Nicolas Hurt is a guitarist and music teacher hailing from Austin, Texas. Though he grew up playing Stevie Ray Vaughan licks and ended up playing rock in various Austin bands, these days his focus is acoustic music.
In this video, Nicolas is performing ‘Five Preludes,’ by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
The guitar he’s playing was built by Rafael Granados, a luthier from Paracho, Mexico, a city known for building stringed instruments. (Longtime FJ readers may remember our pictorial of Paracho in our 9th edition). The guitar has a cedar top with lattice bracing and cocobolo back and sides.
“Years before getting my Rafael Granados I had my first experience with a nylon string instrument playing my grandfather’s guitar,” Hurt says. “At the time, all I knew about that guitar was that it was old, bought by my grandfather around 1968 in a small town in Mexico, and had belonged to my uncle when he was a child. It was lent to me and I played it for several years before upgrading to the Granados I play in the video. Recently, I was able to play my grandfather’s guitar again and was surprised to see that its label also held the name ‘R. Granados.’ I messaged Rafael, sent him some photos, and found that my grandfather’s old guitar had been built by Rafael’s father and mentor, Ramon Granados! So without knowing it I had been playing instruments from multiple generations of the Granados family. I think that’s cool.”
Audio: Evan Kaspar
Video: Erik Gatling
Still Photos: Erik Gatling
Recorded July 2021 at First Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.
Follow Nick here: https://www.nickhurtmusic.com/