"What do you think of Pierre Bensusan, for example?

Night Song

I'm not a huge fan of what I call "airy-fairy" impressionistic guitar, but he's certainly an impressive player. "

Hi Will. If you were asking me this with regard to my 'playing the music or playing the instrument' comment then Pierre is definitely playing the music. However you can't take his playing the instrument out of the equation but the music is not suffering as a result. Some of the more modern advanced players seem to loose the music behind the technique. Maybe it's a matter of taste, maybe I'm just an old fart saying 'it was better in my day'

Pierre Bensusan had a vid of The Hesleyside Reel on UTUBE a few weeks ago. Can't find it now. I know this tune from tune sessions and he changed the key to suit the guitar. Now Pierre B is probably not going to turn up and play that tune at a tunes session but some young 'up and comer' might learn his version, try and play it at a session and get the 'frowns' for playing it in the 'wrong' key.

I'm not sure if there is any one correct inference to draw from this but you decide if it is putting the instrument before the music.