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Thursday, June 24
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Andy McKee
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w/ Joel Tipke
Ticket Price: $15.00 adv / $15.00 dos
Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PM
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Andy McKee
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Andy McKee - an instrumentalist with dazzling technique on the acoustic guitar is an artist on a meteoric rise in the live event performance marketplace.
Though Andy is one of the most seen and heard musicians on the web with tens and tens (and tens and tens) of millions of gross impressions on Youtube and Myspace in the past sixteen months alone; it is Andy's engaging live performances and rock solid touring calendar that has seen him grow a global audience by playing upwards of two hundred dates a year. Since his music has continued to explode virally across the web proliferating on numerous global web sites and is consistently logging 50,000 plus impressions on Youtube and Myspace every day he is poised to make a major commercial break through.
Indeed, if it was just a single video that became a viral success on the web this could be dismissed as a blip as his 15 minutes of glory. True, Drifting, is in the top eight of all music videos ever presented on the web and gaining towards number one; yet, Andy has had similar widespread exposure with multiple other tracks: Rylynn, and his inspirational cover of Toto's Africa easily in excess of 5 million views each and he has other tracks not far behind in viewed counts. Plus, when you are hailed by your peers as a true virtuoso of the instrument and an all around great person, it is easy to see why the music community and fans of popular music alike so abuzz with anticipation of his career trajectory. Of course, it might be that audiences are starting to discover that he was also a stand-out musical voice on Josh Groban's most recent multi-platinum Christmas record Noel.
Though still in his twenties he has placed in the elite echelon of guitar players in recent years by placing multiple times in one of the top two or three spots at one of the top music performance competitions in the world - the National Fingerstyle Guitar Competition held every year in the United States.
Andy McKee is considered one of the world’s finest acoustic guitar soloists. His dedicated online community has raised his YouTube video views in excess of 78 million plays and at one point he held the #1, #2 and #3 positions for Top-Rated Videos of All Time on YouTube. McKee’s online media success has impacted both album and ticket sales allowing him to tour internationally with over 200 live shows a year.
Hailing from Topeka Kansas, the self-taught McKee, first garnered international attention as one of the top finalists at the prestigious National Finger Style Guitar Championships in Windfield, Kansas. Since 2001, McKee has released five albums independently selling upwards of 50,000. Andy also had the honor of playing guitar on Josh Groban’s Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum Christmas album, NOEL.
McKee’s live shows are a true testament to his art of stringsmanship and engaging repartee. He manages to capture both the every day music fan and guitar aficionados with his expertise and down to earth wit and humor. Whether it be explaining how his harp guitar tunes or why his frets are backward, Andy maintains his love for both fan and guitar player.
McKee’s unique skill allows him to transform the guitar from a simple stringed instrument to a dynamic calliope of sound. Andy’s deft talents give his music life through altered tunings, syncopated rhythm guitar taps, and his textural use of polyphonic tones and drones. All of these are played on both standard sized acoustic guitars and a hand-built 12 string harp-guitar. His highly-developed two handed technique is reminiscent of some of Andy’s cherished guitar mentors and heroes: Preston Reed, Don Ross, Billy McLaughlin, and Michael Hedges. He honors the path blazed by these pioneers with his unique multi-layering approach as he alone plucks, strums, taps the strings and body to provide the illusion of a full band accompaniment.
Andy was awarded the Acoustic Guitar Magazine worldwide silver medal award for fingerstyle in December 2008.
See why Andy is rightfully called a guitar phenom here:
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Joel Tipke
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coming soon!
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