I had the pleasure of meeting Mark O'Connor once at the Merle Watson festival. I handed him my custom Martin guitar and asked him to show me how it was supposed to sound.
He proceeded to play for about 15 minutes and it was some of the most beautiful playing I'd ever heard. He smiled and handed it back to me and said "nice guitar".
I got him to sign my guitar case. He's a super nice guy.
I don't say this lightly but he is one of the most talented musicians that has ever lived. Even Chet Atkins said he is the most talented musician to ever set foot in Nashville.
I'm really happy to see him playing guitar again. He quit the guitar for a bunch of years because it was hurting his hands and affecting his fiddle and mandolin playing.
He just released a new solo guitar album called "Markology II". His "Pickin' In The Wind" was recorded when he was 14 and "Markology I" was recorded when he was 17. Those are 2 of my favorite acoustic guitar albums.
He has recorded so many albums and has been on so many other artists albums that it's too many to mention. He's won so many awards from the time he was a kid until now across bluegrass, jazz, country and classical that even he probably doesn't remember them all.
Oh yeah, he's won a bunch of awards for classical composition too.
Here's a great article from about 3 days ago about Mark's new album;
https://bluegrasstoday.com/mark-oconnor-picks-up-his-guitar-again-for-markology-ii/