking should listen to this. It will either inspire you to greater heights, or else you will burn your guitar. Hopefully the former. His fingerpicked pieces are equally amazing.
The questions Brian O'Donovan puts to McManus are pertinent, succinct, and of huge interest both to guitarists and to Celtic musicians in general.
I humbly beg anybody who has the remotest interest in the guitar (in any genre) or in Celtic music, to click onto the link below and enjoy one of the most pleasurable listening experiences of your life.
And pleeeeze, try to refrain from posting to this thread until you have listened to the program, is that too much to ask ?