When Phil Weaver was in high school he worked on the skankiest shrimpboat in Pensacola bay. It would occasionally sink at the dock and the skipper was known for his bar fighting skills. Phil started taking classical guitar lessons in college and prefers picking guitar to picking shrimp because you smell a lot better at the end of the day and it is more artistically fulfilling. So he says anyway. He was the first guitarist to be awarded an Alabama State Council of the Arts individual artist’s fellowship, has performed in both New York City and York, England. His CD on ACA Digital with pianist Ingrid von Spakovsky received rave reviews in Fanfare and 20^th Century Guitar and has been broadcast on WNYC New York, WABE Atlanta, and WLRH Huntsville. Phil has worked with blues guitarist Microwave Dave (their Classical-Blues Cabaret has performed at the WC Handy Festival seven years running), the Westport Madrigal Singers (Connecticut), violinist Isabel Trautwein, flutist Rosa Vidro Richardson, and sword-swallower/fire-eater Brittney Blades. He performed the guitar part for Gustav Mahler’s 7^th Symphony with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra and the Louisiana Philharmonic. A month after the gig with the LPO he was a guest artist with the local nouveau-burlesque troupe at the Flying Monkey playing a Piazzolla tango for two fire-eaters. In 2012 his career was nearly ended with a hiking accident that shattered his right elbow, broke his left wrist and right scapula. After emergency surgery and intense physical therapy he recovered enough to perform again, and in the fall did the Danza video with filmmaker Jon Sawa, who had Phil rappel down a steep incline to a location for a shoot a week before his final surgery. He made a point of showing his surgeon a pic of the rappelling before he was put under. Dr. Griffin was less than thrilled.