Tony McManus

Please note that this show only will end online sales on Thursday 9/15/22 at 6pm. After that time they may be purchased at Boulevard Music in person, over the phone before 6pm the night of the show, or if available at the door.

Hailed by John Renbourn as ‘the best Celtic guitarist in the world’ Tony McManus has also been listed as one of the 50 transcendent guitarists of all time by Guitar Player Magazine. Tony has both extended and transcended the parameters of contemporary Celtic music. Ranked by peers and predecessors alike alongside the guitar world’s all-time greats, his fiendishly dexterous, dazzlingly original playing draws on traditions from the entire Celtic world, along with still further-ranging flavours such as jazz and eastern European music. Long applauded for his uncanny ability to transpose the delicate, complex ornamentation characteristic of traditional bagpipe or fiddle tunes – even the phrasing of a Gaelic song – onto his own six strings, McManus is increasingly being acknowledged also as a pioneering figure in bridging the realms of Celtic music and other guitar genres.
Born in 1965 in Paisley, near Glasgow, McManus was introduced to traditional music via the family record collection. Having first tried his hand at the fiddle, whistle and mandolin, he took up the guitar aged ten, although subsequent academic inclinations got him halfway through a PhD in maths before the music won out. After rapidly making his name as an unusually fluent and sensitive accompanist, he took the solo plunge with a triumphant main-stage debut on the final night of Glasgow’s inaugural Celtic Connections festival in 1994, supporting Capercaillie in front of a 2500-strong crowd.
With the loyal support of Greentrax Recordings in Scotland Tony’s first self-titled recording in 1996, followed by Pourquoi Quebec in 1999 led to worldwide recognition. However, it was with the release of Ceol More in 2002 that Tony’s stature as a first-class musician reached a new level. Having heard his session work on several albums, Nashville based Compass Records released “Ceol More” in North America to universally ecstatic reviews. Critics hailed the focused, spell-binding nature of the music, from the plaintive Jewish hymn “Shalom Aleichem” to the ingenious arrangement of the Charles Mingus tune “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”. Having been nominated as Musician of the Year by both the BBC Folk Awards and The Scottish Traditional Music awards, in 2002 “Ceol More” hit the Critic’s Album of the year list in Acoustic Guitar magazine and was named Live Ireland Awards’ Album of the Year.

https://www.tonymcmanus.com

Please note that this show only will end online sales on Thursday 9/15/22 at 6pm. After that time they may be purchased at Boulevard Music in person, over the phone before 6pm the night of the show, or if available at the door.

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