Music Review: Tony Furtado - 13

How do you classify the music of cross-over innovators like Bela Fleck? Can genius be pigeonholed? I don't think so. The same is true for Tony Furtado's music, all thirteen albums - which defy cookie-cutter musical categories.

Somewhere between alternative bluegrass and alternative country - with a few jazz, Celtic and Latin influences for good measure - Furtado is often compared to Bela Fleck. Like Fleck, he started out as a banjo sensation - twice winning the national banjo competition. But unlike Fleck, Furtado extended his instrumental repertoire to include almost everything with wires and wood. His slide guitar playing is exceptional.

Where Bela pushes limits, builds mathematical constructs with his music, and has composed an entire song that is a palindrome, Furtado is driven to extract every last ounce of emotion from every note he plays. A natural storyteller and songwriter, his melodies are sweet, fluid, and often haunting. That's when he's not thrashing his slide to evoke some raw country blues with Kelly Joe Phelps on vocals. I love both Fleck and Furtado, but I tend to react to Bela's work with my brain and my feet; and to Tony's music with my heart, soul and body chemistry.

I'm rarely happier than when I'm listening to Furtado's American Gypsy (2002) or Roll My Blues Away (1997) discs. His music reaches down and turns on a fire hydrant of emotions. It has a welcome, masculine vibe that is strong, confident and unrepentant - sure to appeal to alternative music-loving males as well as their female counterparts. My partner's enthusiasm testifies to that.

Some of Furtado's sweetest slide guitar tunes include: "Can You Hear the Rain," "Promise of a Better Day," "Song for Early," and "Crow Country." These songs are the musical equivalent of soulful cowboy poetry, featuring the artist's strong, instrumental voice. And Tony has mastered the art of speaking to his audiences with only his instruments. They weep, cajole, and moan. There is authentic passion in all of his music. It's all real, nothing sounds contrived or formulaic. Honest music.

Article Author: Yo-Duh

Yo-Duh is a veteran techie and writer with roots in computer hardware, software and gaming. That's after his career in health care and education. For decades, he has labored to frame new developments and provide context. …

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