@STRAZ CENTER
MONDAY, NOV 20, 7:30PM
JAEB THEATER
Straz Center for the Performing Arts
presents
Tony Furtado
as part of
Club Jaeb
Very few musicians of any stripe so personify a musical genre as completely
as Tony Furtado embodies Americana roots music. 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 air 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 rst attracted national attention in 1987, when he won
the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship in Win eld, 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 Win eld, in 1991, bookended his years with Grant Street.
In 1990, Tony signed a recording deal with Rounder Records, one of the country’s preeminent
independent record companies. Beginning with Swamped in 1990, he recorded six critically
acclaimed albums for the label, collaborating with such master musicians as Alison Krauss,
Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, Kelly Joe Phelps and Mike Marshall. During
this period, Tony also performed and recorded with the band SugarBeat and the Rounder
Banjo Extravaganza with Tony Trischka and Tom Adams.
Beginning in the late 1990s – in uenced by such musical heroes as Ry Cooder, David Lindley
and Taj Mahal – Tony added slide guitar, singing and songwriting to his musical toolbox and
began leading his own band. He is a tireless road musician who performs in a dizzying
variety of formats: solo, in a duo or trio or with his full ve-person band. He especially
values the opportunities he has had to tour with such legendary musicians as Gregg Allman
and with such esteemed slide guitarists as David Lindley, Derek Trucks and Sonny Landreth.
Tony has performed throughout the world at top venues and appeared at such prestigious
music festivals as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Jazz Aspen,
Kerrville Folk Festival, Strawberry Music Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Sisters Folk
Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival and countless others. “I love playing live,” he says. “All my
energy is focused on the love of playing music and rolling with the moment. It’s a give and
take from the audience to the stage, and back. And the music that is created is something that
otherwise might not occur without that ow.” – Jon Hartley Fox
TonyFurtado.com • facebook.com/TonyFurtadoMusic • @tonyfurtado
The taking of photographs and/or use of other recording equipment is strictly prohibited.
Program information provided by the cast and/or production company.
TICKETS: 813.229.STAR (7827) • STRAZCENTER.ORG 37