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It seems every year, someone remixes a popular rap song to include the Spurs and their quest for the championship. Well, although the Spurs collective effort tonight resulted in a Western Conference Finals Championship, they still have to face either a tough Detroit Pistons team or a young and eager Cleveland Cavaliers team to get its 4th ring in 8 years. Anyway, this year’s song is Reppin’ My Block by Rob G…and the remix is actually done by the original artist instead of some guy in his makeshift garage studio.
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Fingerstyle guitarists are separated by their technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings with the fingertips as opposed to using a pick. According to acousticfingerstyle.com, it is commonly played on steel string acoustic guitars with 6 or 12 strings and includes chords, arpeggios and other elements such as artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off with the fretting hand, using the body of the guitar percussively, and many other techniques. Here are a few fingerstyle guitarists I’ve recently discovered.
Andy McKee
Andy McKee is regarded as one of the most up and coming fingerstyle guitarists. Andy hails from Topeka, Kansas and according to the bio on his website, Andy hopes that “listening to my music is an emotional experience”. Well, it’s certainly beautiful. His unorthodox fingerstyle reminds me of early Monte Montgomery (when he was a one-man show), about whom I posed the question Is Monte Montgomery The Best Guitar Player Ever? Anyway, see Andy’s skills for yourself.
Official Website: andymckee.com
Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel is another fingerstyle guitarist from Austrailia. Although he’s had a long and successful career there, he’s relatively unknown in the United States. He exhibits alot of classical style with a hint of bluegrass at times, especially when he turns on the showmanship. This virtuoso’s main influence is Chet Atkins, as you can tell in this video, with whom he recorded in 1996 on the CD, “The Day the Finger Pickers Took Over the World”, which was nominated for a Grammy award. You can see Tommy in Ft. Worth on June 19, 2007 at Bass Performance Hall and September 13-15, 2007 at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.
Video: Since We Met
Official site: tommyemmanuel.com
Andres Segovia
Andres Segovia is regarded by many as the “father of the modern classical guitar movement” according to classicalguitar.net. Whether or not that’s the case, I have always been amazed by the skill and accuracy of classical guitarists. I don’t think Segovia was regarded as a flamenco guitar player, but I’ve always thought of him as that (you guitar purists feel free to correct me). I just find it even more amazing how flamenco guitarists play while simultaneously incorporating finger tapping. Anyway, Segovia discovered early on that piano exercises were beneficial in strengthening the fingers for the guitar. You can see Senior Segovia in action.
Helpful site: Andres Segovia: Wikipedia
Paco de Lucia
Paco de Lucia is considered by most to be a major figure in the New Flamenco Movement with his avant-garde assimilation of other musical styles such as jazz and blues. In a word…well, two…he’s awesome!
Official site: pacodelucia.org
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Don’t fret! Before you dig your claws into me for writing that title, allow me to posit that my statement is obviously subjective. Hey. He’s amazing, and I thought it was certainly warranted based on what I’ve seen (about a hundred times since 1995 by the way). I’m what they call a “Montiac”.
mon·ti·ac (mÄ’ntÄ“-Äk’) – noun
any intemperate or overly zealous or enthusiastic person…when pertaining to Monte Montgomery.
It sounds like a bad thing? Give me a sec. I’m not nearly as devoted as most Montiacs, many of which have seen him about a hundred times this year alone. What makes him so special? Well, he sports a battered Alvarez acoustic, and an ability to confuse even the most avid guitar players with his finger and pick style of play. Oh, and he’s not a bad songwriter either. Unfortunately, he hasn’t attained the commercial notoriety of the greats like Clapton, Hendrix, Beck, Van Halen, Satriani, SRV, Page…the list goes on. While I don’t consider myself a guru or qualify myself as worthy of ranking him up there with those names, I definitely believe he’s deserving of such respect. Have a look at this video. It’s old and poor quality, but in my humble opinion, the best version of Monte’s rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing that I could find (my favorite includes his former bass player, Lonnie Trevino, Jr., who actually sang the song and did it absolute justice). While it might be considered taboo for me to say that Monte rips the best version of the song I’ve ever heard period, you can certainly understand why the thought crosses my mind after watching this.
Here’s one more version just for comparison’s sake: Monte Montgomery Little Wing
Read more about Monte on his Official Website and on his fan website, The Full Monte. I’d highly suggest seeing Monte live. You won’t be disappointed.
For more dates, click here. By the way, a good starter CD would be Mirror
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This weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing one of Texas’ best artists, Robert Earl Keen (REK), at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, TX. If you’ve never listened to Americana (aka, Texas Country), you’re missing out. Don’t let the word “Country” scare you, especially if you’re not a fan of Country Music. Robert Earl Keen’s music is best described as Jimmy Buffett meets Tom Petty meets Lyle Lovett. The last one comes of no surprise since REK and Lovett were neighbors in College Station, TX while attending Texas A&M University. According to REK’s bio on Wikipedia.org, the two became friends and performed together on the front porch. This eventually grew into inspiration for a song entitled “The Front Porch Song”, which both would add to their repertoire.
Some of REK’s most well-known songs include The Road Goes On Forever (And The Party Never Ends), Gringo Honeymoon; and fittingly enough for the season, Merry Christmas From The Family. There are several others worth mentioning. If I had to recommend one album that offers a good sample, I’d suggest No. 2 Live Dinner
If you ever have a chance to see him live, do it. You won’t be disappointed. According to his website, he will be appearing in the following cities:
For more dates, click here.
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When I created a Music Category for my blog, I didn’t anticipate posting nothing but videos…primarily of Weird Al Yankovic-like parodies and some guy that happened to make a really cool video of himself. By editing a bunch of little frames of himself playing the drums and the piano…well, I suppose anyone can become “a musical prodigy”. I’ve also heard Lasse is a pretty good beatboxer …just maybe not as good as Darren Robinson. Silly Norwegian. Bbbbrrrrrr, STICK ‘EM…HA HA HA, STICK ‘EM!!!
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Who said Weird Al Yankovic fell off the face of the earth? He was just mustering up his next big hit. Weird Al’s new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, debuted at #10 on the Billboard charts (currently sits at #29). His hit White & Nerdy, which is a parody of Chamillionaire’s hit, Ridin’ Dirty, is apparently the reason for this success. No doubt you’ve already seen the video already. If you haven’t, you’ve been living under a rock (or you’re my dad); it’s pasted all over the Internet.
However, my personal favorite is his version of James Blunt’s, You’re Beautiful. “You’re Pitiful” does not appear on the new album. But you can download it on his website…or here…or you can hear it on Weird Al’s MySpace page. Although he received Blunt’s blessing to do the song, Atlantic Records (James Blunt’s label) refused to allow Weird Al to release the song. Of course, Yankovic is no stranger to opposition from labels. There was that whole Coolio thing with Gangsta’s Paradise. And if I recall correctly, Coolio was the one that wasn’t happy about it.
Weird Al has countless disciples (see YouTube). One of the more recent and more notable in my opinion is The Grey Kid, who ain’t too bad in non-parody format. Along with his buddy, Daniel Stessen, they’ve nailed a parody for Justin Timberlake’s, Bringin’ Sexy Back, with “PaxilBack”. See for yourself.
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