The Kalamazoo Klub has been bringing great quality folk and acoustic music to North London for the last 20 years. Run by Guy Simpson and Paul Alcantara, it has brought a plethora of World-class names to our audiences over those years.
Fronted by House Band, The Blinkin’ Buzzards, each month’s meeting brings a top-name artist from the worlds of folk and acoustic music. It is now one of the best-known folk music clubs in London.
You may have thought you’d seen all the acoustic guitar greats at the Kalamazoo….
Renbourn, Jansch, Graham, Wizz Jones, Martin Simpson. They have all graced our stage over the years. But hold on, here’s another master to add to the list.
Tony McManus is a virtuoso who breaks new ground in the art of fingerstyle guitar. The revered Renbourn described him as "the best Celtic guitarist in the world.”
It was a craft developed in the folk clubs of his native Scotland and honed to perfection in the concert halls of the world. Tony’s obsession from childhood was to adapt for guitar the traditional fiddle and pipe music of his homeland. He achieved it to breathtaking effect.
There is so much more, of course. In a McManus show you could hear African songs or Romanian folk tunes, a Monteverdi madrigal or even Bach’s E Major prelude.
Tony’s recent album Mysterious Boundaries drew an astonishing reaction. "Perfect – beyond beautiful,” said Tommy Emmanuel. "Phenomenal,” said John Renbourn. And fellow countryman Dick Gaughan admitted he had "no superlatives to do this justice.”