Scottish guitarist Tony McManus is one of the better exponents of Celtic playing currently on the circuit. His name might not be familiar to many of you, but he’s constantly working and he tours the world. He’ll be at Boulevard on Sunday, so we spoke to him about what we can expect.
CULVER CITY NEWS: WHEN DID YOU START PLAYING PROFESSIONALLY?
Tony McManus: I started quite late on. I was into academia for way too long. That was my intended career. I started playing guitar when I was ten years old, but it was a private little obsession of mine. I didn’t perform, and I didn’t have any notion of having a career in it. I was at Exeter University doing a PhD and I was sharing a house with a whole bunch of drama students. For the first time in my life, people actually appreciated what I was doing. I didn’t start my professional career until my mid to late 20s. I had no album, but someone at the BBC got wind of what I was up to. I was invited to BBC Scotland to record 40 minutes of music, which was a dry run for my album. That started the ball rolling.
I then got asked to do a ton of live work with a guy called Brian McNeil who was the engine-room of a Scottish group called the Battlefield Band. He went solo in the 1990s, and I was essentially his backing band for three years. That served as my apprenticeship in terms of being a professional musician at this level. I stuck with it and here we are, 20 years later.
WHERE ARE YOU BASED?
I live in Canada. I’m in Southern Ontario – a town called Elora, Ontario. There was a woman involved – a long story without a happy ending. I first came to the States in 1996 to tour with Three Fiddlers. I’ve been to the US multiple times since, and California’s always been important to me with touring, and I’ve done some recording there too.
HAVE YOU PLAYED BOULEVARD BEFORE?
I have. I can’t remember when I did my first gig at that store, but I remember it being great fun and it’s always good to go back there. I had an agent years ago who had several guitar players on her roster. There’s another famous venue in LA called McCabes. Gary Mandell who oens Boulevard Music is a former employee at McCabes. It’s a guitar store, so he’s interested in having guitar players there.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THIS SET?
I’m making the trip for a guitar show and expedition of guitar builders in Santa Barbara. I’ll be performing there, and then I’m doing a workshop in the afternoon at Boulevard – sharing some ideas of how I approach the guitar, and a concert in the evening.
DO YOU ENJOY THE WORKSHOPS?
I do, and it’s a surprising aspect of the way my career has turned out. As I mentioned, I’m self-taught. I’ve got no experience to fall back on. I find it hard to put my finger on how I learned anything, so I had to relive how I learned guitar. But they’re great fun.