World's best guitar player has website

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 03 May 08 - 01:30 PM

I watched a video of Tony on Youtube, and I thought the tone he produced on the treble strings ( he was playing fingerstyle) was very disappointing.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Mooh
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 04:15 PM

Sandy...Um, that subjectiveness is just what I was poking fun at.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 01:03 PM

Hi Murray,
JP and Hilda were at tne Highland Guitar Club in Judique this past Sunday afternoon. I was about 10 feet away as he played. For much of the time my eyes couldn't follow his fingers. He ain't slowing down any!
                            Sandy

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 01:02 PM

did anyone ever get the same wit and grace that Burl Ives put into his Dum-ching period?

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:23 PM

second "weird" is redundant ...

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:22 PM

Well, well, well, don't these old threads just jump up and bite you when you least expect them ....

I see that seven years ago I couldn't do blue clickies, that does surprise me.

Since the thread has resurfaced, I had better update a couple of links.

The link I gave above to the WGBH show is no longer functional, but This link should take you straight into the archived broadcast. It is as well worth listening to today as it was the day it was recorded. Unfortunately, the new format doesn't allow you to fast forward in the same way it used to , but if you can wait twenty minutes he plays an absolutely mind-blowing version of the "Easy Club Reel".

Since I first put this thread up seven years ago, Tony has become an international superstar of course, and there can be very few nowadays on this forum who haven't heard of him although there may be some who haven't actually heard him play.

He is not well represented on YouTube unfortunately, but you can see him holding his own with Don Ross, Beppe Gambetta and Dan Crary in This clip of "Men of Steel"

The tune Tony plays on his break is the Easy Club Reel referred to above, but I have to say I prefer the purer uncluttered version on the WGBH archive.

And Sandy, many thanks for that link to JP Cormier. I have been trying for months to see if there were any clips of him on YouTube, with no success. Searching for "J P Cormier" brings up no results. Weird.

I still remember the Guitar Summit during Celtic Colours 1999 ? 2000? when Tony played the Easy Club Reel and the rest of the guitarists on stage (including JP) gave him a standing ovation. You were there as well that night, if I remember correctly ?

Weird.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: John Hardly
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 10:58 AM

I went to the linked website. It's not Pat Donohue's website as advertised.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 10:06 AM

Well Mooh, I think any compairison between the two is very subjective and the same can be said for Dave MacIsaac. However I agree that the flamed shirt is hard to top. :-}
                         Sandy

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Mooh
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:46 AM

Let's see, JP has got the edge in wardrobe, but Tony's stage sound is better...

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 06:15 PM

Sorry to open an old thread but when we spoke of JP Cormier he wasn't familiar to many so watch him pick here:
                           Sandy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zSaeoHAzFA

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 11:05 AM

'World's best guitar player has website?'

Not yet, I don't.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: GUEST,Sandy Mc Lean (no cookie)
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 05:07 AM

Just one more week to go until The Guitar Summit. It will be great to hear Tony and JP again. As I said on the Celtic Colours thred thhough, "I wish Dave MacIsaac was there as well. (See Celtic Colours thread)
I can't agree with fan above about JP concentrating on guitar though. He plays everything else too darn well and his fantastic sense of timing
comes direct from Cape Breton fiddle music.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: GUEST,Fan
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 03:30 AM

I've had the great privelage of seeing Tony and JP perform together on several occasions. One of which was around a table backstage at a festival two years ago. Three hours of playing that was nearly impossible to comprehend. Both also played a few on my old box which was awesome.

I've seen them blow each other away and to say one is better than the other is simply a matter of taste in style. You couldn't put a thread between their respective abilities on guitar.

If JP focused on guitar only I think he might gain the edge but as those of you know he plays anything and everything with strings and is also a fine songwriter.

For me these two are legends already and they will take their place among the most respected musicians from the past present and future. I'm just happy I'm around to see them every chance I get!

Check out their websites and see what the top players like the late Great Chet Aitkins said about these guys. I'd certainly listen to what his opinion was as he had the genius to comprehend their abilities. Their both the greatest.

A Fan!

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 08:58 PM

I knew you would be dropping in Ted, thanks for listening.

I am at a loss to know why you and Bill D can't get my link to work, it works fine for me when I click on it.

Still, thanks to Bill for posting an alternative link that works for those who find my one inoperative.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: M.Ted
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 05:59 PM

An additional thought-- Tony's playing has a quality of warmth and feeling that doesn't always come out in his studio work--the "curse" of having developed such a polished and precise style is that we often just hear the technique, and miss what is happening on the on the deeper levels--Maybe it is the audience, or maybe just the informal situation, but this program showcases
Tony at his best, with technique simply a vehicle for personal expression-

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 03:53 PM

What should the criteria be in determining the "greatest", "finest", "genius"?

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: M.Ted
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 12:55 PM

Oh, God, Murray, not this again!!;-)

But seriously, thanks for posting the link, and thanks to Bill D for posting a link that I could actually use--I do enjoy Tony's music a lot--as to who's the best, I remember an old song,
"We may not be the best in town, but we'll be the best til the best comes round"--and so it goes--

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:55 AM

Amen to that.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: black walnut
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:43 AM

Exactly, Murray. Let's just thank the Lord for them all.

~b.w.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:34 AM

You Canadians sure do have the best guitar players. Tony MacManus lives in Toronto (or maybe Vancouver, one of these places...)

Don Ross is no mean fingerpicker, I agree. I had the pleasure of seeing both Don Ross and Tony McManus playing side by side on the same stage. Don Ross was good, but if you had taken a straw poll among the audience on the question of who had put up the more dazzling exhibition of fingerpicking, there is not much doubt which way the vote would have gone.

But hey, let's not get into comparisons ...

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: black walnut
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:23 AM

DON ROSS (cont'd): "Don Ross has emerged as one of the most respected musicians in Canada and one of the top guitarists in the world. In September 1996, he managed to do what no other player has done: win the prestigious U.S. National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship for the second time (he first won in 1988)."

Selah.

~b.w.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:21 AM

I could not get anything using that link...I had to wind my way thru the website until I found the archives and this link..http://streams.wgbh.org/scripts/ram.php?show=mcmanus

then I had to paste it in my player (Media Player Classic)...but it was worth the digging!

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: black walnut
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:19 AM

"Nobody does what DON ROSS does with an acoustic guitar. He takes the corners so fast you think he's going to roll, but he never loses control. Guitar players take note; the wizardry on these tracks will inspire the brave — and send the faint of heart runnning for cover."
- BRUCE COCKBURN, 2003
(from the liner notes of Robot Monster)

Then there's J.P. CORMIER (2003 ECMA Instrumental Artisist of the Year), and WENDELL FERGUSON (the six-time Canadian Country Music Association Guitar Player of the Year and has traveled the globe accompanying a who's who in both the country field - George Fox, Shania Twain, The Dixie Chicks), and lots more.

We Canadians sure have the best guitar players. :-)

~b.w.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 10:52 AM

Thanks Murray for the WGBH link. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but I took a quick look. It seems that there is other great stuff there as well. I want to check out the performance and interview with Natalie MacMaster as well.
Going back to the original subjective subject, JP Cormier has played with many of the world's greats including Tony and Doc Watson but he still rates Chet Atkins as the best. JP spent a few years in Nashville as a studio musician and he claims that the Chet could do stuff that was never recorded that "blew him away!"
Anyway that is what he says.
          Sandy

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: moocowpoo
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 07:44 AM

Yes, yes the same thing.....this "best" word is a bit meaningless when it comes to music, unless you want to use lasers and develop computer software to measure the speed and accuracy and perhaps intangibles such as, audience emotive response..
Now that that's out of the way, Tony McMannus not a genius for playing the guitar the way he does, the way this is achieved is lots and lots and...even more, practice. I saw (and heard) him play in a litle pub in Melbourne years ago. There was a pretty meagre crowd, we sat down at a table just in front of the stage and I rarely use this expression (because it sounds so silly) but I was completely blown away. I haven't ever heard another guitarist who's playing has mesmorised me like that, absolutely beautiful playing (even though I'd prefer to listen to a bouzouki).. Tony also sings very, very nicely.....If you haven't heard him....please give him a go.
Also....I agree with a post upstairs,,,,(but it's small and I'm not looking for it). It said that Arty mcGlynn was just as good....I love arty's playing and he's certainly on a similar skill level to Tony but I just like Tony's style that little bit more.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Mooh
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 06:47 AM

Murray...I saw Roy Buchanan by chance, opening for the James Gang and Soft Machine about 30 years ago. I was an immediate electric blues convert. When he was "on" he was stellar, but it's too bad he had personal demons. It's more because of him than Keith Richards that I love, and still play, a Telecaster.

Tony McManus does with guitar what few could do on any instrument. It's a bonus that he remains approachable and personable. He's a curious player, not just that he's different from others, but that he seems to exhibit a curiosity as he plays, explores, and takes risks with each phrase.

Genius doesn't apply to many guitarists, Joe Pass I guess, Django Reinhardt, J.P. Cormier comes real close.

I should be practicing, not 'Catting.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 04:21 AM

Oh, and Blind Blake, of course, was a genius

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 04:17 AM

I would agree with that statement Mooh.

There are many supremely gifted and talented guitar players around, and I have been fortunate enough to see most of them play, but Tony McManus is the only one to whom I would give the accolade of "genius".

I think Clarence White (whom I never saw play) may have been a genius, and Roy Buchanan (whom I did see) certainly was a genius, but I can't think of any more.

Bracing myself for a long list of genius guitarists ...

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Mooh
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 08:31 PM

I had the rare fortune to witness Tony McManus and Simon Mayor going head to head for about 2 minutes on mandolins. THAT was a taste of heaven! They parted, both with words to the effect of "Jeez he's good!". No bloody kidding I thought, good doesn't begin to describe what I heard.

Fast forward a couple of years and TM tried one of my guitars, really liked it fwiw, and I as dumbstruck and awed as ever was ready to give it to him. It never sounds that good when I play it. The man's a genius.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 08:10 PM

mmmmm, got so carried away I didn't realise my cookie had expired ...

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 08:07 PM

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 ?

Yes I know, it is too much to ask ...

WGBH Interview with Tony McManus, June 2002

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Brendy
Date: 23 Jun 00 - 06:30 PM

Mbo gets my vote every time

GO MEEBO GO..ROCK ON, YA GOOD THING!!

B.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: bob jr
Date: 23 Jun 00 - 02:12 AM

lenny breau spent alot of his life up here in winnipeg i didnt mean to say he was born in canada but he lived here for a long long time that is for certain

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: little john cameron
Date: 23 Jun 00 - 02:04 AM

Ah wonder if anyone has heard Gordon Quinton? LJC.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From:
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:00 PM

I have no idea who the world's best is but I saw Tony Mc earlier this year on a bill with Pierre Bensusan and our own Geordie Cuban Issac Gillory. I enjoyed them all but it was Tony's cd I came away with - he was brilliant.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 01:48 PM

Never saw Albert King play behind his back on one foot, but I bet he coulda.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 01:01 PM

Well, I am left handed, play right handed and can or used to be able to perform that feat but I'm a three chord thrasher so maybe I don't qualify for that nomination.

Jon

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Brendy
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:13 PM

Yes, but who is the best left-handed guitarist who uses right-handed stringing, can stand on one leg and play it behind his/her back?

I bet there's just a whole heap of people itching for that honour!

B.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Lucius
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 10:19 AM

Rick, you have an intriguing idea. I cannot think of a guitarist that has more musicality and finess than Tony McMannus. However Whistle Stop has pointed out the silliness of "best" anything. How about one more catagory:

Best guitarist that never won a Winfield Fingerstyle Championship: Tony Mc Mannus (Don Ross won twice).

Lucius

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Biskit
Date: 21 Jun 00 - 09:28 PM

Y'Know that's the really great thing about ol' mudcat ever'body gets to have an opinion. I believe your idea would be the most peaceful solution Rick, but I'll still hold out my right to disagree. I've seen and heard Mark Knopfler do things...BEAUTIFUL things with a guitar that most players only wish they could do...I being one of the latter.-Biskit-

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 21 Jun 00 - 06:27 PM

Can that be right? Posting 42 before Big Bill Broonzy gets a mention?? We mustn't nod off like that again.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Jun 00 - 05:13 PM

Don't sweat it Biskit. Tony has not gotten a huge amount of ink yet...but he WILL. He most certainly isn't "the world's best" 'cause that's just silly....there AIN'T a "world's best", but in his style, he plays brilliantly.

You know folks we could make these "best" lists a lot more realistic if we broke it down into genres. For example, my take might be:

Most technically proficient player in DADGAD: probably Tony Mc.

Most technically proficient acoustic country fatpicker: Norman Blake (for that loooooose crosspicking)

Most technically proficient Blues fingerpicker..traditional: Bill Broonzy. contemporary: Fred Vine.

Best vibrato: BB King

At least if we do it that way it puts some perspective on it. I mean you could say that Hendrix was the most "inventive" guitarist using electronics, but he would hardly be on the same planet as George Barnes or Lenny Breau when it came to knowing his fingerboard.

Rick

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Biskit
Date: 21 Jun 00 - 04:39 PM

I only got on this thread `cause I just knew it was about Chet Atkins, Mark Knopfler,Eric Clapton....Y'know somebody really good this is the first time I've ever heard of,...Tony Mcmanus????????-Biskit-

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jun 00 - 04:22 PM

Worlds best singer? dont know, but, I like to listen to Paul Robeson.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jun 00 - 04:20 PM

sorry bob jr. but Lenny Breau was born and raised in Auburn Maine.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 11:10 PM

Best singer?

Horton Barker.

Rick

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 03:00 PM

Murray, I'll leave it to others to debate the wisdom of choosing a "best" guitarist. But I am grateful to you for mentioning Tony McMannus. I had never heard of him, but now that I have I'll be sure to give him a listen, and will probably be as awe-struck as you are. Someone on the 'Cat recently alerted me to Don Ross, so I now have two on my "must listen" list. Debates about relative worth notwithstanding, I'm always anxious to expand my horizons. Thanks.

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 04:53 AM

I'm delighted that a Spanish name has come into the discussion at last. Flencomo guitaritsts I cannot even put a name to have excited me just as much with their ability as Tony has. I've in my time shared a stage with Tony McManus. He is indeed astonishing, and currently the best I know of in town at what he does. But I'd never think of allocating anyone the title of 'the best' Scots guitarist even. It depends what you think is important. This debate seems to think that accuracy, speed, and deftness are highly important cum crucial. How about soul, originality, character, innovativeness, variety, sensitivity to the tradition, etc, etc. I'm in the midst of reading J F Chernoff's 'African Sense and African Sensibility', and have just read an interview with Dagomba drummer Ibrahim Abdulai in which he talks about the speed and energy that younger drummers employ. But they eventually get older and learn what else in important in music. By the way, who is the 'World's Greatest Singer', then?

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 03:54 AM

Tony McManus is a very fine guitar player indeed with a quite phenomenal technique and feeling for the music. But like others I am quite anti saying anybody is the BEST at anything. This is against the spirit of music IMHO. I love listening to Tony McManus but also love listening to Martin Simpson, Pierre Bensusan, Lee Collinson, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake, Paco Pena, Richard Thompson and dozens of other guitarists, not to mention other instrumentalists and singers. The question of who is best is entirely irrelevant and all have enriched my life and those of countless others with their marvellous talent.

Peace

mcmoo

Subject: RE: World's best guitar player has website
From: bob jr
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 09:32 PM

any of you folks heard of this canadian cat lenny breau? he was pretty cool