Acoustic Guitar Virtuosos

I went to the Manhattan Arts Center last Friday to see a cozy show by Beppe Gambetta. Beppe is a flatpicker from Genova, Italy, who in addition to his solo touring, is also a member of Men of Steel (along with Don Ross, Dan Crary, and Tony McManus).

Beppe's final song of the show was an audience request: Church Street Blues. It doesn't show off his technical mastery as much as many of his other songs do, but I think it does justice to his ability to breathe beauty and genius into a simple little song. Here's a YouTube video of his version:



And while I'm at it, let me go ahead and expand this post to include a number of representative videos of my favorite acoustic guitar virtuosos.

Here's a fellow from Topeka named Andy McKee (since he's a localish guy, I'll splurge and share 3 videos):

"Drifting"


"Common Ground"


"Rylynn"



This next fellow is Don Ross. He's the only person to ever win the world fingerpicking championship twice. Here are 2 of my favorites:

"Afraid to Dance"


"Midnight March"



Speaking of Don Ross, here's a fellow named Antoine Dufour covering one of Ross's songs ("Dracula and Friends"):



Now meet Erik Mongrain. He plays the guitar as if it were a cross between a keyboard and a set of bongos. This is his song "Airtap":



Here's Tommy Emmanuel gettin' after it with "The Hunt":



Next is Leo Kottke, master of the 12-string. My current favorite song is a simple little folk song called "Tiny Island." You can listen to it here:


Most of his songs are instrumental, though, like this:


Finally, let me end with Mark Goffeney, the most inspirational armless guitar player around.