6 And 12 String Guitar - Leo Kottke

There are well over a 100 possible review slots for Country Guitar on Ciao, and yet I can only find one review. I am not therefore expecting this review of little-known Marcel Dadi to be exactly what you might call a "whizz bang" in terms of general interest. Never mind!!!!

Marcel Dadi was a highly talented "flat picking" guitar specialist, and a personal friend of Chet Atkins. Sadly Marcel perished with all the ...
...plunged into the sea off Long Island New York in July 1996 when he was at the relatively tender age of 44.

At that tragic time, he had just been honoured as a new entrant in the Nashville County Music Hall of Fame and was on his was back to France after the ceremony.

So why should I get wound up enough to write a review about a relatively obsure musician who I had never heard of until 3 years ago?His music was introduced ... more

There are well over a 100 possible review slots for Country Guitar on Ciao, and yet I can only find one review. I am not therefore expecting this review of little-known Marcel Dadi to be exactly what you might call a "whizz bang" in terms of general interest. Never mind!!!!

Marcel Dadi was a highly talented "flat picking" guitar specialist, and a personal friend of Chet Atkins. Sadly Marcel perished with all the 229 others aboard the Boeing 747 TWA Flight 800 which plunged into the sea off Long Island New York in July 1996 when he was at the relatively tender age of 44.

At that tragic time, he had just been honoured as a new entrant in the Nashville County Music Hall of Fame and was on his was back to France after the ceremony.

So why should I get wound up enough to write a review about a relatively obsure musician who I had never heard of until 3 years ago?His music was introduced to me by a French colleague, who had been taught guitar by him, and said that I just had to listen to this boy play guitar.

I was absolutely stunned by Marcel's techical guitar skills and the absolute simplicity that he appeared to be giving to his music. Although he faithfully followed the instrumental styles of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jerry Reed, he was in many ways a much more varied musician too and played renderings of Vivaldi and Mozart, Nashville Rumba as well as his own country compositions.

So I bought two of his CDs, there are many available but mainly on French labels. The ones I bought were La Guitare à Dadi Vols 1 & 2.

Three of my favourite tracks are La Madrugada (the dawn), the Third Man Theme from the classic movie of the same name, (originally played on zither,) and "A letter from Abi" all of which are so beautifully simple and easy to listen to.

He seemed to be inspired in his music by the people he knew - most of his song titles refer to a letter from or a letter to, about someone or concerning Simou, Naomi, Doc,Merle or Abi fro example which seem to give these tracks a very personal touch and you are left wondering what that person said, did or meant ot Marcel.

Unfortunately I cannot find my absolute favourite anywhere On Line as I would like to give a reference for it. I was given a digital copy by my French friend. It is the powerful "Duelling Banjos" from the film "The Deliverance." Marcel plays it on banjo with exquisite and faultless skill, timing and simplicity.

I do find this whole area of music very difficult to define and to draw lines.For example you have Nashville,Bluegrass, Hillbilly, Irish Fiddle, 6-string and 12 string guitar and numerous others . The fact that Marcel Dadi's memory resides in the Nashville Hall of Fame suggests to me that he is a Flat Picking Nashville Country Guitarists, although I don't really care - I just adore his music as something different for a change.

Finally I will add a piece of history for those who enjoy this sort of thing.
Dadi was French, born in Tunisia in 1951. Influenced by the likes of the Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones he was later tutored by the guitarist Bernard Photzen who introduced him to the music of Elvis Presley, and more importantly, he taught him the art of "Guitar Picking." This led him to play solo with Hugues Aufray and to develop his own style of guitar flat picking

There are so many talented musicians out there - it is hard to know where to begin to scratch the surface. I hope at least with this review I might give someone the pleasure of finding something new in their own personal musical love affair. 

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