Tony McManus - The Maids of Mitchelstown

I am honoured to have delivered a new DADGAD model G1.2 to Tony McManus at the 2010 Montréal Guitar Show. Following the show, Tony stopped by my shop to record a few tunes. As usual, this is the artist, the guitar and a single mic in the bench room of my shop. There are no pickups being used. The sound is pure. Enjoy!

[@CM-eg3gl]

My favourite musician on this earth. If only he knew how many hours I've spent listening to his stuff. Greetings from Mayo in the west of Ireland.

[@scottfishkind5335]

Tony is such an incredible musical gift to the guitar and music in general!!

[@alastair6356]

Beautiful sounding guitar, I have a 365s Yahama have had for 44 years and just got the bridge shaved the old girl sings as sweet as ever. Great playing from Tony superb. 🤩👍

[@beorn9188]

Great job Tony!!! One of my favorite Bothy Band tunes.

[@Grillmouth]

I would kill to be able to play just a minute of this!!!!

[@Qpidon]

cant get tired of his play..just phenomenal all the way...

[@suedonim3287]

My good friend Rob Stein turned me onto your music. This is incredible. Tears right through my heart.

[@Niwremaniac]

I fell immediately in love with this guitar as I saw a video from Tony McManus with exactly this guitar. There found each other a exceptionally gifted player and a masterpiece of an guitar. My respect to you as builder. I could never afford such an noble guitar in my whole life, but I can recognise a good guitar when I hear one.

[@ibassnote]

It’s such a beautiful tune and a lovely rendition. Gorgeous.

[@MyNewZealandMaxLines]

Yip God has blessed this man with a talant called music well played .

[@MosheFeder]

Utterly brilliant. Bravo!

[@Souraneel]

I love this tune

[@liam8984]

i got to play that exact guitar when i played with tony last year

[@Rael0505]

Gorgeous guitar, great playing! Thanks for sharing.

[@ThumbAndFingers]

Listening to it all day Very very good

[@Cartamandua]

How talented. Listened to this as I fell off to sleep.

[@nickymcnervin7509]

Meraviglioso!!!

[@christaylor2070]

at first I thought I was seeing things 'damn the frets on his guitar are all off centre' then I found out its called 'fanned frets' and it actually means the guitar plays better in tune . You live and learn.

[@ROOKTABULA]

Your shop is nicer than my living room!

[@icewaterchrist]

It's a rendering of a piece the Bothy band did in the 70s. It's amazing how hie played all the different melodies that weave together throughout it

[@fiddlefancier]

Tony you are a force of nature. The good fairies must have been in at your christening.

[@seanobrien7811]

Lovely tune

[@baconesq]

Beautiful -

[@MosheFeder]

This was the first of Tony's I heard and it's still a favorite. Something about it reminds me of certain Richard Thompson pieces. Clearly they're coming from common roots. I wonder if they know each other; I'd love to see them jamming!

[@MoGiMaL]

There are a few things in Greenfields I aim to put in my guitars when I start building, mainly the wonderfully fat treble notes. I just wish Mr. Greenfield would tell me his secrets on how to get those fat tones...

[@beorn9188]

Mr. McManus, you should try to get the former members of the Bothy band together and do a version with them. That would be awesome!

[@Sallodeus]

You know ur a boss when there is no tutorials for youre tunes, lol my friends make fun of me cux im 14 listening to tony mcmanus but tony is a freakin legend. !!

[@joestem25]

your friends probably listen to rap crab BS or Bro Cuntry...Tony is a Legend no doubt...

[@micsayre]

Holy hell.....

[@netterstyl]

Of course the one he's playing on the LauraMSpence channel is being miked in the crummiest of fashions, and thus the crummy result. But that guitar I'm sure is to die for. You GOTTA listen to Tony playing 'An Ceriaoch Malithe' on the Greenfield website. Now in that instance, I'm not sure there *is* anyone out there who can articulate like that. But again, what really does it is the guitar - my personal favorite recording of any new guitar I've ever heard...ever.

[@kaldesjarlais375]

dam them Greenfield's sound amazing

[@ronkopald]

@thejackal280 Indeed! How the F&%K can you "dislike" Tony McManus? Holy God he's talented.

[@Flatlandish]

This is mindfucking fantastic. A fantastic guitarist on a mindblowing guitar. I've played a lot of guitars and I have some fantastic guitars myself but somehow I always come back at Greenfield guitars. The documentary on KZbin of the guitar making process by mr Greenfield was such a wonderful treat. I loved it. How long is the waiting list for a new one? With other words, how much time do I have to save money for such a fabulous guitar?

[@laynebowen3264]

Tony taught at a music camp I was at. " Pretty good" guitar player, but he also knows more jokes than George Burns did.

[@mikesrandomchannel]

What cujimmy92 said. Marvellous.

[@mikesrandomchannel]

I think someone hit the "envy" button ;-)

[@netterstyl]

I'm thinking that guitar he's playing on the Greenfield website ain't too shabby live, either. It's flawless - pick your parameter, and it's there. Clarity, transparency, crispness, balance, blah, blah - the whole nine yards. The stupidest junk in the world played on that guitar (and of course this one here), and you'd *still* be drawn in like a magnet by the alluring tone. I've never heard more pleasant-sounding new guitars then these that Greenfield cranks out.

[@Souraneel]

stop worrying about dislikes just listen to the music

[@svenlittlecross]

sick

[@ksmyth999]

In my guitar playing experience, there seems to be two kinds of piece you can learn. The type you learn by ear and can almost play immediately. The other is more of a challenge and can take up to 5 years to learn adequately. This piece is fantastic to listen to, but unfortunately for the (well at least this) guitarist falls into the latter category. Still, I have the tab and will keep trying.

[@LenardPareja]

Do you know how can I get the music scores?

[@JeremyFallowfield]

It's in Tony's book 'Celtic Jigs and Reels' which you can get on Amazon.

[@LenardPareja]

I appreciate it

[@lapocasini1246]

For those looking for this style of sound in a 2-3k guitar, the BSG J14cf from Chech Republic might get you close. Search for the BSG J14cf T-cophony videos.

[@lapocasini1246]

Specifically, A Place that see the Earth

[@lapocasini1246]

J12Cf is what i mesnt to write

[@pericliskipreos2165]

Could you please to tell me what is the tuning in this song??

[@RADThird1]

He's in DADGAD

[@pericliskipreos2165]

Thank you very much for your answer!!!

[@kylekrb1]

nice

[@chainoad]

Great music. Great musician. Great instrument. Almost 7 thou... Ouch...

[@BrianTruesby]

@chainoad 7 thousand for a Greenfield? I WISH!

[@mcmanustony]

would be better if the counter melody and melody could be played simultaneously.....a bit more work to do...

[@01107345]

dang, it's like you can't quite play the whole band at the same time

[@balarkas]

There's nothing more disheartening to my self esteem than watching you play this, than hearing that you think you could have done better...sob

[@chara12345]

A Ryobi bandsaw probably couldn't even cut through another Ryobi bandsaw.

[@watch-me-fail]

I have a suspicion that people dislike videos so they can make a comment about the "stupid person" and garner to themselves "likes"....childs play.

[@helios5868]

I personally can't stand that little intro-type thing the Bothy Band started doing before the actual song song starts at 0:45. I'm pretty sure it's not part of the original song, and that little major-key thing just sounds...wrong.

[@01107345]

it basically continues through the whole piece with some occasional changes

[@netterstyl]

It's mostly the guitar, and the fact that it's quality miked (only). There are plenty of strokers out there who could play this, but it wouldn't be on *this* guitar, mostly because they couldn't afford the damn thing. McManus' fingernails and their dynamics and his choice of string gauges certainly come into play, but *mostly* it's the guitar. Don't believe me? Sure you don't. -Listen to him messing around on a Greenfield on the LauraMSpence channel - the thing sounds like shit there.