Technical Brilliance meets unsurpassed passion and emotion in this all instrumental release of a 22 year old guitar icon.

9 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Instrumental Rock, WORLD: World Fusion



Details:
Tony Smotherman
Guitar and Sitar

At the age of 15 years old, a high school teacher introduced Tony to the music of Nicolo Paganini and J.S. Bach. Tony immediately purchased as much of Bach and Paganini's music as he could. He then began taking classical guitar lessons. Within four months Tony was practicing at least 6 hours a day.

While primarily practicing Bach lute suites Tony was recognized for his musical abilities. He was chosen as Middleburg High Schools "Most Talented Senior," Tony was also selected and published in the annual book "Who's Who in America." During Tony's senior year a teacher submitted some of Tony's musical work to Queen Elizabeth II. She not only received his music, but also described Tony's classical guitar skills as "highly sophisticated."

After hearing Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony was completely inspired to strengthen his abilities on electric guitar. Shortly his influences then grew onto Shawn Lane,Mattias I.A Ecklund, Ron Thal, Rusty Cooley,Todd Duane, Marty Freidman,George Bellas and Derek Taylor to name a few. Tony now 22 years of age, has just completed his first debut album "Embracing the Spirit" with world class drummer and percussionist, Bruce A. Royal and multi-instrumentalist and bassist Andy Haney. Tony focuses on creating his own style which is a mixture of many diffrent cultures and techniques borrowed from instruments around the world,crossed with an exotic melodic approach to his phrasing and extreme technicality at times.

Today, Tony continues to thrill audiences with his unique musical abilities. While Tony pulls out all the stops on his career, he continues to teach guitar and compose music. While gaining recognition for his musical abilities, Tony has recently acquired endorsements with Peavey guitars,Line6,and DR Strings.


Bruce A. Royal
Percussion

Performing Experience: 20 years
Styles of Music: Be-bop, Big band, Fusion, Blues, Funk, R&B, Go-Go, Doo-Wop, Pop, New Orleans, Zydeco, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Southern Rock, Rockabilly, Country, Ceremonial (Military), Broadway, Latin, Afro-Cuban, African Hi-Life, Ju-Ju, Afro-Pop, Ethiopian, Reggae, Calypso, Socca, Ska, Heavy Metal, Neo-Classical


performed w/various groups, anrtists, and musicians such as:
Black Sheep. Toured as opening act for Steel Pulse, Aswad, Third World, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, Pato Banton, Shine Head, Yellowman, Culture, Maxi Priest)Baba Dontez,saxaphone (Black Sheep, Millie Jackson). Drum tracks on CD recording entitled âHorns for Bob Marley (Black Fire Music) CD recording w/Tomas Jones (Changing Tones Music, 1995) entitled âMy Happinessâ, Sweet Honey In The Rock (Grammy Award winning female Accapela singing group) Gary Grainger, bass (John Scofied, Carl filipiak, Michal Camillo, Scott Ambush, bass (Spryo Gyra, Pieces of a Dream, Special EFX Marc Cary, piano (Roy Hargrove, Betty Carter) Aaron Graves, piano (Maceo Parker)Glenn Ellis, bass (Omar Hakim, Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers) Melba Moore, Maurice Bowie, bass (Betty Carter, Manhattan Transfer)Terrell Stafford, trumpet,Carroll DeShield, bass (Stephanie Mills, Phyllis Hyman,Gerald Albright, Najee', Angela Bofil, Jean Carne).