PROMOTION PAGE

“Manx’s real skill lays in creating a rare musical place where blues, country, folk and Indian classical music co-exist as some spirit force.”

“Watching Harry play tonight I feel like I learned something new …. ”

“Canadian guitarist and singer-songwriter Harry Manx is an artist that critics have occasionally had a hard time getting their minds around. His unique amalgam of blues and other American roots music, classical Indian forms, and bits of rock, pop, and folk makes him difficult to pigeonhole, and self-appointed gatekeepers of those traditions sometimes bemoan his lack of purity, stubbornly missing the point. But Manx’s trip is really quite easy to grasp: He’s an accomplished and adventurous lap-slide guitarist – whether playing a National resonator, a solidbody lap-steel, a modified banjo or cigar-box guitar, or his signature 20-string Mohan Veena – and a compelling singer with a rich, warm, and soulful voice who writes intelligent and compassionate songs and puts them over with heartfelt conviction.”

“A modern day troubadour, Canadian-born Manx sings with an intimate, quiet warmth that makes his shows mesmerizing. The subtle interplay between the haunting notes of the sitar and the gentle, rhythmic groove of the blues gives his songs a beautiful sensuality that defies comparison.”

“Canada’s most versatile and expressive blues player”

“Canadian guitarist Harry Manx knows his instrument the way most men know their television remote controls.”

“Like a lot of top singer songwriters Harry projects an intimacy & old friend quality from artist to listener … ”

“While most musicians are content to work within the accepted boundaries of their chosen style, lap-slide guitarist Harry Manx likes to colour way outside the lines. His crayons? Soulful, raspy vocals, poetic lyrics, and the whining drones and mysterious melisma of Indian music … Manx conjures songs that are as bewitching as they are unique.”

“At this point, it’s practically impossible to add anything new to the blues. But you can still wring a new tear out of the good ol’ twelve-bar onion by adding something even older than the blues – Indian classical music… Manx’s mix of folksy Americana and trance-inducing traditional ragas truly pushes the boundaries of a genre long thought past innovation.”

“Harry Manx is the master of your chilled-out oriental vibe, thanks to his proficiency on instruments like the mohan veena; and that smoky voice of his is akin to getting a relaxing massage without skin contact.”

“The making of an artist is as abstract as the canvas that he or she paints. Words pale in grey tones when attempting to describe this aspect of brilliance. No, one has to listen with eyes closed gently, as if in meditation, concentrating on the algorithmic patterns that emerge. The ability to create such a living work comes from the desire to transcend, to go far beyond the reaches of the imaginable universe. For Harry Manx, bluesy guitarist and singer, this meant going to the far side of the earth in search of his musical identity. It was in Europe that he discovered his own blues. In Japan he discovered his soon-to-be guru of the slide guitar: Vishwa Mohan Bhatt who played the veena. He went to live in Rajasthan at the feet of this guru, learning the complexities of the Mohan veena, eventually learning how to blend his Canadian blues with the slide of the desert. And now he’s doing something totally unique and original, yet accessible. He’s quickly become a driving force on the Canadian music scene.”