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Tony Furtado

American musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 14, 2025
Entity authorityQ7822401
Source-derived summary

Tony Furtado (born October 18, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter, banjoist, and guitarist.

History

Furtado was born in Pleasanton, California. He took up the banjo at age 12, inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies television show and a sixth-grade music report. He studied music and art at California State, Hayward. He first attracted national attention in 1987, when he won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship in Winfield, Kansas. Then he toured with bluegrass musician Laurie Lewis. Rounder Records released his debut album, Swamped, in 1990.

In 1990, Tony signed a recording deal with Rounder Records, one of the country's preeminent independent record companies. Beginning with Swamped in 1990, he recorded six critically acclaimed albums for the label, collaborating with such master musicians as Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien, Stuart Duncan, Kelly Joe Phelps and Mike Marshall. During this period, Tony also performed and recorded with the band SugarBeat and the Rounder Banjo Extravaganza with Tony Trischka and Tom Adams.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Tony Furtado” as american musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tony, Furtado and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1967, 1987, 1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1967-10-18. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Tony, Furtado and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Tony Furtado”, the useful work is to connect “american musician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7822401. VIAF identifies the subject as 79927734. The Library of Congress control number is n93019574. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967, 1987 and 1990.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tony Furtado”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tony Furtado primary sources, Tony Furtado archive and Tony research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tony Furtado”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Tony Furtado” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.