Acoustic guitarist Tony Cox in NoordHoek

His show Stories from Wood and Steel brings together his gift for off-beat and sometimes downright wacky story-telling and his prowess on the steel-string acoustic guitar for which he is famed within and without South Africa. The show will have its debut at Monkey Valley Resort then will go on to the Grahamstown festival and beyond to the UK, Germany and Canada.

The 52-year-old Zimbabwean-born guitar player continues to astound all those that go to hear him. Selling-out venues wherever he performs with an audience composed of the most extraordinary mix of ages of between 10 to 90. Cox has become a South African icon and although mostly ignored by radio and TV he commands an ever deepening respect for his devotion to his chosen art and does not seem to want for any number of ardent fans.

Stories from Wood and Steel incorporates a lot of new material, some of it composed for his new baritone guitar that has the ability to, as I overheard a fan saying, raise goose-bumps with its sonorous tones. In his usual off-the-cuff and inventively humorous way, he has a few musical surprises under his belt that generally guarantee you being zapped by the man's seemingly throw-away yet awesome guitar-playing skills.

The music Cox generates on-stage has immense light, shade and contrast and you can clearly hear our common geography within the constructs of his notes. This I think is what makes him so popular with those South Africans living overseas who come out in their droves to support the shows when he is over there.

In August and September of 2006 Cox jets off to the UK for a tour that sees him taking in several festivals such as the Lewes International Guitar Festival and the Cornwall folk festival. He then goes over to Germany where he will not only be performing but contributing to an acoustic guitar compilation album that will sell world-wide and be released by Acoustic Music Records.