Clive Carroll

Clive Carroll is a British fingerstyle guitarist and composer, born in 1975. He grows up in a musical family and is immersed in a wide range of music from an early age. His father makes his first banjo in 1977, and a few years later he plays in the family band. He begins guitar at the age of nine, then goes on to perform with a soul group and several orchestras.

Training and early recognition

In 1998, Carroll gains a first-class honours degree in composition and guitar from Trinity College, London. While there, he receives a prize that allows him to record Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the Trinity orchestra. Around the same time, he plays a local show with John Renbourn, who encourages him to make a solo album.

Recordings and collaborations

Carroll’s first record deal follows in 1999 after he supports Chris Newman and Maire Ni Chathasaigh. His debut solo album, Sixth Sense, appears in 2000 and is later described as a milestone in steel-string guitar playing. In 2002 he records Pachelbel’s Canon for BMG/RCA Victor. His next full-length solo album, The Red Guitar, is completed in late 2004.

Carroll tours with John Renbourn across Europe and the United States over the next two years, and later plays with Tommy Emmanuel after being invited on tour in Australia. He continues performing with both Emmanuel and Renbourn internationally. In 2005, he works with Renbourn on the Sony Pictures Classics film Driving Lessons, starring Julie Walters and Rupert Grint.

Later work and other activities

From 2006, Carroll embarks on his own solo tours and also joins the International Guitar Night of America, collaborating with Ralph Towner, D’Gary and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. That year he also releases a Guitar Maestros DVD for Sound Techniques, alongside players including Martin Simpson, Big Jim Sullivan and Martin Carthy.

Outside touring, he works as a visiting artist and tutor at the Irish World Music Centre in Limerick. He also gives events in the UK for figures including film director Guy Ritchie and chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, runs an annual guitar workshop in his local village, and performs at the Strings of Freedom concert in Oman and at IOM GuitarFest in 2008. His third solo album, Life in Colour, is released in 2008. He later works on non-solo recordings.