Everybody get ready!

So I've begun posting ad's for artist reviews in a few different cities and have gotten a lot of replies and hits on my blog. People are starting to follow and the cd's will be coming in the mail soon. Soon you will have the opportunity to hear about great up and coming artists on the rise and you will have the chance to be one of my featured artists and get yourself the promotion you deserve! Spread the word so that more people follow this blog and help each other get discovered! Thanks everybody!

Rodrigo Y Gabriela: A great flamenco duo!

I know I just wrote a review about another flamenco artist last week but it's what I've been listening to lately and this duo is truly amazing! This group has actually caused me to believe that flamenco might be hitting the mainstream soon because I was browsing music videos on Comcast's On Demand and I found a video for their song "Diablo Rojo" and to find a flamenco video On Demand was a pretty cool thing to see!
The duo are originally from Mexico but moved to Dublin, Ireland and started preforming in pubs and busking for a living when they got their big break and now tour and preform all over the world! Gabriela is the rythmn guitarist and she plays amazing percussive guitar and rasqueado right hand techniques which really give them a much more fuller sound as if there are more members of the band! Rodrigo plays lead guitar and damn good lead at that! They met when they played in a metal band back in Mexico together is what I've heard and they are heavily influenced by metal which you can totally hear in their music. All of their songs are instrumental and they do great instrumental flamenco covers of Metallica songs and they also do a great cover of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven."
If you haven't checked out Rodrigo Y Gabriela yet I highly recommend that you do ASAP! I'll post some of their cd's here if you wanna just go ahead and get one!

Protest The Hero: Rockstar friends of mine!

Protest The Hero is a progressive metal band from Whitby, Ontario Canada and happen to be one of my favorite bands. I first heard them when I was 18 years old and I was hooked. What really set them apart from all of the other metal bands I had heard at the time was not only their technichal musical abilities playing very fast and difficult music in strange time signatures but it was also their singer's voice because he actually SANG! A singer that can sing... amazing right? Well I say that because most of the metal bands that I listened to at the time just screamed and growled and maybe ocasionally sung during a chorus or something. Their lyrics in their songs were awesome and their songs rocked so when I had an opportunity to see them in concert I jumped on it and got tickets. When they came to town and played they didn't let me down! They were the opening act on tour with Silverstein, Devil Wears Prada, and A Day To Remember. Even though they were the opening act they outplayed and rocked harder than all of the other bands including the headliners Silverstein in my opinon.
At that time I only owned their first album "Kezia" and they were touring promoting their new album "Fortress." Right after they played I knew that I could catch them unloading their equipment so I made my way outside to the lift and there I found their guitarist Tim loading his amp into the van so I started talking to him. He was a really funny guy, had a great sense of humor, and sold me a t-shirt and a copy of their album "Fortress" personally! That was so cool to me because they were my number one favorite band at the time. I got to meet and hang out with the other members that night and it was definately one of my greatest memories. The next time they came to town a year later I got tickets to go see it again and I saw the guys in the band and they remembered me which I totally thought was cool. What was even cooler was that the girl who is now my girlfriend was there with me and I got to introduce her as well. That night was awesome and I had so much fun in the crowd crawling all over the jam-packed crowd and I hung out with the band some more after the show! I also got a vinyl copy of "Fortress" and got the guys to autograph it. Tim being a funny dude drew a goatee on the girl's face on the cover of their album. When I talked to Tim he told me that over the summer they were supposed to go into the studio and record a new album so be on the lookout for new stuff from them and make sure you check out "Kezia" and "Fortress" if you haven't already!

What I'm going to start doing soon!

Soon I will be writing reviews for up-and-coming artists on this blog and helping to get there name out there and will put a lot of hard work and effort into it! Be sure to keep an eye out for these blogs and support!
Thanks everyone!
-Jason!

Playing for Change: Street Musicians of the World

I found a documentry titled "Playing For Change" where they go around the country interviewing and recording street musicians from all over the world. I myself have been a street musician in one of the best cities in America for buskers: Savannah, Georgia. In the documentry they interview all types of street musicians of all styles from blues players to folk singers to even latin groups. The streets have no rules and you never know what kind of great music you can walk up on! They would record a guy playing one instrument from one city and then travel on to the next and record another guy playing a different instrument over the track and go on doing that until they've created an awesome collaboration all on one track!
I've heard people on the documentry talking about the adventurous life of the street musician and I myself was totally able to identify with them. It's just a fun expierence over all from being able to play my music and make a little extra cash doing what I'd be doing in my bedroom anyway and getting to meet awesome and fun people while doing it. It's fun meeting other street musicians and jamming with them right there on the streets and the people who walk by always seem to enjoy groups preforming together on the street as well. When I played on River St. in Savannah, Ga I knew all the other street musicians and had a lot of fun hanging out and making friends. A couple of the friends I made down there are the most popular buskers in the city such as Old Walter who always posts up by the anchor statue. He's been playing in the same spot on River Street for a decade or two. When I first arrived to Savannah and walked down the street carrying my guitar on my back searching for a good spot to post up and start playing I walked past him holding his guitar and he said hello so I went and sat down next to him and said "Hey man, you play guitar?" "A little bit." was his reply.I said "Maybe we could jam some time" and he said "You couldn't keep up with me. How long have you been playing?" I told him that I had been playing 8 years and asked him how long he been playing for and he said "Not long, just 43 years." Ah Old Walter had a good sense of humor. We did wind up jamming together and I was able to keep up just fine to his suprise. He was a good guy who took me under his wing and showed me around and told me who to stay away from. Next time I go down to Savannah I'm going to pay him a visit and throw a dollar or two in his tip pail after he sings "Wonderful World."
Make sure that you check out the documentry, it's a very interesting and fun look at street musicians who you normally wouldn't give a second thought!



Oh and you can get the dvd that I saw here:


They have a few other dvd's and cd's but that was the particular one that I saw so I listed it.

Eric Hansen: Nuevo Flamenco Romancero

So in my last blog about Ayub Bacchu I mentioned how in his song "Shey Tara Vora Rate" it had somewhat of a Spanish sound to the guitar in it which is a sound I truly love. The guitar was invented in Malaga, Spain so I naturally assume that that's probably why Spanish guitar is arugeably the best guitar playing in the world. One of my favorite genres of music is "Flamenco Guitar" which is Spanish guitar to the max! With that being said, I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and they have a section where you can check out compact discs. I made my way over to the "International" section so I could check out a few cds of artists from around the world and I found a cd by a guy named Eric Hansen titled "Nuevo Flamenco Romancero" in fact, it was the first cd I picked up that day. I knew that I would enjoy it because I've been going through a pretty big flamenco phase currently so I checked it out along with a few others and popped it in the cd player on the way home.
The first track was a cover of Roberta Flack's (and many other's) "Killing Me Softly With His Song." I instantly fell in love with his sound. He took the song and completely made it his own by playing the entire song instrumentally playing the vocal melodies on his guitar as well as the rythmn of the song as well while adding that amazing flamenco style to it. "Killing Me Softly" is already such a great song and to hear it played in the style of flamenco guitar was a real treat to me. The next track on the disc was "Careless Whisper" which transfered over to flamenco so well, I knew that this album would be one of the best albums I'd ever heard and I was not disapointed at all. The whole cd is covers of popular songs I believe. I few other songs that were familiar to my ears were: "Fields of Gold", "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman", "If You Leave Me Now", and "Sailing."
The album was a treasure for me to find at the library, a true masterpiece. It was been the album I've put on almost every night before bed and has inspired me with my own music. Eric Hansen is extremely talented and knows what he is doing. I did a little search online to find out more about Eric Hansen but I haven't fould a lot so he must not be very well known and I strongly suggest that you check him out! I promise you will not be disapointed!!!!!

I am signed up with Amazon Associates and have found the album so if you are interested in buying it and at the same time helping support this blog you can get it here:

Ayub Bacchu: a great artist from Bangladesh!

I have a couple students that I teach guitar and drums to who are from Bangladesh which is actually where my girlfriend is from as well and I've come to realize over the years that my favorite artists are always recomendations from friends of mine so I asked them "Who is a good musician from Bangladesh?" and they recomended that I check out Ayub Bacchu who is the guitarist and singer of the group "LRB (Love Runs Blind)." I went on youtube and looked him up and I found a video for the song "Shey Tara Vora Rate" and gave it a listen and I fell in love with the music right away! In that particular song he was playing mainly phrygian mode stuff which I love because of it's exotic sound that you mainly hear played by Spanish guitarists. Spanish guitar such as flamenco is one of my favorite styles of music out there and to hear him blend it with Indian style singing made an excellent combination!!! Of course the lyrics are in Bengali but from what my girlfriend told me after I asked her what the title of the song translated to in English was that it meant "A star filled sky." I asked her some of the other lyrics and it seems to be pretty much a love song which you can never go wrong with.
My students had told me when the recomended him to me was that he is one of the best guitarists in Southeast Asia and after watching a few more videos I definately have to agree! I totally dig his unique style and I recomend that everyone who reads this blog go ahead and check him out on youtube, I'm sure you won't be dissapointed as long as you are open to new styles of music from across the globe! I myself went ahead and looked up the chords and have begun learning how to play the song on the guitar... the only difficulty that I'm having currently is learning the lyrics being as there in Bengali but that makes it more fun to me anyway! Anyways like I said go and check him out, I'm sure that you won't be dissapointed in the least litte bit!!!