Good Medicine Presents: Tony Furtado w/​Luke Price & John R Burr

Tony is an evoca­tive and soul­ful singer, a wide-rang­ing song­writer and a vir­tu­oso mul­ti-instru­men­tal­ist adept on ban­jo, cel­lo-ban­jo, slide gui­tar and bari­tone ukulele who mix­es and match­es sounds and styles with the flair of a mas­ter chef (he’s also an accom­plished sculp­tor, but that’s anoth­er sto­ry). All of the music of Amer­i­ca is in Tony’s music. Relix hit the nail on the head when writ­ing of Tony: ​“True tal­ent doesn’t need categories.

”A native of Pleasan­ton, Cal­i­for­nia, who now makes his home in Port­land, Ore­gon, Tony Fur­ta­do took up the ban­jo at age 12, inspired by the Bev­er­ly Hill­bil­lies tele­vi­sion show and a sixth-grade music report. He first attract­ed nation­al atten­tion in 1987, when he won the Nation­al Blue­grass Ban­jo Cham­pi­onship in Winfield, Kansas. Not long after that, Tony opt­ed for the life of a full-time pro­fes­sion­al musi­cian, join­ing Lau­rie Lewis & Grant Street. A sec­ond vic­to­ry at Winfield, in 1991, book­end­ed his years with Grant Street.

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