Chris Newman

Chris Newman is a “brilliant English master of the acoustic guitar” (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH) and the UK’s premier flat-picking guitarist. A “dazzling player” (ACOUSTIC GUITAR, USA), whose work is “nothing short of brilliant” (DIRTY LINEN, USA), he is one of the very few guitarists who excel in Celtic, European swing jazz and American bluegrass styles. He was Live Ireland’s Male Musician of the Year 2009 and 2019.

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He began to play guitar at the age of four and at fourteen played his first paid gig in a folk club. He’s toured

and recorded worldwide with luminaries of many musical worlds: folk (harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Boys of the Lough, Aly Bain etc.), jazz (Stéphane Grappelli and Diz Disley) and comedy (Fred Wedlock).

His fifth solo album, Breaking Bach, featuring his arrangements for steel-strung flatpicked guitar of sonatas and partitas written by JS Bach for solo instruments, was released in July, 2021. The project is quite ground-breaking - a recording of this music on steel-strung flatpicked guitar has not been attempted until now.

* * * * * FOLK WALES "Dazzling... utterly breathtaking... a triumph.”

* * * * THE SCOTSMAN “Audacious and eminently enjoyable”

* * * * RnR MAGAZINE "Life-affirming... (Newman's) achievement is colossal... Elegant, stylish and unmistakeably from the heart.”

THE LIVING TRADITION “A ground-breaking project… a magnificent tour-de-force… a toweringly-impressive

achievement”

Fretwork, his 1998 solo CD was “a stunning and stylistically-varied album, heaving with good tunes, from one of the UK’s most staggering and influential acoustic guitarists” fROOTS (UK). “Revered” TAPLAS (Wales)

“Spectacular” TIME OUT.

2010 saw the release of the fourth solo album Still Getting Away with It, a celebration of a 40-year career.

* * * * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY “Astonishing - a joy- filled romp through blues, back-porch pickin', Quebec

reels, Django swing jazz chordings, bluegrass, African high- life, ragtime, latin, Irish jigs and beyond, and a

must-buy for any guitar player”

Mike Harding, BBC RADIO 2 “Amazing... One of our greatest musicians”

* * * * MAVERICK "Beauty and virtuosity from a master craftsman at the peak of his abilities... I couldn’t

recommend an album more highly"

* * *THE IRISH TIMES “Precision-engineered, lovingly crafted tunes... Playful and incredibly dextrous”

* * * * * ROCK N REEL “Dazzling... A genuinely uplifting album of some of the most remarkable - yet

accessible - guitar playing you're going to hear all year."

THE LIVING TRADITION “A triumph... I'm fully conscious that I'm in the presence of greatness here... one of

the top guitarists of his ilk anywhere”

Chris was principal guitar tutor for Newcastle University’s Folk B.Mus. course since its inception in 2001 until 2022, has been a regular visiting tutor at the University of Limerick, the University of Ulster and the Carl Nielsen Institute, Denmark, and is a popular instructor at guitar festivals and camps around the world.

His partnership with Máire Ní Chathasaigh has made seven critically-acclaimed duo and two quartet albums. They’ve toured in twenty-two countries worldwide in venues ranging from the tiniest of village halls and historic European churches to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, London’s Barbican, Sydney Town Hall and Cologne's Philharmonie.

In addition to his work with Máire, Chris toured 1994 - 1997 as a member of Boys of the Lough in North America, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Denmark, China and Italy. His book of guitar compositions and arrangements Adventures with a Flatpick was published in 2001.

“His playing boggles my mind” FLATPICKING GUITAR MAGAZINE (USA). “Nothing short of brilliant” DIRTY LINEN (USA) “Guitar players don’t come any better than Chris Newman. I’d blithely cross snow-capped mountains and ford raging rivers to see him play” THE LIVING TRADITION (UK)

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