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THE best lineup of Top Guitar Players Anywhere. Period.
Welcome to the Lord of the Strings website!
2023 marks our 21st year of bringing you the best in acoustic music!
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
DR. MARTIN TAYLOR MBE & ALISON BURNS
GRAMMY nominated musician Dr. Martin Taylor, MBE, is a virtuoso guitarist, composer, educator and musical innovator whom magazine calls ‘THE Acoustic Guitarist of his Generation’.
Widely considered to be the world’s foremost exponent of solo jazz and fingerstyle guitar playing, Martin possesses an inimitable style that has earned him global acclaim from fellow musicians, fans and critics alike. He dazzles audiences with a signature style that artfully combines his virtuosity, emotion and humor with a strong, engaging stage presence.
Taylor has enjoyed a remarkable musical career spanning across five decades, with more than 100 recordings to his credit. Completely self-taught beginning at the early age of 4, he has invented and developed a unique way of playing the guitar that is greatly admired, and often emulated, by guitarists all over the world.
In addition to his solo concerts and recordings, he has also collaborated with musicians from many different musical genres, including: Jeff Beck, Tommy Emmanuel, Bill Wyman, Chet Atkins, Stephane Grappelli, David Grisman, George Harrison, Jamie Cullum, Bryn Terfel, Dianne Schuur and Gary Burton.
Taylor brings a rich and varied musical heritage to his play, to the extent that Tommy Emmanuel remarked that [Taylor] is “a portal into all that came before.”
Over his stellar career, Taylor has amassed a record 14 British Jazz Awards as a guitarist. Several of his albums have been in the Top 10 in the USA and Europe.
ALISON BURNS
“She has the ability, rare in all but the best jazz singers, to make even the most frequently heard, over-recorded standards sound fresh and interesting.” – Jazz Journal
“Burns’s voice strikes the right balance between sensitivity and power”
– HMV Choice
“Scotland’s foremost jazz singers” – Glasgow Herald
“Wonderful” – Michael Parkinson Show BBC Radio 2
“a collection of classic jazz torch songs set to race up the charts” – Daily Express
“Impressive….superb” – Crescendo Magazine
“Burns confirms her pedigree with the lightest of touches – imperceptibly hurrying a word here, turning another into a soft hoot, stretching a sound into a whispered glissando.” – The Guardian
“triumphant…a voice full of confidence and authority”
– China Sunday Morning Post
One show only
Mission Viejo Civic Center
SATURDAY - September 7, 2024
Doors: 6:30 pm
Show: 7:00 pm.
TRANSATLANTIC GUITAR TRIO
This extraordinary guitar trio features three very different members with very different backgrounds. Richard Smith is an International Fingerstyle Guitar champion from London England. He is a soloist and master of just about any and all guitar styles from Chet Atkins to Merle Travis to Jerry Reed to you name it! Joscho Stephan is from Germany and a true superstar, known the world over for his sensational Django Reinhardt "Gypsy Jazz" style. Joscho's guitar skills are so special you will be left breathless just watching him. Rory Hoffman is from North Dakota and a master of many instruments from Guitar to keyboards, accordion, harmonica and all reed instruments. Rory has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry many times as a soloist and sideman to Ricky Skaggs, Kathy Matea and Kacey Musgraves to name a few. These three diverse styles become so harmonious in the music they have created that audiences tend to cheer while watching "note play" bordering on the impossible!
One show only
Mission Viejo Civic Center
SATURDAY - September 28, 2024 - NOTE CHANGED DATE
Doors: 6:30 pm
Show: 7:00 pm.
RICHARD SMITH
Smith was born in Beckenham, England. He picked up the guitar when he was five years old after watching his father playing an Atkins and Travis version of "Down South Blues". He begged his father, a longtime Atkins admirer, to introduce him to the fingerpicking style. Smith soon became a child prodigy on the guitar. As a kid he could play the entire discographies of Django Reinhardt and Chet Atkins. At the age of 11 he shared the stage with his idol when Atkins invited Smith to play with him at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. He was also influenced by guitarist Big Jim Sullivan and briefly studied jazz guitar with Shane Hill at Warlingham School, Surrey.
He formed the Richard Smith Guitar Trio with his brothers Rob and Sam before marrying American cellist Julie Adams and moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. He founded the Hot Club of Nashville, a jam band with a varying lineup that included John Jorgenson, Pat Bergeson, Bryan Sutton, and Stuart Duncan, combining gypsy jazz and western swing. Smith performs as a solo act and a duo with his wife. His repertoire includes country, bluegrass, blues, ragtime, folk, jazz, pop, and classical music. In 1999 he won the AFG Golden Thumbpick Award.
Smith won the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas in 2001. The National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame named him Thumbpicker of the Year in 2008 and 2021 and inducted him into the Hall of Fame in 2009. He received the Golden Thumbpick Award by the Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists.
Richard has played with Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Nato Lima, Boots Randolph, Tommy Emmanuel, John Jorgenson, Marcel Dadi, Tommy Tedesco, Joe Pass, Biréli Lagrène, Mark O'Connor, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Martin Taylor, Jorge Morel, Earl Klugh, Suzy Bogguss, Victor Wooten, John Cowan and countless more.
One show only
Mission Viejo Civic Center
SATURDAY - October 19, 2024
Doors: 6:30 pm
Show: 7:00 pm.
BRUCE FORMAN'S THE RED GUITAR
Imagine receiving an invitation to a gala featuring John Coltrane, Sigmund Freud, and Faust. Bruce Forman’s “The Red Guitar” is all that more. It draws on Forman’s decades of experience as a formidable jazz guitarist and his considerable skill as a storyteller and teacher, producing a work that is greater than the sum of its dazzling parts.
A story in and about jazz, The Red Guitar showcases Bruce Forman’s genre—breaking inventiveness and his ability to improvise and create within a classical form. Enlisting the full power of the jazz idiom and integrating it with seasoned and provocative story-telling, he confronts the dilemma of artistic obsession face-to-face—by creating a work of art that simultaneously explores and demonstrates the hold that music has over its most ardent followers, the hold that poses itself as a life-or-death, must-be-solved-question to Forman and his ilk: “The Red Guitar. Do you play it…or does it play you?
One show only
Mission Viejo Civic Center
SATURDAY - November 9, 2024
Doors: 6:30 pm
Show: 7:00 pm.
CARL VERHEYEN BAND
In his 50-plus years of playing the instrument, Carl has created a wildly successful, multi-faceted career. He is a critically acclaimed musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, producer and educator with sixteen albums and two live DVDs released worldwide. Carl is commonly regarded as a guitar virtuoso capable of playing any style of music with remarkable mastery and conviction. He has been one of LA’s elite “first call” session players for the past 40 years, playing on hundreds of records, movie soundtracks and television shows. Verheyen has graced the pages of countless industry publications and been the subject of numerous articles chronicling his rise to the forefront of the modern-day guitar scene. Carl has won numerous polls and musical honors in the US, Germany, France, Italy and the UK.
A member of the smash hit British rock group Supertramp since 1985, Carl has played to millions of enthusiastic fans in sold out arenas worldwide. As the creative force behind the Carl Verheyen Band, he has released an impressive and eclectic discography that showcases his endless talents across a wide array of musical genres. The CVB tours all over the world and continues to draw fans on the festival circuit as well as theaters and clubs. Carl also works with Police drummer Stewart Copeland in his PDO project, playing the music of the Police with symphony orchestras around the USA.
A much sought-after studio musician, Carl plays on other artists’ CDs whenever his busy schedule permits. He has recorded and played with a virtual who’s who of the music industry. His vast collection of movie soundtrack and television credits is enviable. Carl was heard by 67,000,000 people as a featured soloist at the 2009 Academy Awards. He is also heavily featured in the film documentary about the electric guitar, Turn It Up!
One show only
Mission Viejo Civic Center
SATURDAY - December 7, 2024
Doors: 6:30 pm
Show: 7:00 pm.