parkening.com
robbylongley.com
lagq.com

   Do you like classical music? Guitar music? Better yet, classical guitar? Jazz? You should check out the music of Christopher Parkening and Robby Longley. Of the two, Parkening has a bent more towards Spanish (Flamenco) and classical; and Longley, towards jazz and ethnic music.
   I'll give you a quick rundown on Parkening, since he is my favorite of the two. Parkening is a born-again Christian, besides being one of the premier classical guitarists in the world. His metor, the great Andrés Segovia, said that Parkening is "a great artist-he is one of the most brilliant guitarists in the world."
   He is an artist, in the true sense of the word. For example, he only records any song once. He will practice until he is good enough to perform it impeccably live, and then records a one-shot staging of it. Any mistakes are not edited out, as he feels this is dishonest; it goes against his artistic integrity. Still, his one-shot recordings are better than any other guitarists' heavily-edited final cuts. At last, a musician who is also an artist!

   The last group I'd like to mention is the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. You like classical? Ethnic? Jazz? Anything unclassifiable? LAGQ is for you. They play classical guitar, restring their guitars with everything from piano strings to giant rubber bands with paper clips attached, and then play ethnic music which sounds like it was played with traditional instruments. Definitely worth your eartime.