Pat's Comments

Ultra-responsive
My Ryan guitar is ultra-responsive, perfectly balanced, easy to play and beautiful - what more can I ask?
Champion)

Kevin's Comments
Almost everything you need to know about Pat Donohue can be conveyed by this single anecdote. Several years ago he played a house concert at our home. Sometime during the evening (and I have every reason to believe this happens at many of his concerts) audience members call out any song they can think of. And then Pat just starts playing it. And not just stumbling through a makeshift melody. He actually plays it like some rollicking, wild thing he has worked on for years. And of course everyone just loves it like crazy. Part of it naturally is the sheer inventiveness of a guy who can just start playing a complicated song out of the thin air right on the spot. And part of the wonder is the sheer exuberance of Donohue himself. There is no mistaking the main point of music when Pat plays. Music is for having fun. For serious guitarists listening to Pat, behind his easy exhilaration is a talent that is breathtaking and monumental. Some artists are very careful to not “miss” a note or blow a tough riff. It conveys a sense of playing it safe, of not taking chances. Not Pat. Let the notes fly and let the joy fall where it may, devil be damned. Being THE guitarist on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion of course is quite the gig. When you really fully hear all that this incredible musician can do with 6 strings, its no wonder he has become one of the most respected artists anywhere. Pat is a guitarist’s guitarist. He was one of the first big “names” to play my instruments and he had such a great influence in making my guitars known to the wider world. I will always have enormous and heartfelt gratitude to Pat for the way he has been unselfish and generous in promoting my guitars. To this day I can recall the incredible feeling I had when I was able to put an instrument into the hands of this guitarist whom Chet Atkins called one of the best in the world. Who can disagree with Chet? Pat Donohue is an American original.