Preview

You want the ultimate in guitar virtuosity? You got it! For decades, Beppe Gambetta and Dan Crary have been major players in the international acoustic world. Ten years ago they joined forces for a tour. The result: one of the most powerful guitar duos in the world.

Beppe Gambetta, from Genova, Italy, is the leading flat-picking guitarist of Europe. He introduced the style to the old continent in the 1980s, adding his own particular brand of creativity and invention, as well as more than a hint of traditional Italian folk music. Dan Crary is one of the original exponents of flat-picking (as invented by Doc & Merle Watson), and his 40-year career has seen him on stages all over the globe; as an artist in his own right and on innumerable sessions, his award-winning recordings have made him one of the most important roots music artists in the USA.

In a show peppered with Italian/American seasonings that are spicy, funny and entertaining, Gambetta & Crary create and evening of virtuoso guitar music and songs that is rich in musical surprises and intense emotional power.

After thrilling a sardine-packed crowd last year at their 2001 Cambria Arts promotion, hastily re-located to Lampeter's Cwmann Tavern, Gambetta & Crary return to repeat the process at the Talbot - arrive early and prepare to be astonished!

"Out of this world, staggering. I have never heard anything like it." - Miles Kington, Independent

Review

Beppe Gambetta & Dan Crary showed us the absolute ultimate in acoustic guitar playing. Flat picking bluegrass players constitute a veritable industry in the US of A, and here we were privileged to be in the presence of two of the finest exponents of the genre. Dan's Kansas roots combine with the southern European influences of Beppe to beguiling effect, in a set where Mozart, John Sebastian, Charlie Monroe and the Carter Family were all happy bedfellows - this was an unforgettable night of virtuoso music presented with the sort of flair and professionalism you'd expect from the acknowledged leaders in their field.

Dan Crary's Tregaron review

(Text copied from   BBC Radio Scotland  in case it doesn't stay online there long term.)

It’s an intercultural thing, how you mispronounce Welsh names. Beppe pronounced it Tregaron, I had it Tregaron, and right there on the Frank Hennesey show on the BBC in front of Wales and everybody, we learned it’s Tregaron. So our apologies, but we were happy to have provided so much entertainment (the BBC staff thought my version sounded like a cold remedy). Anyway, we made the happy move of proceeding to Tregaron one day early and ensconcing ourselves in a medieval inn right in the heart of town and enjoying the Welsh little-town-in-the-valley ambience and beauty.

It’s a place where whole families come to town for a weekend night and more or less let the little kids run amuck noisily, but harmlessly while the parents hang out with their friends around a quiet pint in the old fashioned bar. Next morning some visitors and locals sit around on benches in the small square under a heroic statue of the town’s most favorite son, a politician and national leader from a previous century. A church tower bell strikes the hour, the sleepy, but high class little gift shop and galleries await the return of tourists in a few weeks, and a sign somewhere says that in 1848 (when virtually every European country was going through a major political upheaval) an elephant died in Tregaron and is buried behind the Talbot hotel.

The only other excitement was when some dingbat came out of the bar, got in his car and apparently thought I wasn’t walking across the cobblestone lane fast enough, so he actually pointed his car at me to make me jump up on the curb. Other than that, it was like a trip back to a little quiet little town like those my grandparents knew. My Grandpa rode across Kansas in a covered wagon in the spring of 1900, an adventure I always envied; but I’ll never know if he ever slept as close to the grave of an elephant as we did. And I don’t think he ever got to hear the musical Welsh language spoken or saw the work of painters and artisans of the Welsh art renaissance as we got to do.

The concert that night was full of our usual mix of music: Italian romantic, traditional American, classical knockoffs, reinterpretations of familiar songs, blazing (hopefully not flickering) instrumentals, all part of the Gambetta/Crary mix. In a recent conversation with our UK agent, Mark of mARKO pOLO, we meditated on what we should be calling this mix, because what we do is this mix. On our recent album, recorded live before 40 European concert audiences a couple of years ago, we called the mix (and the album) "Synergia" because we believe what we do is stronger and more interesting because our differences become resources that add up to a kind of non-summativity of parts, you know, one-plus-one equals seven or something. So there we are with all these influences in hand connecting with folks from the countryside of Wales around Tregaron, and it felt like old home week. There’s something about the universality of the guitar that it connects some unlikely people like us to some great, off-the-beaten-track places. Outside the music itself, this is the guitar’s greatest gift.

Fortunately the concert went down extremely well, nobody seemed shocked, everybody seemed very happy, bought our CD’s, and had smiles on their faces. It occurred to me to wonder if the 1848 elephant’s death had anything to do with a circus show that failed. Whew, I’m glad we went over well: It would be a shame to see another plaque out there that says, "In 2002 Gambetta & Crary died in Tregaron; they are buried in the garden in back of the Talbot Hotel."