Tommy Emmanuel

Two-time GRAMMY nominee Tommy Emmanuel CGP is one of the world’s most respected musicians. With a professional career spanning five decades, Tommy has garnered hundreds of thousands of loyal fans worldwide.

His unusual talent and life are common lore in Australia: born into a musical family, Tommy got his first guitar at age 4 and was taught by his mother. He quickly learned by ear, with no formal instruction, and has never read music. By age 6 he was working as a professional musician in the family band (variously named The Emmanuel Quartet, The Midget Surfaries and The Trailblazers). By the age of 10, young Tommy had already played his way across Australia.

In the 1970s, Tommy was in high demand as a session player and sideman: he played on recordings for Air Supply, Men at Work and dozens of other popular bands and artists, as well as thousands of commercial jingles and tunes. Some of his most notable appearances were on the Air Supply hit singles “Lost in Love,” “All Out of Love,” “Every Woman in the World,” and “Now and Forever.” Tommy soon became known as one of the best modern guitarists in Australia. In 1985 he joined one of the decade’s biggest Australian rock bands, Dragon, and recorded the platinum-selling album Dreams of Ordinary Men. It is for his successful solo career, however, that Tommy is best known.

In the 1980s, Tommy finally met and got to play with his hero, Chet Atkins, in Nashville, TN. From that magical moment forward, Atkins took him under his wing, and the influences are evident throughout Tommy’s music: in his personal philosophy, technical precision, virtuosic improvisations and unusually broad repertoire (encompassing not only country and bluegrass, but pop, jazz, blues, gospel, even classical, flamenco, and aboriginal styles). Tommy speaks of his mentor with the love and gratitude of a son, and his dream of recording with Chet Atkins came true in 1996 when the pair made an album titled “The Day The Finger Pickers Took Over The World” for which Tommy received his first GRAMMY award nomination.

Chet honored Tommy with the title of “Certified Guitar Player” (CGP) for his contribution to guitar music, a very rare distinction shared by only four other people in the world. After an amazing performance with his brother Phil at the Sydney Olympic Games Closing Ceremony, the world wanted to know who this mysterious Australian guitar virtuoso was. In 2001, Tommy released his first solo-acoustic album, ONLY and his popularity has grown by leaps and bounds aided by a non-stop touring schedule and increasing exposure in the media.

His album The Mystery earned him another GRAMMY nomination, and in 2008 Guitar Player Magazine and Acoustic Guitar Magazine named him Best Acoustic Guitarist and Gold Medalist in the in the Readers’ Choice and Players’ Choice Awards. Guitar Player’s 2010 Readers Choice awards named him Best Acoustic Guitarist for the second time.

Tommy Emmanuel is an honorary Kentucky Colonel, a CGP (Certified Guitar Player), an Order of Australia Medalist (AM) and the holder of both an honorary Masters Degree (MA) and more recently an honorary Doctor of Arts (DR) from Charles Sturt University in Australia in recognition of his commitment to rural Australia and his contribution to music education.

Emmylou Harris

Already celebrated as a discoverer and interpreter of other artists’ songs, 12-time Grammy Award winner Emmylou Harris has, in the last decade, gained admiration as much for her eloquently straightforward songwriting as for her incomparably expressive singing. On Hard Bargain, her third Nonesuch disc, she offers 11 original songs—three of them co-written with Grammy– and Oscar–winning composer Will Jennings—that touch on the autobiographical while reaching for the universal. She recalls the storied time she spent with her mentor Gram Parsons (“The Road”) and composes a sweet remembrance of the late singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle (“Darlin’ Kate”) and the time they spent together, right up to the end. Harris locates poignancy and fresh meaning in events both historical and personal. On “My Name Is Emmett Till” she recounts a violent, headline-making story from the civil rights era in a heartbreakingly plain-spoken narrative, told from the murdered victim’s perspective; on “Goodnight Old World,” she fashions a bittersweet lullaby to her newly born grandchild, contrasting a grown-up’s world-weariness with a baby’s wide-eyed wonder. “Big Black Dog,” with its loping canine-like rhythms, is also a true tale, about a black lab mix named Bella. Harris, who runs a dog shelter called Bonaparte’s Retreat on her property, rescued Bella from the Nashville Metro pound and provided an especially happy ending to her story: “She goes on the tour bus with me now, along with another one of my rescues. I think of all the years on the road I wasted without a dog. They make it so much more pleasant. I’m making up for lost time now, that’s for sure.”

Few in pop or country music have achieved such honesty or revealed such maturity in their writing. Forty years into her career, Harris shares the hard-earned wisdom that—hopefully if not inevitably—comes with getting older, though she’s never stopped looking ahead. The candor of Harris’s words is matched by a simple, elegantly rendered production from Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin, Jack Ingram, Cage the Elephant), with whom she’d previously recorded a theme for the romantic drama, Nights in Rodanthe. While Harris’s acclaimed 2008 All I Intended to Be was recorded intermittently over a span of three years and featured an all-star cast of musician friends, including Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, and the McGarrigles, Hard Bargain was cut in a mere four weeks last summer at a Nashville studio, with only Harris, Joyce, and multi-instrumentalist Giles Reaves. Joyce gets big results from this strikingly small combo: Harris played acoustic guitars and overdubbed all the harmonies; Joyce layered shimmering electric guitar parts; Reaves—employing piano, pump organ, and synths as well as playing percussion—conjured gorgeous atmospherics, often giving these tracks, as Harris puts it, “a floaty, dreamy quality.”

“It’s such a beautifully realized sound,” says Harris. “We didn’t have the need for anyone else given how versatile Giles and Jay are. We became our own little family in the studio. We cut very simply, with just maybe a click and whatever they wanted to play and me on an acoustic guitar, going for that vocal and that feel, right to the heart of the matter. After we got a track, there were all those lovely brush strokes they were able to add to it later on. I particularly love the guitar part Jay put on ‘My Name Is Emmett Till.’ It’s a simple part but it just breaks my heart whenever I hear it. It’s like a cry from heaven or something. Jay works really fast but he puts so much thought into what he does. I’ve been very lucky to work with so many great producers over the years and now I guess it was time to increase the stable.”

On “The Road,” with its layers of reverb-doused electric guitars and harmony-packed chorus, Harris addresses, more forthrightly than she’s ever done in song, the short, life-altering period when she worked with country-rock pioneer Parsons. She and Joyce agreed this rousing number should open the disc, and its theme of coming to terms with the past sets the tone for much of what follows. Explains Harris, “I think you get to a certain point in your life where you do gaze back over the years and it’s sort of a celebration or a thank-you for the fact that you cross paths with people who change you forever. Certainly Gram did that; I did come down walking in his shoes and trying to carry on for him. So I really just told that story the way I see it in my mind, the brief time we had and how I couldn’t imagine that Gram wouldn’t be around forever. Life goes on and unfolds before you, but those people and those events that change you forever are always with you. It was an important event that determined the trajectory of my life and, more than anything, of my work.”

Throughout the disc, Harris contrasts the comforts of long-time companionship with the rigors, and just maybe the rewards, of a more solitary life. The title of “The Ship on His Arm” was borrowed from a Terry Allen drawing that Guy Clark’s wife had given Harris a copy of, and the lyrics were inspired by the story of Harris’s own parents, whose marriage was tested when her Marine father went missing in action during the Korean War: “I made up a story about a young couple who were separated and finally reunited. It’s a tip of the hat to the experience I had as a child, though I can’t imagine what my mother and father were actually going through. I just saw this extraordinary love. I don’t know what they went through to make it even stronger, but they were incredibly in love for 50 years. That’s had a huge influence on me and this song was a roundabout way of telling a little bit of their story—even though my father never had a tattoo.” She chuckles. “The imagery was just too irresistible.”

“Lonely Girl” and Nobody,” which offer markedly different takes on the single life, both began as melodies without words, while Harris was sketching out songs in her Nashville home months before she went into the studio. “Lonely Girl,” about woman still yearning for someone else even at the end of her life, “started with me noodling around in that open tuning. It kind of wrote itself. Having the melody carried me to the end.” Similarly, “Nobody” —whose subject finds herself ready to face, and embrace, the world on her own—evolved out of a chorus Harris had dreamed up: “Once again, choruses are my friend. I had this machine where I could put those harmonies on and I liked the way they spread out like a horn section.”

With her impeccable ear for a great song, Harris found two cover tunes to complete the album, musically and thematically. The sparsely arranged title track, a song Harris had been coveting for a while, comes from Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith and describes a lover, friend, or even a guardian angel who repeatedly pulls someone back from the brink of falling apart. Says Harris, “I’m just grateful to have discovered the song. It was there for the plucking. Jay really loved it too and then we ended up calling the album Hard Bargain because it just seemed to tie everything together. The people in your life, and the joy of life, will always bring you back no matter what, and I think that’s echoed in every song in a way. I may be stretching things a little bit but if you had to, ‘Hard Bargain’ would sum up this particular song cycle.”

Joyce’s own luminous “Cross Yourself” serves as a hopeful, ethereal album closer, with a subtly spiritual undertone in its spare lyrics; Harris calls it “the perfect ‘dot dot dot’ song—you know, to be continued.”

And that’s perhaps the overarching message of Hard Bargain: The music, like life, will go on.

Bryan Sutton

“I’ve come and gone and rambled far, still finding notes on this guitar,” sings Bryan Sutton in the truth-telling title track to his new album, The More I Learn. It was the right choice, summing up Sutton’s approach to his remarkable career. “The more I learn/the more I learn/that I’ve sure got a lot more to learn.”

This is a musician who could assume from the acclaim that’s followed him for more than 20 years that he’s the one who knows it all. But that would be incompatible with his character, and it wouldn’t have enabled him become the fully rounded, always improving musician that he strives to be.

Since he arrived in Nashville in the mid ‘90s, Sutton has been a young phenom, a trusted sideman, a sought-after studio instrumentalist, and a solo recording artist. On The More I Learn, he asserts himself as a songwriter and auteur in his own right – one who has assimilated wide-ranging influences in American roots music, and distilled them into something strong and personal. It’s the sound and approach he’ll be carrying forward as leader of his own band.

“It’s a manifestation of years of wanting to write more and sing more,” says Sutton. “I put doing this off for a lot of years, choosing to be busy with other things. My journey has been playing for a lot of other people but feeling like I had more I wanted to do.”

Sutton had been writing original instrumentals on his guitar for years, and it’s extraordinary to be around him when he’s riffing and improvising on the fretboard. Lately, those spontaneous licks began inspiring lyrics and verses and choruses. And after being around the songwriting culture of Nashville for years, as well as his current run with bluegrass band Hot Rize, Sutton found himself figuring out what he wanted to say, and what kind of songwriter he wanted to be.

He says: “I’m dealing with some of the issues a lot of folks deal with early in their career, which is trying not to write somebody else’s song, and trying to be honest and learning to trust what’s inside me.”

Longtime fans will be gratified that these explorations have only drawn him closer to the mountain music and bluegrass on which he was raised. But this is, after all, an artist who once titled a solo album Not Too Far From The Tree. “I’m not trying to write modern bluegrass,” he says (with all due respect to modern bluegrass, of which he has played a lot). “I’m influenced by a lot of things, but at end of day (my music is) close to the ground. I like to listen to songs that grab me on a base emotion.”

Sutton’s name rippled through the world of bluegrass music when he started playing guitar with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder in 1995. He was in his early 20s, fresh out of his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, and he could play with finesse and speed, but with enough power and dynamics to be heard clearly over the big Skaggs band. Soon, his musicianship began showing up on studio albums by country stars, iconic projects including Dolly Parton’s The Grass Is Blue album and key acoustic music projects such as Béla Fleck’s Acoustic Planet tour, when Sutton was called on to sub for his hero, guitarist Tony Rice.

While he juggled various studio and road commitments, Sutton made a string of guitar albums that solidified his stature as a preeminent instrumental recording artist and a leading figure in the evolution of bluegrass music. One highlight of many was winning a Grammy Award for a duet with North Carolina flatpicking icon Doc Watson. Every album had a story, and every song had a reason to be included.

The most recent major chapter of Sutton’s career has been his inclusion in Hot Rize, the legendary band that defined the bluegrass scene in Colorado in the 1980s. Now reconfigured, with Sutton replacing the late, great Charles Sawtelle, Hot Rize is writing original music again, which helped jumpstart Sutton’s interest in songwriting.

“We had some writing weekends together, which was a really good catalyst for my own process,” Sutton says. “You get on a thread and follow to its end. My writing started with the prep for (2015’s Western Skies album), and it really started taking off. Prior to that I’d never set aside whole days to write, and I started doing that.”

Sutton tracked his new collection of songs at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground studio in Nashville, which has become a refuge for roots musicians searching for a comfortable space and the in-house engineering mastery of Brandon Bell (Dierks Bentley, Sarah Jarosz). It was quickly decided that the industry standard approach of recording in isolation booths was wrong for this project. The musicians got back into the big room in a circle, just as they’d run the songs in rehearsal, and it worked much better as complete takes with no chances to fix things. “You accept some warts and some things that are slightly ragged around certain edges, but it all feels very real,” says Sutton. “I feel like I’ve tried to get to a point where I believe what’s in me, and I want to make that real for a listener.”

One such song is “Hills For The Head,” which ties the spirit of his Appalachian Mountain home to the Rocky Mountain magic of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where Sutton is a member of the famed “house band” with longtime colleagues Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Béla Fleck. He performs this one on the album as a solo with voice and guitar, but there are fine self-penned band songs as well. A Hot Rize writing session led to the brisk and tuneful “Walking Across This Land,” performed with fellow Hot Rizer Tim O’Brien singing harmony.

Several songs, including the romantic original “Play Me A Record,” and the Bob Dylan cover “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” are set with a spare instrumentation of one other guitar (Punch Brother Chris Eldridge) and bass (Samson Grisman), a configuration inspired by Doc Watson’s Southbound album, one of Sutton’s lifelong favorites. “I just think that’s a killer sounding record. It always takes me to a place I need to go,” he says. “It’s Doc doing a lot of fancy picking, but it’s not trying too hard. So if I am doing things that are a little more rhythmic or a little more brushy, that’s me trying to keep things from being too intricate – being satisfied with a good groove and a good tone on the guitar.”

Even with this new focus on vocals, the guitar remains prominent. In some cases, his intricate figures frame the songs, as with the ingratiating intro to “The More I Learn, while the pure instrumentals take us through various chapters of Sutton’s life. There’s a solo take on “Arkansas Traveler,” a traditional tune Bryan’s been flatpicking since he first learned how. The glowing, honest production takes us eight inches from Sutton’s picking hand and guitar top for a mesmerizing performance. New instrumentals worked up with full band treatment include the Irish-tinged “Virginia Creeper.” A melody inspired by the climbing, winding vine of that name is traded among Sutton, Noam Pikelny’s banjo, Casey Campbell’s mandolin, and Mike Barnett’s fiddle.

As a mountain musician from the bluegrass tradition, Sutton is esteemed in the school of American guitar that includes Doc Watson, Norman Blake, and Tony Rice. As a Nashville picker who loves finding something fresh to contribute in the studio for a variety of artists, he’s become an heir to the A-Team legacy of Chet Atkins, Hank Garland, and Ray Edenton. There’s even a strong case to be made that Sutton has injected a lot more bluegrass and traditional sensibility into the Music Row environment than would have been there without him. Sutton is certainly a lifelong learner, but we’d be naïve not to recognize how much he’s taught us.

Pat Bergeson

Guitarist and harmonica player Pat Bergeson has written, toured, and recorded with many of his musical heroes. Beginning at the University of Illinois in his home state, he moved on to New York City and picked up a Jazz Studies degree at William Paterson University. After playing in New York for ten years, he moved to Nashville upon the request of Chet Atkins who heard Pat on a demo tape. Chet invited him to play on his album “Sneakin’ Around” with Jerry Reed, and later featured Pat’s guitar and compositions on his 1994 releases “Read My Licks” and “Simpatico” with Chet Atkins and Suzy Bogguss. Pat continued to tour and record with Chet for several years, and was named as one of his top twelve favorite guitarists in the Oct. 2001 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine.

A versatile guitarist and harmonica player, Pat’s style incorporates jazz, blues, rock and finger style and he is known for his session work with a variety of artists. He has been in the studio with Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Dolly Parton, Peter Frampton, Michael McDonald, Tommy Emmanuel, Bill Frisell, Martin Taylor, Suzy Bogguss, Chrissie Hynde, Bill Evans, Benny Golson, Joey DeFrancesco, and many others. He has toured with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Shelby Lynne, Suzy Bogguss and Madeleine Peyroux. Pat has been a teacher and producer, played on many Grammy Award-winning records, and has appeared on many movie soundtracks.

By overwhelming demand, Pat released “Hippy Dance!,” a fun, funky, jazz-blues-inflected party record featuring the harmonica and guitar virtuosity of Pat Bergeson along with the tuba stylings of Dan Anderson. The record also features some of Pat’s favorite musicians including Jeff Coffin, Steve Shapiro, Jim White, Roger Spencer, Jimmy Wallace, Will Barrow, Charlie Chadwick, Rod McGaha, Roy Agee and Michael Jefry Stevens. Available at CD Baby and iTunes.

Pat released a CD entitled “Country Gentleman – A Tribute To Chet Atkins” featuring super-pickers Tommy Emmanuel, Richard Smith, Paul Yandell and Jon Randall, as well as Pat’s longtime friend, Suzy Bogguss.

Pat Bergeson is currently active in Nashville as a session musician, and touring with Allman Brothers alumni Les Brers featuring Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Otiel Burbridge, Jack Pearson, Marc Quinones, Bruce Katz and Lamar Williams Jr., The Tommy Emmanuel Classics & Christmas Tour with Tommy Emmanuel, John Knowles and Annie Sellick, soul music great, Charles “Wigg” Walker, The Moho Trippers with Annie Sellick, and Annie and the Hot Club, among others.

Check out Pat in Gretsch Guitars: A Tribute To Chet Atkins.

If you would like to have Pat play on your recordings, and you can’t get to Nashville, contact Pat via email to have him play on your recordings, from his home studio. – patbergeson51 [at] gmail.com

Pat endorses Fender guitars, Truetone pedals, VVT Amplifiers, and Seydel harmonicas.

Mike Dawes

Mike Dawes is an English guitar player known for composing, arranging and performing multiple parts simultaneously on one instrument using unique & extended and micro-techniques. He is hailed as one of the world’s most creative modern fingerstyle guitar performers with a repertoire spanning solo viral video hits in addition to mainstream chart success, alongside Justin Hayward/The Moody Blues.

His debut record with CandyRat Records gained strong critical acclaim and spawned a variety of world tours and singles, notably a viral arrangement of “Somebody That I Used to Know”. To many, the ‘What Just Happened?’ album achieved positive reviews due to its melodic prominence and Celtic influence combined with a pyrotechnic and astute solo technique. The lead single on Dawes’ second release ERA, an arrangement of “One” by Metallica, went viral with over 30 million hits in its first week of release. Dawes features heavily on multiple Justin Hayward DVD and PBS releases, notably ‘Spirits…Live’ which debuted at #2 on the US Billboard chart.

Mike also has a strong reputation as an educator, acting as a columnist for Guitar World, Acoustic and other major publications both in print, online and on television. He was voted the ‘Best Acoustic Guitarist in the World right now’ by MusicRadar & Total Guitar Magazine in a December 2017 readers poll.

‘Jaw Dropping’ – Guitar Player Magazine (US)

‘F***in Awesome’ – James Hetfield (Metallica)

Doyle Dykes

Doyle Dykes is no stranger to the music industry. As a native of Jacksonville, Florida, Doyle is the son of a guitar player the grandson of the church choir Director of 30 years and the nephew of his namesake Doyle “Smitty “Smith who worked with the likes of Roy Clark, Jimmy Dean, Grandpa Jones, Chubby Wise,“Little” Jimmy Dickens, Eddie, Arnold, and many others.

Doyle started his professional music career as a teenager with JD Sumner and the Stamps Quartet and then lead guitarist for Grandpa Jones on the Grand Ole Opry as well as being a studio musician in Nashville, Tennessee. Doyle married his high school sweetheart Rita and they have been married over 50 years. They have four children and five grandchildren. Besides being a well-known finger style guitarist, Doyle is also a published author, (The Lights of Marfa/ Moody Publishing) a songwriter, clinician and has designed signature guitars with Taylor, Guild (and Fender guitars) and Godin Guitars, with which he has current signature models. He has also co-designed amplifiers with Rivera and retains long time endorsements and/or designs from some of the largest companies in the music industry such as Gretsch, Olson, GHS Strings, ZOOM, Shubb Capos and others.

Doyle was awarded a brick in the Wall of Fame at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool England, has been inducted into the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame and Fingerpicker of the Year, and received the Instrumentalist of the year award and Hall of Fame Award from the International Country Gospel Music Association.

Doyle has performed on stage with other Guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, Peter Frampton, Vince Gill, John Fogerty, David Pack (Ambrosia), Larry Carlton, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, James Burton, Steve Wariner, Laurence Juber, Tommy Emmanuel, Mason Williams, Thom Bresh, Phil Keaggy, Les Paul and Ricky Skaggs.

Doyle has recorded 17 albums to date, which some have included other fellow guitarists such as Duane Eddy, Eric Johnson, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Wariner, Phil Keaggy and Jimmy Capps. His music has been played and heard in places like Disney’s California Adventures, Hobby Lobby, United Airlines, Air Canada and even the Space Shuttle Atlantis in September, 2000.

Doyle has performed at international trade shows (such as NAMM, Music Messe, Music China Shanghai) and various venues on nearly every continent on the planet. Doyle also reaches thousands of people weekly on his YouTube channel and other media outlets notably through his “Sunday String-Along” show which incorporates his guitar music with an inspirational message. Doyle‘s love for God, Family, the Guitar and his love for people and the gift of music has certainly translated through his own music along with a unique ability to connect with his audience.

Doyle has performed many times as a regular guest on the Grand Ole Opry even alongside his guitar heroes Chet Atkins and Duane Eddy. On the day of the memorial service of his guitar hero Chet Atkins, Doyle was asked to honor him in a musical set on the Grand Ole Opry on national television on the TNN network.

In a Vintage Guitar Magazine interview with Chet Atkins: VG “ You’ve played and recorded with so many of the greats, is there anybody out there, that you personally would Pay to go see?” CA “ People like Doyle Dykes, who is just an amazing finger picker, I think.”

Whether to a guitar player or music enthusiast, Doyle’s music, will make a lasting impression on anyone given the opportunity to listen.

Parker Hastings

Parker Hastings is a 22 year-old fingerstyle guitarist/singer/songwriter from Central Kentucky where there is a deep heritage of country, folk, and bluegrass music. He began learning the guitar at age 6, playing the music he enjoyed listening to on the radio. His whole mindset of playing guitar changed when he went to his first Tommy Emmanuel concert when he was just 8 years old. He is very active in promoting thumbpicking and fingerstyle guitar, incorporating the traditional sounds into his music. Parker is continuing to grow as a musician, singer, and songwriter, making a “thumbprint” with his original music. He has had many opportunities to share his music with audiences in a venues around the country, opened for other artists such as Tommy Emmanuel, Jerry Douglas, Ben Rector, Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb, and more. He has also collaborated with some of the best musicians in Nashville at shows like the Jerry Reed Tribute and Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention. His style ranges anywhere from Glenn Miller to James Taylor, Chet Atkins to Earth Wind & Fire, his own original music, and much more! He enjoys bringing a fresh sound to old classics, making them new again. He has won numerous guitar contests, one of them being the International Home of the Legends Thumbpicking Competition, as well as the Wayne Henderson Festival Competition in June of 2018. He is an alumni of Belmont University in Nashville, TN, calling Nashville his home base. Parker is currently working on his third studio album, set to be released in early 2023

John Knowles CGP

John Knowles has worked with the world’s finest fingerstyle and classical guitarists including Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Lenny Breau, Tommy Emmanuel and the Romero Family. John’s Gorilla Song (co-written with his son Jay) is an international hit with recordings by Raffi and XUXA.

John is a highly regarded teacher, known for his publications and workshops including a recent Artist Residency at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Thousands of guitarists around the world are learning from his publications including his FingerStyle Quarterly.

John’s work has won a Grammy and two Emmy nominations. In 1996, Chet Atkins awarded John the first Honorary CGP (Certified Guitar Player) degree and in 2004, John was inducted into the National Thumb Picker’s Hall of Fame for the second time. John earned his PhD in physics from Texas Christian University in 1968.

“When I lead a workshop, I bring a tune or two we can all learn, but I especially enjoy hearing what other players are working on… their arrangements or compositions. As we work together, I look for ways to share what I’ve learned… and how I work. We have so much to learn from each other.

Mike Seal

Mike Seal is a 2x Grammy nominated guitarist and recording artist based in Nashville TN. The Virginia native has been featured on dozens of recordings and toured with a wide variety of bands over the last two decades, spanning musical styles from Jazz Fusion to Americana and Bluegrass.

In recent years, Mike has been recording and touring with dobro legend Jerry Douglas. His playing can also be heard on projects with John Hiatt, Sierra Hull, Sarah Siskind, Jeff Sipe Trio, Jeff Coffin, Yonrico Scott, and many others.
His unique and precise finger style technique on electric guitar has set Mike apart from the norm, as well as his ability to incorporate many styles of music into his playing.

Seal’s first solo project, Dogwoods, released in 2018. A collection of solo and duet acoustic performances, it features both original compositions and select covers. Mike was an instructor at the Tommy Emmanuel guitar camp in Memphis TN in 2018 alongside Jack Pearson and Pat Bergeson.

Livingston Taylor

Livingston Taylor picked up his first guitar at the age of 13, which began a more than 50-year career that has encompassed performance, songwriting, and teaching. Born in Boston and raised in North Carolina, Livingston is the fourth child in a very musical family that includes Alex, James, Kate, and Hugh. Livingston recorded his first record at the age of 19 and has continued to create beautifully crafted, introspective,original songs as well as sparkling interpretations of the classic songbook that have earned him enthusiastic listeners worldwide.

From top 40 hits “Carolina Day,” “Get out of Bed,” “I Will Be in Love with You” and “I’ll Come Running,” to “I Can Dream of You” and “Boatman,”( the last two recorded by his brother James), Livingston’s creative output has continued unabated. His musical knowledge has inspired a varied repertoire, and he is equally at home with a range of musical genres—folk, pop, gospel, jazz. You can also find Livingston performing with a full symphony orchestra.

Livingston has never stopped performing since his early coffeehouse days, touring with major artists such as Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac, Jimmy Buffett, and Jethro Tull. He maintains a busy concert schedule, touring both nationally and internationally. Livingston is a natural performer, peppering his shows with personal stories, anecdotes and ineffable warmth that connect him to his fans. His relaxed on-stage presence belies the depth of his musical knowledge, and fans might just as often be treated to a classic Gershwin or a favorite from a Broadway musical.

For over three decades, Livingston taught at the Berklee College of Music where he created a course on Stage Performance.Former students include Charlie Puth, Liz Longely, John Mayer, Molly Tuttle,Gavin McGraw, Susan Tedesci, Matt Cusson, Grace Kelly, Clay Cook, and Betty Who. Livingston now takes his course “ on the road” and teaches at a variety of colleges and institutions,including the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, NASA’s Goddard Space Center, and Tulane Law School among others. His book, Stage Performance, based on his course and 50+ years (5,000+ hours) of real and practical on stage time has become the go to book for those interested in elevating their presentation and performance standards from good to downright to professional.

Livingston’s 50th year of making music was celebrated by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, both declaring January 18, 2017 “Livingston Taylor Day”.

“Livingston Taylor: Life is Good,” a documentary feature film directed by Tracy Anarella was released in 2018 at national and international film festivals, garnering awards, nominations, and accolades, including The Van Gogh Award for Feature Documentary at the Amsterdam International Film Festival. The film is currently available to the public on Amazon.

Released in 2019, “LIVe – 50 Years of Livingston Taylor Live” is a box set featuring 87 never released recordings from 1969 through 2016 as well as a 54-page commemorative photo book with notes and stories from Livingston; a treasure for life-long Livingston Taylor fans and live music enthusiasts. Best of LIVe, also released in 2019 features 11 songs from the box set and upon release ranked in the top 10, with his song “Good Friends” hitting #2 on the Folk DJ chart.

Also in 2019, American Public television filmed and released “Livingston Taylor Live from Sellersville Theater: Songs and Stories” which broadcast across PBS stations nationally and featured Matt Cusson and Chelsea Berry, both former students and touring musicians.

Taking the Stage Performance class he has taught for 40 years and adapting it for online learning in 2022, Livingston partnered with True Fire, the premier online learning site for musicians to create “The Livingston Taylor Playbook”, a 5 hour masterclass. Similar to his classroom teachings, the course is ideal for those wanting to learn at an independant pace.