Tony Cox

South African multiple award-winning acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Tony Cox has just returned home from major tours of the U.K. and Germany where his music made such an impact he has been invited back for several festivals this summer. Cox performed for the second time at the Lewes International Guitar Festival near Brighton and the Cornwall Folk Festival where he was described by one organizer as the hit of the festival. In Germany he linked up with Peter Finger who is one of Germany's finest steel-string guitarists and also the owner of Acoustic Music Records, one of the biggest recording and publishing companies of acoustic guitar music in the world .

Cox recorded and performed for Finger at his new venue Lutherhaus in Osnabrueck and was promptly booked for Finger's 'Open Strings' International Guitar Festival in October 2007. He then performed in Frankfurt and Leipzig where the audience called him back to the stage 4 times and presented him with a huge bouquet of flowers, as they usually only do at classical concerts - and a big carry-bag filled with chocolates, almond spreads and Bach manuscripts!
'I never expected such a response to what I do over there", says Cox, 'I will have to spend nearly 5 months of the year… the whole thing has been such an eye-opener and a huge encouragement for me'.
Cox has honed and developed a personal compositional and instrumental style that is not bound by any classification. Although hard to describe but easy to appreciate and uniquely beautiful, his music is a mosaic that incorporates the evocative and infectious rhythms, delicate patterns and varying styles of his homeland. Along with classical, folk, blues and many other influences, he demonstrates a complete mastery of the 'finger-style' of playing, where the right hand works with precision to weave a tapestry of textures.
The guitarist is now home and intends spending time performing in the Cape and will be busy organising his 2008 tour. Before the close of 2007 though, he will be performing on a 14-day tour in Canada in early November.
Cox's 2005 DVD/CD release recorded live at the Grahamstown National Festival of the Arts was recently nominated in the best instrumental category at the South African Music Awards (SAMA 12); this was his fifth nomination with two wins for Matabele Ants in 2001 and China in 2003.
His latest album, Blue Anthem was released at the end of 2007 and has already been labeled “one of the coolest albums ever!” It features the hypnotic Benguela from Cape Town in what has to be one of the most inventive and creative collaborations between great South African musicians for many years. It too has been nominated for best instrumental album for the South African Music Awards (SAMA 13) 2008.