Pierre Bensusan: The Prince of DADGAD Still Reigns Supreme

Saturday October 4, 9pm
(TTOK) The Theatre On King

If “world music” ever felt like a dusty marketing term, Pierre Bensusan is the guy who blows it wide open. A French-born guitarist who started at the piano, taught himself six strings, and then rewrote the rulebook, Bensusan has spent five decades proving that one instrument can hold entire worlds inside it.

Nicknamed The Prince of DADGAD—after the open tuning he turned into his personal kingdom—Bensusan doesn’t just play guitar, he summons it. His live shows are part sacred ritual, part fearless expedition: cascades of melody that feel orchestral, percussive grooves pulled straight from the wood, and moments so intimate it’s as if the notes are whispering directly to your nervous system.

Since his debut in 1974, he’s sold over half a million records and crisscrossed the globe with thousands of shows. His triple album Encore snagged the Grand Prix at the Independent Music Awards for Best Live Album, Guitar Player readers voted him World Music’s Best Guitarist, and Montreux handed him the Rose d’Or. But stats and titles barely scratch it. Bensusan’s playing is transparent and untethered—finger pulp against ebony, strings singing like weather systems—an adventurer charting sacred, unrepeatable maps each night.

He isn’t just a guitarist. He’s a pilgrim, a builder of sonic cathedrals, and one of the most eloquent voices in global music today.