Minnesota Guitar Wizards
Quotes/Reviews
Quotes/Reviews
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Quotes/Reviews |
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Whether due to winter nights with nothing to do except practice, or some quirk of the aurora borealis, Minnesota is littered with outstanding acoustic guitarists. It's a bounty never quite fully appreciated, maybe because they often toil in solitary splendor. Until now, that is. Four of the bestPeter Lang, Dakota Dave Hull, Tim Sparks, and Phil Heywoodhave joined forces as the (Minnesota) Guitar Wizards, making their debut with a promised array of solo and ensemble bits. Each is pretty darn extraordinary in his own right: Lang, the fingerstyle master with a countryblues streak and a slew of elegiac originals; Hull, the overgrown leprechaun with an encyclopedic knowledge of vintage jazz; Sparks, whose maverick interpretations of such diverse stuff as Ellington, fado, Balkan standards, and bossa nova are brilliantly original; and Heywood, another fingerstyle ace who's a fine singer as well. Between their prowess on the frets and exhaustive range of genres, the four caballeros should easily knock your socks off. City Pages September 22, 2004 Get ready for a folk Fab Four, or a fresh Great Guitars, when the Minnesota Guitar Wizards make their collective debut tonight. The quartet of homegrown string kings includes exRio Nido man Tim Sparks, KFAI Radio morning pleaser Dakota Dave Hull, "American Primitive" comeback kid Peter Lang, and twotime fingerpicking guitar champion Phil Heywood. Whether the fare is blues, folk, jazz, western wing, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, country, early Latin, or in the case of Sparks, all manner of world musics, these guys are true Merlins of music, for whom we prophesy great things.Minneapolis Star Tribune September 24, 2004 The Week in Music |
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David Alderson |