Antoine Dufour

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Antoine Dufour
Antoine Dufour performing live in 2007
Background information
Born	1979 L'Épiphanie, Quebec, Canada
Genre(s)	Folk, fingerstyle acoustic, instrumental
Occupation(s)	Guitarist
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	2004–present
Label(s)	CandyRat Records
Website	www.myspace.com/antoinedufour

Antoine Dufour (born in L'Épiphanie, Quebec) is a French-Canadian acoustic guitarist currently signed to CandyRat Records.

1 Biography
2 Guitar style
3 Discography
- 3.1 Studio albums
- 3.2 DVDs
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Dufour started playing guitar at the age of fifteen. He went on to study at the CEGEP in Joliette, where he listened to the music of Leo Kottke, Don Ross, and Michael Hedges at the behest of his teacher. Since then, he has gone on to place second at the 2005 Canadian Guitar Festival's Fingerstyle Guitar Championship and first place in the 2006 competition. He also placed third at the 2006 International Finger Style Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas.

Dufour has released three solo albums to date: Naissance, Development, and Existence. He has garnered a sizable fanbase through YouTube with live performances of his songs cut in the same studio as fellow guitarist Andy McKee, amongst other CandyRat performers. His most popular video is a cover of "Jerry's Breakdown" performed with Tommy Gauthier, who is himself an expert fiddler, using a single guitar between the two.

Dufour works on the side as a guitar instructor, offering lessons through Skype as well.

[edit] Guitar style

Dufour's pieces are characterized by a highly percussive playing style, using slap and natural harmonics frequently. Dufour shares many compositional traits with other fingerstyle guitarists such as Andy McKee, Craig D'Andrea, and Don Ross, especially in terms of his music's technical complexity.

Many pay special attention to the red bandana/scarf tied around the end of his guitar's neck, seen in most of Dufour's YouTube videos - he has stated in interviews that this is designed to mute the ringing given from the strings at the top when muting the strings after a hard strum.

Currently, his primary guitar (the one in all the YouTube videos) is a Stonebridge Model 23 CR.