At a time when more that a fair smattering of musicians chase instant fame and riches, acoustic guitarists Beppe Gambetta and Tony McManus like to rein it in a little, take it back to the basics.
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"We don't have fans, we have friends of the music. We don't live with the music, we live for the music," Gambetta said.
They are not interested in music that is measured only by its commercial value or popularity; they just want to play music that is intrinsically beautiful.
So that might mean playing the melody from an ancient Italian bell tower that used to ring out a couple of hundred years ago.
Or it could mean mimicking Niccolo Paganini, the violin virtuoso from Gambetta's hometown of Genoa in Italy, in the way he immersed himself in the people and, according to Gambetta, stole a melody or two along the way.
"And these were from people who probably didn't study any music. It was music that came from the heart. They had to dance. They had to put their children to sleep. They had to express their love to a woman," Gambetta said.
McManus says it's all about being authentic and open to the beauty of music, wherever you find it.
"I've come to Australia nine times and my eyes – my ears – are always wide open," he said..
Regarded as two of the world's foremost acoustic guitarists, McManus and Gambetta will be performing at the National Folk Festival in Canberra, which runs until Monday evening. They also conducted master classes at the Ainslie Arts Centre last Wednesday and Thursday.
McManus, a Scot who lives in Canada, and Gambetta, an Italian who lives in the United States but is on the road for much of the year, have known each other for 20 years, collaborating on a recently-released album Round Trip.
"We were a fan of each other's work," Gambetta said.
McManus, 51, a leading guitarist in Celtic music, is attending his fourth or fifth National Folk Festival, enjoying hearing other people's music as well as playing his own.
One of his fondest memories of a past festival was stumbling across a group playing Eastern European music and tentatively asking them where they were from, expecting a broken-English answer of "Slovakia" or the "Ukraine", but instead getting a very broad Australian "Melbourne".
He says the festival vibe in Australia is unique.
"There's a lovely can-do spirit about music in Australia," McManus said.
"Last time I was here, five years ago, we had to cancel a show in Queensland because it rained and the venue flooded. I was looking at losing a day of the tour but actually ended up playing two shows that day – in a cafe and in a garden later that night.
"In Canada, that kind of pop-up thing – you'd need a four-week lead-in. In Australia, it just happens."
Gambetta, 61, believes there is an egalitarian spirit about the National Folk Festival – there are no real stars and the audience is as much about the performance as anything else.
"There is a harmony and balance that is difficult to find anywhere else," he said.
More details at folkfestival.org.au
