BIOGRAPHY
As ”Across the Great Divide”, Tony and Karen have always enjoyed merging the music and styles they were respectively familiar with, to come up with something a little different.
Karen took up the challenge of applying Celtic guitar to fast rousing bluegrass, Americana tunes and Tony’s original compositions. Tony in turn, arranged dobro for Celtic airs and fiddle tunes to accompany Karen’s exquisite harp performance and blistering paced guitar fuelled jigs and reels
The combined result creates something new, a unique sound intricately woven and all the while retaining respect for the traditions. A true folk fusion.
Tony Burt
Resonator , Guitar
Tony's resonator and guitar performances cover a wide range of styles. When he heard the sound of the dobro Tony was instantly hooked and worked to uncover the mysterious versatility that produces speed, bite and exquisite melody
Always looking to the challenge of how music can blend together to create new ideas, Tony produced the Snapper Sandwich, a documentary incorporating live performance and narration and has composed music for film and TV documentaries.
He has also contributed to many albums and writes tunes inspired by the melodies and rhythms from both sides of the Atlantic.
Karen Jones
Celtic Harp , Guitar
Singer, instrumentalist and educational music specialist Karen got slightly diverted on her OE and spent 14 years in Edinburgh, cutting her teeth in Scottish traditional arts and assimilating any Scottish culture which came her way!
There she began playing the clarsach (Celtic Harp) under the guidance of the wonderful Isobel Mieras, ran a very popular weekly folk and traditional session, set up a music school and became a very active member of the folk community.
With this exposure to the Scottish culture and her own heritage, she received invaluable experience playing among diverse and great Scottish musicians. Consequently, traditional and contemporary Scottish music soon became her inspiration and passion.