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"His hands were born to play. John's versatility always made my tunes sound better." - Dan Hicks
"John Girton is one of the hippest, most lyrical, most delightful musicians I have ever worked with. I recall when Dan Hicks had his 60th birthday bash and assembled all of his illustrious musical alumni to perform at the Warfield, John Girton's mellifluous guitar playing shone over and above the work of the entire stellar cast. Years ago, when John was in my band, we were recording with an all star line-up headed by Benny Carter that included the famous jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, and Benny Carter assigned the solos to John Girton. That's how wonderful a player he is." - Maria Muldaur
"A treasure." - Joe Craven
"You could tell the guitarists in the audience by the way they stared slack-jawed at Girton's left hand. ...a la Joe Pass, Girton performs the seemingly impossible task of punctuating complex chord progressions with be-bop bass lines to create the feeling that two instruments are playing simultaneously." - Tad Toomay, Sacramento News & Review
John Girton is well known throughout the world for his work as lead guitarist with the group "Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks." John recorded 3 albums with the group, and also wrote and arranged material for them. He was also featured as guitarist, saxophonist, clarinetist, and occasional mandolinist with the popular vocalist, Maria Muldaur for many years.
After numerous international tours, John started his own group in the San Francisco area. This group, the "Girtones" played a blend of Jazz, Swing and Blues in Oregon and California, sometimes including singer Maria Muldaur as a member.
John has made several solo tours of England, where he performed in concerts and clubs throughout the country. These days he performs locally and is quite active in the Nevada County Music scene.
He currently performs solo jazz guitar at various venues in the Foothills area of California and has recently released a new CD called "You Are There", which was produced at John's "Nugget Studios" in Grass Valley, CA.
John has been playing music professionally for over 20 years as an instrumentalist, vocalist, recording artist, studio musician, and composer. His original songs are a mixture of jazz, swing, blues and folk music, with a bit of humor thrown in for good measure. You can hear some of these tunes on his latest CD, "Greatest Hits.
John also has several years as a computer technician.
