Licius, I have no idea how he does this. I know what you mean, I just have no idea how he does it. Even after sitting five geet away and watching carefully, I still cant see it . He has a strange hand angle, a bit like Leo Kottke's who also conceals all his techniques (not deliberately, it's just the way he holds his hand.)

I can however tell you that he plays almost exclusively in DADGAD, occasionally in DADGBE and CGCGCD, and virtually never in standard tuning. I guess the place to go would be the Valley of the Moon Summer School in California, where he teaches each year.

Tony's most fascinating technique, and one which I know I can never duplicate, and have never heard anyone else play is his execution of lightning fast triplets at any time in a tune, and he can do it on any of the six strings, fingerstyle. On the bass strings he does it by moving his thumbnail rapidly back and forth. He says this is a flamenco technique which he "picked up". The beauty and integrity of his music goes way beyond mere technique however.

I am still playing here in S Florida, thanks for asking. We are organizing a Folk Festival here in Homestead next February, and Martin Simpson will be the headlining guest, so come on down, he will be giving another workshop. I still can't do that flicky thing he showed us in NH !