5th annual P.E.I. Guitar Festival Wraps up on a Positive Chord! The 5th annual P.E.I. Guitar Festival concluded on April 26th with a stirring round of applause for Head liner Scott Parsons who brought the audience to its feet after performing a medley of songs including Gene MacLellans " I just wanna be loved by you". "Scott always amazes his audience with his intricate finger picking capabilities" stated Saturdays emcee for the evening Andrew Sprague of the Sketch 22 comedy troupe. Others who had the audience talking, were newcomers to the guitar scene on P.E.I. , Brothers Spenser & Mark Phillips of Arlington with their rendition of the Rolling Stones Classic " Wild Horses", Mark Smith who performed Jim Croce's classic " I got a Name" and P.E.I.'s Granddaddy of the guitar Fred Arsenault with vocal upstart Heidi Ellis rendition of some old Carter Family classics..Mix in former ECMA Nominee in Classical Guitar Rob Drew who performed songs from his Ocean Suite CD and Richard Carons versions of some of Dick Dales surfer guitar tunes you got the picture of an eclectic guitar journey. On Friday night at The acoustically pleasing Britannia Hall, The duo of Jorden Palmer and Daniel Noye performed Jazz great Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life" to an appreciative audience and Freeland's Brent Johnston surprised the audience with his version of the Leonard Cohen Classic " Hallelujah" . As well, The Duo of P.E.I. Jazz great Ian Toms and John Connolly impressed the audience with their smooth chord progressions on some of their own material. The performer who left the audience speechless fell to 17 yr old Shawn Martin of O'Leary who performed a medley of tunes by Matthew Good and Dave Matthews plus some original material he recently wrote. The night wrapped up with John MacAllar and Brent Johnston performing one of Johns original songs " Times have Changed" from his Wonderment CD . Other performers at the 2008 SOCAN recognized event included celtic classical performer Wensley Power, Lutherist Allan Crozier and the Jesse Wagner Band. Festival Organizer Robert Henderson wishes to thank all volunteer performers and Festival Sponsors , West Prince Arts Council, O'Leary Central Credit Union, The Evangeline Credit Union, D'addario strings, ADL, Guitar One Magazine and the Landing. " Our goal is to expose the audience to a cross representation of all Guitar styles and genres while improving PEI Guitarists for the future" expressed Robert Henderson" I believe we reached our objective and look forward to 2009" For more info contact Robert Henderson at: 902-831-2202 or rhenderson21@yahoo.com