Friends Dominique Verlyck President of the French Foundation Les Guitares de l'Espoir (Guitars of Hope), dedicated to raising charity funds for terminally ill children and their families. Peter Finger From Germany, and with little doubt one of the best guitarists in the world, with a technique that could not even be captured on a high-speed film camera. Moreover, Finger is an excellent luthier as well, who creates his own top-level guitars. Byron Louvet A young and highly talented player (and Adamas addict!) from France. Most of the great guitarists in the world were probably not as good as Byron, when they were as old as he is. François Sciortino A top-class fingerpicker from France, with a brilliant technique and a refreshing, original repertoire. Arnaldo Lopez A Dutch guitar composer with great sense of melody and a very smooth playing style. Daniele Bazzani The Italian Tommy Emmanuel. Awesome composer and finger-picker! Gert de Meijer "One of the great European masters of style of the new acoustic guitar..." Tony van den Buuse "A new talent from Holland reminiscent to Pierre Bensusan..." Harald Koll Dutch superpicker, composer, and all-round guitarist! Just released his long-awaited debut album.

Eltjo likes... Over the years, Eltjo's music has been influenced by the following brilliant artists. His personal notes are added for each of them. __________________________________________________ www.paulsimon.com "Paul Simon I think is the one who influenced my music most. I remember how I bought my very first vinyl record when I was still in elementary school. I bought it unheard (!), and it was Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water. In the years after, that album created a branch in my musical development, one leading to all the older Simon & Garfunkel albums, from which I learned many fingerpicking and other guitar licks (Kathy's Song, Cecilia, Homeward Bound, April Come She Will, Anji, Scarborough Fair etc.) and one leading me to three of Paul Simon's solo albums: Paul Simon (picture above), There Goes Rhymin' Simon and Still Crazy After All These Years, from which I learned advanced chord combinations, combining various keys in one song (in a natural way), and the sense for great melodies and harmonics. I have heard all of those songs thousands and thousands of times and I still get chills over my spine when I listen to most of them. Timeless marvels. Unfortunately, with the arrival of One Trick Pony, Paul's endeavors began to deviate from my personal preferences. In my perception, that album was a step down. Heart and Bones did not help either. After the very successful (and commercial) album Graceland I lost my interest in Paul 's work. It was a funny change of scenes, in my entire youth I was the only kid in town who ever listened to Paul Simon, and when You Can Call Me Al hit number one on the Dutch pop charts (something I would have never expected in all those years before), I was the only one not listening to it! On the other hand, perhaps Simon's change in style adds to his genius, because it demonstrates how he knows to reach any audience. There's no doubt he positioned himself between the best and most famous in pop history. Less accepted is the fact that Paul Simon is, indeed, a brilliant guitarist too. Try to play the intro of Take Me To The Mardi Gras. It seems simple, but it is impossible to play it as smoothly and dynamically as Paul did. Listen to the clean and full accompaniment of America's Tune on the album Live Rhymin', the lovely solos in Was A Sunny Day and the dynamic and highly original guitar work on Armistice Day. They're just a few examples of Simon's apparently simple, but in fact very advanced and highly original guitar playing." __________________________________________________ www.harrysacksioni.nl "Harry Sacksioni is the pioneer of the Dutch guitar fingerpickers. He can look back at a highly successfull career of more than 35 years, during which he has composed several hundreds of songs and produced countless albums. He has a large and steady crowd of fans in Holland and abroad. Ask any guitar student in Holland to play a Harry Sacksioni song and they'll do it for you (even though most of the times not as good as Harry himself, of course). When I was a teenager, Harry was my guitar idol. I spent countless hours sitting in my room, on the floor with my record player (this was long before the Internet and the invention of tab books), and learnt to play quite a bit of his tunes. Thanks to Harry I was introduced to open tunings (all of which I had to figure out by myself, by the way) and to the basics of the Chet Atkins thumb style, which I further developed by myself in the years after. Surprisingly, Chet Atkins is not at all well known in Holland, demonstrated by the fact that - I hesitate to say - even I bought my first Chet Atkins album only a year ago. I understand those who say they hear the influence of Chet Atkins in my music, because it is definitely there. But the fact of the matter is, that it has come to me through the music of Harry Sacksioni." __________________________________________________ www.jamestaylor.com "I remember very well when I first heard James Taylor's music. I was twelve, and it was the LP James Taylor, Greatest Hits, at my neighbours' place. I was immediately smashed away by the intricate melodies, James' voice (pretentionless but solid as a rock), and his smooth and clear guitar playing. The opening track Something In The Way She Moves touched me in the isocenter of my soul. One hundred percent resonance. Even now, thirty years later, just after writing the title of the song again and getting the melody back in my mind, I get goose skin all over. Carolina in My Mind had a similar effect on me. And all the other songs were just exactly what I had always been looking for. So I asked my parents an advance on my monthly allowance (after all, this was an emergency) and bought myself the LP. Since then, I have very closely followed James Taylors carreer. I have each and every one of his CDs and, with the exception of just a few songs, I love them all. Songs like Another Grey Morning and If I Keep My Heart Out Of Sight, to mention just two, are so brilliant that I think musical compositions actually don't come better than that. James is also an incredibly prolific composer: he wrote more good music then I could do in a thousand years. I particularly admire him because he never gave up on his own unique, personal style. James Taylor music is always James Taylor music, and his very first recordings are still perfectly in sync with his most recent work. Considering the time span that he has been productive, that is just an incredible thing to do. Last but not least, James is an awesome guitarist, who (just like Paul Simon) developed an apparently simple style, which is, however, impossible to imitate. At least, I could never do it." Post Scriptum: "I was just confronted again with my illiteracy for popular music, when I found out, only now, that James Taylor has a son who seems to be as brilliant as his dad. I've been listening to Ben Taylors new album Another Run Around the Sun during the last few days, and yes, I have added another master composer to my small collection. Songs like Always, Love, Nothing I Can Do, and basically all other songs on this CD are characterized by strong, original melodies, brilliant lyrics, great guitar playing, and perfect arrangements. Ben is clearly carrying the genes of his dad (funny to see how he looks the same too), and it's great to see how somehow he managed to turn the wheel of time back for some 30 years. Fantastic, because that will add 30 more years to enjoy the Taylor Experience! I am particularly impressed how Ben's approach of this album clearly follows his dad's, but on the other hand he seems to focus very well on his own strong points. He is not trying to imitate, it's clear to hear that any resemblance with his father's music is a mere coincidence, possibly in combination with some genetics and family issues. All about Ben on http://www.ben-taylor.com." __________________________________________________ www.alisonkrauss.com "Alison Krauss is one of my favorite women, definitely my favorite female artist and a woman I love, even though I never met her in my life. And she's also one of the best fiddlers I've ever heard! I love her voice, I love her mentality and I love her choice of music, which always touches me deep inside and seems to make time stand still for a while. The harmony and synergy of her band Union Station is unsurpassed, and makes it one of the best bands ever, in my opinion. Alison Krauss truly is a woman I admire." __________________________________________________ www.tonyrice.com "Tony Rice is a flatpicker. But he plays more than five times faster than the best fingerpickers, so it doesn't matter. He plays everything, but personally I think bluegrass is his mission. When I first heard him play the solo in John Hardy I could not figure out what instrument that was. You have to hear him to believe it, and then again, you probably won't believe it anyway. When I think of bluegrass guitar, I think of Tony Rice." __________________________________________________ www.jerrydouglas.com "Jerry Douglas is the Tommy Emmanuel of the dobro. Not a guitarist (as far as I know, although I would not be surprised if he plays a good guitar too), but certainly a fingerpicker! He is unbelievable. Not just because of his awesome, flawless and highly original technique, but particularly because of the incredible 'feel' and emotion he expresses in his music. A slide guitar is often misused, in my opinion. But Jerry gets more out of the instrument than anyone would possibly expect from a mortal man. A brilliant, sweet tone, with perfect pitch throughout (the dobro is not hampered by the tempered scales the way a fretted guitar is, and Jerry knows that - all his notes are accurate to one part per million). He can play all styles of music, but I particularly like his ballads and most of all his bluegrass work! The CD he recorded with Russel Barenberg (guitar) and Edgar Meyer (double bass), Skip, Hop & Wobble, would probably end up in my personal top 3 of best albums ever." __________________________________________________ www. tommyemmanuel.com "Tommy is not from this planet. I don't know where he came from, but definitely not from this planet. Which means that the best guitarist ever born on earth is something people can have different opinions about now. Tommy is a brilliant guitarist, a great person, and a terriffic composer." __________________________________________________ www.about-django.com/news/videos/videos.php "Django's level of performance is not from this time. In his era, music was always an art, and not a commercial tool to squeeze money out of the ignorant mass public. The groove, feeling, melody and passion in his playing are phenomenal. Follow this link, watch the videos and, if you have an ear for music, you'll understand what I mean. Even Tommy can still learn from this!" __________________________________________________ www.celticguitar.com "Steve Baughman I think is one of the most serene guitar players that exists. I have played his CD The Angel's Portion for a week, non-stop. His music will never annoy me. This is the music I would recommend to play in Paradise." __________________________________________________ www.win.net/~mainstring/welcome.html "Pat Kirtley can do it all. His music is perfect in all senses. I took his CD Celtic Guitar out of my car, because every time I listened to it, I got tears in my eyes and couldn't see clearly. "