That would be Brad Hoyt.  The Arpa Viola Caipira (or “AVC” for short) is, as you probably know, the harp guitar “cousin” that he invented (with the help of luthier Steve Sedgwick).  Of course, as Brad remains the only known owner and player of the AVC, we could pretty much call him the “(Fill-in-the-blank with any noteworthy artist or celebrity) of the AVC.”  But I invoked Antoine’s name because I’m reminded a bit of his style and coolness factor in Brad’s AVC solo submission for the next Harp Guitar Music compilation.  A gifted pianist and composer (check out Together Alone), Brad’s also quickly becoming a harp guitarist to reckon with.  And on this new piece he’s kicking some serious musical butt (crude terminology, I know, but true in this case).

I just spent most of last night with his final arranged demo.  It’s definitely a go – we were just fine-tuning some bits to achieve a higher Coolness Rating.  That’s the simple and single goal for every song on this project (I played Scott B a few of the finals the other night, and he noted that while every piece is completely different from the next [the whole point], the common denominator was that every piece is very cool [the real point]).

It remains to be seen how the higher-strung, sparkly AVC will hold up against the Dyer-laden surrounding tracks but should be interesting.

For Further Reading on the unique AVC:

Arpa Viola Caipira, Part 1: Genesis and Design

Arpa Viola Caipira, Part 2: Construction and Innovation