Complaints Get 8-Year-Old Guitarist Banned From Performing in Taverns
Aug 12th, 2008 by Guitar MX Admin
Tallan “T-Man” Latz is blues guitarist who has something to be blue about. T-Man is just 8-years-old and a prodigious blues guitarist. He has performed at the House of Blues in Chicago and live with Jackson Brown. But some recent complaints to Wisconsin state officials, perhaps from older jealous musicians, have ended his days of performing in local taverns in nightclubs. By having him perform, clubs were breaking child labor laws, and they now risk being fined anywhere from $25 to $1,000 for each performance. Carl Latz, T-Mans father and manager, is working hard to get the laws changed, but he is also facing opposition from other local musicians. One of them even made a death threat!
Here’s a video from a Wisconsin TV station featuring T-Man Latz.
Child prodigies like T-Man are out there, but very rare. Brad Tolinski, editor-in-chief of Guitar World magazine says that guitar players like T-Man only come along once every 4 or 5 years. No doubt we’ll hear more of T-Man if he continues playing.
You can read more about T-Mans recent performing troubles here.
Interest. I’m kind of torn on the subject.
On one hand, you have a good blues guitarist whom people enjoy. Additionally, people enjoy that sort of thing in the evening / night.
On the other hand, he is a child and those labor laws are setup to help protect the health of minors and such…
I’m kind of wondering on that will play out…
Regards,
Frank (UnderstandingGuitar.org)
Wow! I’m sure you don’t get such a talent every 4 or 5 years….He is incredible.
I like his fathers attitude about letting him decide how far to take it, and not wanting to push him - the only problem is - being such an amazing guitar player gives him an air of maturity that really isn’t there… its not that he is missing out on kids stuff that would worry my, its more that he would be exposed to things he shouldn’t be at this age….
I hope his parents are diligent enough to watch over him carefully and step in when things get perilous for him.
He is truly wonderful.
Yeah, I liked the Fathers attitude as well. I wonder how much he had to push the kid to learn. Doesn’t sound like much. He is a true talent.
For anyone to complain about a kid doing something he obviously loves, well they should go just f**k themselves. Seriously, all this kid does for me is make me want to practice just a little harder.