American musician Tony Furtado will be performing at Peel Centenary Centre on Saturday, November 14. What Where When editor John Gregory caught up with him to discuss his music.
Tony Furtado is a highly skilled slide guitarist and banjo player who has enjoyed a music career lasting more than 20 years.
He has opened and toured with acts such as Greg Allman, Taj Mahal and Eric Johnson and has shared the stage with Sonny Landreth, Keith Richards, Norah Jones and many others. Alison Krauss has also appeared on one of his albums.
His music blends rock music with elements of Americana, folk and pop which resonates with fans of acts such as Ry Cooder, The Band, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.
Tony's love of music goes back to an early age.
He said: 'I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and I didn't have any heavy musical leanings from my family but when I was a little kid I had to take an introduction to music course and we had to make an instrument out of household items and do a report on the instrument.
'I ended up picking the banjo and when I did the report I found out it came from Africa and you could play all kinds of music on it, anything from old time mountain music to jazz, Irish music and something call bluegrass music.
'One thing led to another and that's the instrument I chose and I went along that path for a long time but I always had my ear towards all kinds of music, especially American roots music.
'My first few albums were focused on the banjo but then I got a little frustrated and a little bit bored and decided to stretch out a bit and the reason for that was I started hearing albums by Ry Cooder who is an amazing slide guitarist and American roots musician.
'I checked out his music and his influences, got myself a beat up guitar and practised and practised.'
Tony, who won two national banjo championships, began playing at farmers' markets – he had a crate he would sit on and practice his slide guitar at these events.
'After doing that for a little while I found my focus. I started touring under my own name, playing slide guitar, singing and playing the banjo,' he said.
'I have been in the business for 21 years and recorded 14 CDs. The past few have enveloped everything I have worked on and I feel like I am getting very close to where I want to be.'
As a working musician he is constantly on the road – I told him this must be hard.
'I don't know any different, sometimes it's great, sometimes it is like work. The hard part is the travel. When I am on stage that's the fun part, that's the pay off right there.
'It's hard enough to make a simple living doing this but I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it, I so thoroughly enjoy playing it weighs out all the disadvantages of having an uncertain paycheck and having to be in the car eight hours a day sometimes.
'It's the life I love, the life I know and how I know to make a living. It's not my choice to just stay in one place and play music at one venue all the time, there is something about playing to a different audience every night that keeps it alive for me.'
When Tony is not on the road he works with clay to to make sculptures as a way of relaxing.
'It's a stress reliever for me, I get off the road go into my studio, get my hands in some wet clay and it's a lot of fun, I do it for the love of it,' he said.
Support on the night is from local Blues duo Blue John and Papa Cass who have supported the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Nine Below Zero and Marcus Bonfanti. They released their debut CD, Yazoo City, last year and it is available in Peter Norris Music, Douglas.
Tickets for the Tony Furtado gig are £10 and are available from Thomson Travel, Port Erin, Celtic Gold, Peel, Peter Norris Music and Mostly Manx, Douglas, Shakti Man, Ramsey or on the door, if not sold out.
www.centenarycentre.comwww.tonyfurtado.comwww.myspace.com/tonyfurtadomusicwww.myspace.com/bluejohnandpapacass