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Concerts are one of the most fun ways to spend an evening with family or friends. Now, one very exciting series of concerts is headed your way as Don Ross is coming to put together some mind blowing performances in your city. Don Ross is not only a brilliant guitarist, but also a very talented composer and singer belonging to Canada. He is an expert in acoustic guitar and is known to be one of the best guitarists in Canada. Book your Don Ross tickets in advance and see this versatile artist live on stage.
Don Ross was born in 1960 in Montreal, Canada. He received his graduation degree in Fine Arts from York University in Toronto in 1983. At York University, he studied music composition with James Tenney, Phil Werren and David Mott. Later, he also studied philosophy at the St. Hyacinth and Seminary in Massachusetts. He started playing the guitar at the age of eight and learned many songs. Soon, his guitar skills improved and when he turned 15, he started playing guitar publicly and in local pubs of Montreal.His music style and techniques were adopted from classical, jazz, folk and blues music.
In 1988, Don Ross won the US National Finger-style Guitar Competition and with this, he earned reasonable money and fame. Soon after this success, he recorded his debut album which was titled Bearing Straight. It was released in 1989. During the next 2 years, he recorded a few other albums and later signed an agreement with Columbia Records for three albums including Loaded, Wintertide and This Dragon Won't Sleep. During this time, he won the second US National Finger-style Guitar Competition in 1996, making him the only musician to have won this competition twice.
In 1999, Don Ross released his first solo guitar CD, Passion Session. The recording was declared as the best acoustic guitar creation by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Besides acoustic guitar, Don Ross is also an expert in electric guitar, lap steel guitar, slide dobro, bass guitar, drums and piano. He has toured many countries including Japan, Taiwan, China, India, Australia, Russia and America and has played with many renowned singers including Brooke Miller and Andy Mckee.
During 2010 and 2011, Don Ross worked as a professor of guitar at the Dalhousie University.
He is known to use several modern techniques including rhythmic combination of classical and modern music in his guitar tunes. This technique made him an expert in finger style guitaring. During the early days of his music career, he used to play Lowden S-10. But now, he plays custom-designed guitars by Marc Beneteau. His guitars are equipped with a microphone and K&K pickups. He mostly plays Marc's baritone guitar during his concerts. However, in rare cases, he also uses the 7-strong by Oskar, who is also a guitar-maker from Canada.
Once during an interview, Don Ross was asked what forced him to become a finger-style artist. He replied that when he was fourteen years old, he got his hands on an album called Night Vision. After he heard the first Celtic-style song on the album, he was immensely impressed and heard the tune many times over. This was his great moment of inspiration.
According to him, Bruce Cockburn is his major inspiration in terms of finger-style guitaring and personality development as a musician. Besides Cockburn, he also gained inspiration from Keith Jarret, Pierre Bensusan, John Renbourn, Eqberto Gismonti and Pat Metheny. He dedicated one of his songs, Michael, Michael, Michael to Michael Hedges.
There was a time when Don Ross was the only finger-style acoustic guitarist in Canada for many years but now a new breed, inspired by Don, has emerged. He terms the Canadian music lovers very encouraging and supportive and says that this was one of the major reasons for his immense fame and popularity. He was raised in Montreal and lived there for many years. But now, he lives with his wife in Halifax, Canada.
If you want to enjoy his brilliant music live, buy Don Ross tickets now and catch this magnificent guitar-maestro in action.