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Tony Furtado
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Wikipedia

Tony Furtado is an award-winning banjo player and slide guitar player of Portuguese and Italian heritage who was born in Pleasanton, California. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

History

Tony Furtado became a banjo player in sixth grade after doing a report on the instrument, making a rough banjo out of household items and studying the history of it. Before long, he dove headlong into banjo playing, practicing for hours each day. By 19, he had won a pair of National Bluegrass Banjo Championships and was deemed a prodigy.

As a young banjo player, Furtado found himself playing the genre of music most represented by the instrument - bluegrass. But all along, he was listening to Tom Petty and Jackson Brown, he was watching MTV, and he was delving into his parents collection of classic rock records. Looking back, he says:

“I think I was kind of doomed to be a multi-genre player from the start.”

Furtado's 1987 win at the National Banjo Competition (a feat he would repeat in 1991) led to a touring sideman stint with bluegrass musician (fiddle) Laurie Lewis (Laurie Lewis and Grant Street) and the launch of his professional career. But, bluegrass was only one style of music that interested Mr. Furtado. He has spent his decades in the music business fusing bluegrass, country, rock, blues, jazz, and folk (both American and European) on his expanding instrument arsenal of banjo, guitar, slide guitar and voice.

Recordings and performance

He has released 13 albums and played with and opened for such notable musicians as Greg Allman, Jerry Douglas, Keith Richards, Eric Johnson, Derek Trucks, Alison Krauss, The String Cheese Incident, Little Feat, Leftover Salmon, and Taj Mahal. He has released numerous solo albums, including Swamped, Within Reach, Full Circle, American Gypsy, Live Gypsy, Roll My Blues Away, These Chains, Tony Furtado Band, and Bare Bones.

Furtado released a new album, "13," in January 2007 on the Funzalo label of Arizona. The record is a mix of originals and covers, totalling 13 selections. It represents the artist's thirteenth album release, and he made it when he was 3x13 years old, but the album title, and the title cut, actually refer to the "horrid Sago coal mine explosion in West Virginia in early 2006 that saw 13 miners trapped underground." Despite the horror of the event, Furtado says actually writing the song was quite easy:

"My manager turned to me one day and asked, 'Do you have any mining songs?' I had never written any mining songs. He said, 'Well that Sago mine disaster just happened.' So. I started reading up a bunch about it and realized how tragic and intense it was. I had a melody that was sitting around from another song that I had written that just seemed to work. So, I took that melody and married it with some verses that I wrote, and I came up with a chorus. It kind of just all fell into place.

Of the "tender and somewhat bittersweet" original song "California Flood," he says:

"Musically, I was listening to a lot of Elliott Smith at the time, and so, I have to think I was influenced a bit by that." "Lyrically, I think I had written a little poem about being a kid and thinking about summers on the California Delta. We had a boat out there. And also some of the different things were intertwined in there, memories of my folks and just some different personal problems - interfamily stuff - that I don't necessarily want to elaborate on. I know it's kind of abstract, but I think they are kind of intertwined.

Three covers grace "Thirteen": The Who classic "Won't Get Fooled Again", Elton John's "Take Me To The Pilot", and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son." Of these he said:

"'Won't Get Fooled Again' just felt great. I started doing that one at live shows solo, and it was an easy choice. 'Fortunate Son,' I remembered hearing when I was a kid, my parents had a couple of old Creedence Clearwater Revival albums that I listened to all the time. The Elton John song was suggested by other people, and so I tried it. I'm working on getting comfortable, but it's a fun song.

He currently resides in Portland, Oregon, and tours the U.S. extensively.

Style and sound

Mr. Furtado mixes rootsy, old time, folk, swing, and jazz styles.

Discography

Distinction and awards

Articles, reviews, interviews

References

External links

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday July 09, 2008 at 23:52:44 PDT (GMT -0700)
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