Hey friend, welcome back this week. I am joined by Grammy-nominated lutenist Ron McFarlane and

Richmond-based classical guitarist Andrew McAvoy, who will actually be performing on the Saturday

night concert at TudorCon 2025 in just a couple of weeks. Whether you're joining us in person or

streaming from home, you will get to experience this unique collaboration

that blends the intimacy of the Renaissance lute with the richness of classical guitar. It's so

exciting. So in this conversation, we will talk about what first drew them to their instruments,

the surprising connections between rock and folk and tutor music, and the

role that musicians sometimes played as spies at court, and what it feels like to bring

these sounds to modern audiences. So if you are into music and history, which you're probably

into one of those two, because you're here. You will enjoy this conversation.

You can still get tickets for TudorCon. All of the links will be below. So let's start off with me

asking Ron what got him into the loot to start with. Well, I started out as a teenage guitar player

playing rock music on the guitar and then got interested in playing classical guitar.

Thought it would approve my rock playing.

I think it did.

I really fell in love with classical music.

Of the classical music that I played, by the way, I went to a couple of conservatories for the guitar.

I loved the Renaissance and Baroque music, most of all. Most of that had originally been

written for the lute and then rearranged for the guitar. So after a while, I just gravitated

toward the lute. I thought it would be interesting to see how that would feel. And after playing both

guitar and loot simultaneously for about six months, I finally gave in and just gave it all to the

loot. That was in 1978, so it's been a while. And I've been playing loot ever since.

...