About

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Matthew Hernandez – Guitarist

Available for:
* Guitar Tuition – flamenco – blues – folk – fingerstyles – popular song accompaniment
* Performance – private – theatre – venue misc
* Special Occasion – wedding – proposal – anniversary – birthday – themed – corporate – restaurant – hotel – gastro pub – bar

(performance or as background entertainment)

Matthews musical roots began with playing electric and acoustic finger style folk blues, later spent several years exploring his family roots living in the mountain region of the Sierra Nevada near Granada, Andalucía, Spain, learning Flamenco Guitar the Folk music of the Gypsies and Southern Spain

‘Interestingly Matthew only first picked up a guitar and began to learn in his late twenties…

Recalling from around the age of four, Matt played his fathers old vinyl records, which included blues and the fingerstyle acoustic sounds of Simon and Garfunkel. Soon after learning some different styles of blues, Matt met a guitarist named Tec, whom now a retired postman, showed Matt a Spanish rumba and some basic flamenco techniques, (which he had learned from spending a good while in spain himself in the early 1970’s). Later that year Matt went to London, visiting the legendary uk flamenco guitarist Phillip John Lee whom had just returned from living in America. PJL in the late 1960’s (and despite being a young man at that time in his early 20’s) was already considered to be one of the finest virtuoso flamenco guitarists and certainly the best in the uk, being very highly respected and recieved in Spain among Gypsies and Spanish folk. It was from that one lesson alone which inspired Matt to sell his house, purchase an old 1970 VW Campervan (named Betty Blue) to spend several years exploring some of his family roots in Spain, living in the mountains of Granada, Andalucía, Spain, studying traditional flamenco guitar. After touring every city and many towns in Andalucia, Matt settled to live in ‘Las Alpujarras’ a mountain region of the vast ‘Sierra Nevada’ surrounding the great city of Granada…

Immersing himself in the Spanish culture, Matt studied flamenco guitar by learning as he lived the life… with locals and Gypsies!

BLUES:

As well as new and old traditional flamenco compositions Matt also performs some old folk blues music, some of which were written over a century ago.

REVIEW: A natural ability to draw audiences into solo flamenco guitar music is just one impressive aspect of his stagecraft. His music is genial, reflective and always delivered in a flowing, unhurried style. In performance, Matthew explores the rhythm’s and melodies of his favourite flamenco Palos with subtle originality and a respect for the traditions of this art. Currently living, performing, teaching and studying in the UK.

David Shepherd