After a successful season in Cape Town, Tony Cox's International Guitar Night’s (IGN) summer series, begins its tour.

The first performance takes place in Durbanville on 11th December, then Stellenbosch 12th, George 14th, Knysna  15th and Overstrand 16th of December. The focus is on acoustic guitarists who not only play the guitar, purely instrumentally, but use their skills to provide a scintillating and multi-textured accompaniment to their voices.

Guest artist is Canadian Joel Fafard who is a perfect example of this art and brings his evocative, hilarious show to the Cape for IGN’s summer series. Local acoustic guitarist, Tony Cox has toured extensively with Fafard in Canada and says; ‘Joel is one of the true gents of this world, ridiculously talented, a great player, great singer, humble and so very down-to-earth… he gets all this across in his shows with the greatest of ease.’

Joel Fafard
Fafard performs Southern roots and blues classics and sings with the sandpapered-sounding vocal style of the new-generation bluesman. With his latest album, Cluck Old Hen, and with its accompanying brand new live show, Fafard is using his uncommon skill as an entertainer to embark on a new musical mission: breathing new life into grand old numbers like “Can’t be Satisfied,” “Spoonful,” “Come on in my Kitchen,” and “Angeline and the Baker.”

A gifted slide-fingerstyle player, Fafard earned a Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Instrumental Album for his 2006 collection ‘and another thing’… He was also nominated for both a Juno and a Canadian Folk Music Award. The album’s follow-up, Three Hens Escape Oblivion, received a second CFMA nod and was a runner-up for an International Acoustic Music Award. Meanwhile, Fafard’s music was featured in the TV shows Alice I Think and Road Trip Nation, his compositions were included on several well-respected guitar compilations, and he co-scored the Middle of Somewhere TV series with Jason Plumb.

As he closes in on 20 years as a professional musician, Joel Fafard has traveled down several distinct paths: folk singer-songwriter, roots rocker, acoustic instrumentalist and now interpreter of Southern roots and blues. But regardless of which direction he goes in, his fans seem happy to follow, because Fafard has a few key attributes that remain constant. First, he is one of Canada’s most tasteful acoustic guitarists and one of the funniest and most personable entertainers on the circuit today. He is also an artist so brimming with authenticity that he’s not afraid to play exactly the style of music that feels most real to him in the moment.

Canadian Natasha Meister, IGN’s first female guitarist, and acoustic guitar guru Tony Cox, IGN’s creator, will also perform.

International Guitar Night is a series of performances held every summer and winter to bring the world’s best acoustic guitar players to South Africa. IGN’s main focus is on those players who use their right-hand fingers to individually pluck the strings creating bass, rhythm, melody and percussive lines all at the same time, like a mini-orchestra coaxed out by the fingers of the right hand.

Tickets range from R100 to R165 and can be booked through webtickets. Tickets can also be bought at the venue on the evening.

Dates and venues for the International Guitar Night Summer Series 2012 are:

• 11 Dec : Durbanville - Die Boer at  20.00 - info  021 979 1911
• 12 Dec: Stellenbosch - Dorp St. Teater at 20.00 - Info 021 889 9158
• 14 Dec: George - George Museum at 20.00  -  Info 072 762 6003
• 15 Dec: Knysna - Pezula at 20.00 - Info 083 629 2969 : (Natasha is not available to perform at this concert.)
• 16 Dec: Hermanus - Overstrand Municipal Auditorium at 19.00 - Info 079 528 8131