I first heard Peter Kater’s piano coupled with R Carlos Nakai’s Native American flute on the album Honorable Sky and the album quickly became a favorite.
Several years later I picked up the album Karuna by Tibetan artist Nawang Khechog, which I admit to not listening to as often as I should, hum, does that sound familiar! From his website:
So this morning was hectic, my wife needed a $300.00 gift card for a life-long friend who is retiring this years after 35 years of teaching! She told me to check with our bank but that she would call me later. When it got to be after 10 o’clock and she hadn’t called yet, I called she asked, “Why I hadn’t gone yet and that I needed to be back to pick her up at school at 10:45 fearing that I didn’t have enough time to look around I went on-line and typed in Visa gift card location and up popped Bank of America, hum, what better place to get a Visa gift card than Bank of America. So I hopped in the car and frantically drove to BOA, only to be told that they don’t do gift cards!! Well then who does I asked…. “You can try Shop-Rite” But I said “I want one $300.00 card do any banks do that??” She said that “TD Bank may do it”
Often at work and, well, anywhere for that matter and I just need a little relaxing music, on goes the music of David & Steve Gordon usually, it’s the Garden of Serenity album and sometimes it’s Sacred Drum Visions. Today I tried their 2012 release Celestial Zen and it was a perfect fit for today as I worked in the soils lab! For those of you who do not know them., from Wikipedia
So over the last few days I have been listening to the album Mosaic from the guitar duo of Dan Young and Lawson Rollins. The album is a fantastic collection of their own compositions, which come from different styles including: salsa music, Latin jazz, blues, samba, bossa nova, flamenco, and classical styles. Resulting in a music that is a blending of Nuevo Flamenco, World Music, and Latin Music genres.
Daniel Young and Lawson Rollins first met in Washington, D.C. in 1998. Rollins started out as a classically trained guitarist before moving into Latin American and flamenco guitar styles and Young holds a degree in jazz from The New School in New York City.Soon after they met they began collaborating and since then they have produced four highly acclaimed albums. Mosaic is their fourth and was released in 2006. They have also been included on various compilation albums. They write the following on their website about their music:
So I continued my exploration of the Echoes Top 25 Albums for April 2013 and stopped at Number 6 William Tyler’s album Impossible Truth Tyler is an accomplished young Nashville guitarist and this is a great, distinctive and original sounding album!! Today the music was just basically background music while I was working, but I am looking forward to listening and drifting maybe later tonight! From William’s website….
So this morning I was scouting out new New Age music at the Echoes website. I looked at the Top 25 albums for April and decided to give the album at Number 2 a listen, Stories From Elsewhere by Rhian Sheehan, It was a good choice! The album was labeled as Electronica/Dance at Mog, but I think the electronic part may be correct, but unless your dance is gently swaying, I don’t think it’s dance music! However, the quiet, beautiful music and environmental sounds was perfect to create a nice musical day at work. When I came home tonight, I went looking for information on Rhian Sheehan since I knew nothing about him. Here’s what I found at his website:
A while back when I was listening to Jesse Cook and exploring flamenco guitarist, i listened to the music of Johannes Linstead. I have heard Johannes’ music before and enjoyed it but for some reasons none of his albums appear in my library. He is not one of the guitarist that I listen to regularly – mistake! As I listen again, to Tales of A Gypsy I think I need to explore his discography more thoroughly!! While listening to his music, I feel the atmospheres that he creates.
So a while back, when I was listening to Jesse Cook, The Blue Sessions album, the album finished and MOG radio came on with artists similar to Jesse Cook. One of the groups that caught my ear was Luna Blanca. I listened to their 2007 release, Magic and really enjoyed it. Since then I have listened to their 2012 release El Dorado and the album Live and enjoyed both of them as well! I have since discovered that the group is from Germany and is one of the most popular nouveau-flamenco groups in the world. Currently, another 2012 release Obsession is at 2 on the Music Zone Reporters’ Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart for February 2013.
Luna Blanca features Richard Hecks (guitar) and Helmut Graebe (piano). On the last three albums, Hecks and Graebe have been joined by rhythm guitarist Bino Dola (flamenco guitar) and Clemens Paskert (bass, percussion and keyboards).
So this morning I received a newsletter from the PBS show Echoes about the shows that will be on this week. I was excited when I saw that tomorrow John Diliberto will be interviewing one of my favorite guitarists, Jesse Cook about his new album The Blue Guitar Sessions. Knowing that I will forget all about listening tomorrow night, I thought I better go listen to the album this afternoon. So I went over to MOG and put it on. Now for those of you who are not familiar with Jesse Cook, Here’s some information from Wikipedia:
