Michael DeLalla

In a performing and recording career of more than two decades, guitarist and composer Michael DeLalla has brought his delicious brew of traditional influences and classical, jazz, Celtic and folk stylings into the forefront of acoustic music. Beginning in the '80s as the driving force behind Philo/Fretless recording artists Oxymora, the seminal group that Tom Cole of National Public Radio called "the cutting edge of New Acoustic Music", Michael has forged a distinguished and storied career on stage and studio from his fluency on Classical, 12-string, and steel-string acoustic guitar and memorable performances that showcase gifted improvisation and dazzling technical facility that never sacrifices the richness and poignancy of his compositions. Michael performs as a solo artist, with the reunited Oxymora, and as a member of the acclaimed traditional Celtic trio The Unfortunate Rakes. His solo concerts feature his original compositions and arrangements of traditional tunes that showcase his particular virtuosity, punctuated by his wry, sometimes irreverent observations of the experiences that are behind the pieces. The result is not just a collection of instrumental works, but also a narrative of his travels and travails found in his varied musical habitats, from a capella singing in Breton Gaelic to tweaking the nose of the Classical world with his raucous "Piece for Steel Drum (If I Played Steel Drum)".