Thomas Walker, Jr.

I've been playing plucked strings for nearly three quarters of my life. Most of those years were on the more familiar modern guitar. I started on classical. After hearing Leo Kottke, I spent the next decade trying to sound like him. Maybe I came to realize that Leo was and is sui generis, so I turned my attention back to classical and then to jazz guitar.Just out of college I had my first exposure to medieval and renaissance music courtesy my younger brother, who was studying both theory and history of music (I had studied only theory, which as is typical, starts with the music of J.S. Bach). This earlier music clicked for me immediately; its intellectual depth is considerable, but my first attraction was mostly visceral.Being comfortable with plucks, it makes sense I found the lute. I've been down that road for a dozen years now, and am decidedly hooked. The music is hundreds of years old, but its ability to reach the emotions first, and the intellect later, continues to amaze me.