I used to have these 2 CDs in my car with Sinergy that I used to listen quite a lot.

For those who are not familiar with the band, Sinergy is a band put up in an effort to present a “balls-out female-fronted metal band” to the world(Wikipedia) that lined up well known musicians from the dark side of rock: Kimberly Goss, who was keyboarding for Dimmu Borgir at the time, In Flames rhythm guitarist Jesper Strömblad,  Alexi Laiho (from Children of Bodom), bassist Sharlee D’Angelo (from Arch Enemy) and drummer Ronny Milianowicz (from Dionysus)

I don’t know where they are at this moment(the CDs, I mean) since I moved to a new apartment at one moment so they got lost on the way, I guess. But I do miss them, since I really loved the general sound and the songs there.

Of course, the songs I remember better from those CDs are 2 covers (doh!) Gimme, gimme, gimme! (Abba) and Rock you like a hurricane (Scorpions). But I also remember at least the title of one of their own songs: Spit on your grave. Sweet…

So, today I wanted to listen again those 2 hits there so I looked for them on YouTube and they gave me again a nice feeling of power, energy and melody, the ingredients of true rock music.

So, I said to share these 2 songs with you here, I can bet you will enjoy them! Just think melody with a powerful woman voice and metal guitars. Yeah, baby, yeah!

Well? What do you say?

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It happened more than 2 or 3 times these days to have a chat with my buddies, to speak about guitar music and to have the almost “predictable surprise” to see they don’t know about Chet Atkins.

The fact is that in Romania, you only know about Chet Atkins if you are a true guitar music fan, otherwise you don’t stand a chance! I know this blog is about guitars and guitar music so most of you know who Chet Atkins is, but for those that don’t know, and I bet some don’t, I decided to post here a video that open the appetite for his music.

Now, don’t you believe I am some kind of connoisseur when it comes to Chet Atkins. Not by far!
But I am a person that really enjoys his music and his playing style, as well as his abilities.

And honestly it is such a pity, if you love guitar music, to not know about a guy that is simply called Mr Guitar!

Here’s a song that for Romanians has some particular meaning, a long time ago there use to be a comic TV show here that had this song as a music theme: The entertainer, Chet Atkins

Mr Bojangles

And Maybelle

Well, now, start searching for more of Chet Atkins music!

Go, go, don’t waste your time!

PS: I know that a surprise is not predictable because if it would be predictable it wouldn’t be a surprise but sounds cool!

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I was listening a song on the radio, a song that got my attention, even if I couldn’t tell who’s singing there but thanks to a few interesting lyrics that I remembered while on my computer, I can tell you today it’s about Kid Rock and All summer long…

Hmm, for me Kid Rock is a strange kind of artist, and beside the fact that he was linked to Pamela Anderson, I can’t tell much about him. Now, don’t you smile, OK? Strange that the only thing I remember about him is …Pamela Anderson. Whatever…

So, I couldn’t tell if Kid Rock is well, a rocker or not, the outfit confuses me also and well, I just didn’t pay attention to his music, I think I listened at one moment a song and then that was all.

Now comes this song on the radio and I really like it, it makes me think to Brian Adams and his Summer of 69 and James Blunt with 1973  (by the way, I love when an artist relates to another artist or a song in his music, like with James Blunt and “Here we go again”). Kid Rock does the same here with Sweet home Alabama…

Now seeing how many views this song has on YT, should I feel bad I am such an ignorant when it comes to Kid Rock?

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I have a CD in my car that I keep listening these days, a country mix with Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. I really enjoy that CD, honestly.

While listening Johnny Cash, I realized on some of his songs he doesn’t actually sing much, me kind of tells a story on a particular rhythm and on a musical background, like for example The Cadillac song or Big Bad John. I couldn’t actually help myself comparing it to modern hip hop…

If you think about it, they do the same, tell a story on a musical background. Even the themes of the songs are a bit “outlaw-ish”(is there such a word?!). Listen the following song and pay attention to how JC puts the words in there, just like an authentic hip-hop, the measure of some lyrics forces him to end a sentence in the middle of the verse and start another sentence that will be finished somewhere later on an other verse. Pretty familiar…

I really think that if one of the hip-hop artists would cover one of the songs of JC would go great, word by word. Plus a lady on chorus…

What do you think?

Later edit: take a look at this version of Big Bad John, sung by Charlie Daniels Band.

Interesting…

By the way, the initial theme, on guitar sounds so much like Cats in the cradle of Mr Big. Is this some kind of traditional theme in country music or what?

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Jack Pribek from Pribek.net has the habit of posting a song as the best song in the world at that very moment.

Well, I don’t have this on my site, but today I feel like posting this song here for the exact same reason…

Since I have discovered it a couple of years ago, I have considered this song as one of the greatest songs out there, also sung by one of the greatest pop voices of our time. I am not a big fan of George Michael’s music, but his vocal skills are just perfect for this kind of music.

So, brother, can you spare a dime?Lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931), a song that is, as they say on the internet, the symbol of the Great Depression.

Can we borrow it for today’s crisis? How about it?

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I was wondering: what’s the point of rating a video on YouTube somewhere in the middle?

I mean I think this is a general question that applies to any voting system. Personally I only rate a video if I love it (I give it 5 full stars) or hate it (0 stars or 1, depends what I am allowed there).

I think I have never given 2 or 3 stars, I mean what’s the point? To show that you liked a song so-so? Why rate it then? It’s not like it’s mandatory or something.

Whatever…

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Today’s a black day for guitar players all around the world: Les Paul, the father of solid body guitars died at the age of 94 because a complication of pneumonia.

I have been informed about it by the guys at Terapeak, I must admit I was taken by surprise, I didn’t expect it…

I must tell you that when I first got in contact with a Gibson guitar, I didn’t know where’s the name coming from, then I found out about Les Paul and then I’ve found that he is alive and…still playing, which was a great surprise for me at that time, because I was expecting that the man behind such a great guitar be already a long gone legend, like Peugeot, Ferrari etc, the fact that this man succeeded to build such a great name for his guitars while being among us suddenly threw another light on the story…

Now Les Paul is not longer with us, but his guitars will continue to feed the dreams of so many of us all around the world. I don’t think there’s any of us around here, playing guitar, that never dreamed about having a classic Les Paul. Don’t you dare telling me you were a Fender or Ibanez fan right from the start and never dreamed about keeping one of these beautiful guitars in your hands. I won’t buy it! I personally dreamed for years about buying a classic Gibson and honestly I still dream about it…

A few weeks ago Michael left, now Les Paul, quite a dark summer for music lovers all around the world.

RIP Mr. Les Paul…

Later edit: I have decided to add a black stripe on my blog header, as a sign of respect, I will keep it there for a few days.

Also, for those of you who want to pay respects to Les Paul, here’s a 125 x 125 banner that you can add on your sidebar. Just right click it and save the image on your hard disk.

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Yesterday at the rehearsals we discussed about covering Billie Jean. OK, not an easy task, if you want to do it right…

So we started to “shop around” to see a few versions, YouTube makes it quite easy and gives you a lot of ideas, Billie Jean is a popular song, so you pretty much have where to pick at least a few goods ideas.

I have found a version of this song by Cris Cornell (ex Soundgarden), cool live version, a few others that I enjoyed, but I think that I have found what could be like the coolest cover so far of this song, David Cook’s version, the guy on TV with that show, I guess you know him.

I must admit I wasn’t expecting much but I was really impressed.

So, without any more words, I give you the best possible cover of Billie Jean.

Enjoy and comment!

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It’s very interesting to see how people all over the world build statues for celebrating their music stars.

So, as a curiosity, I have started to look around for statues and I could find the following:

Phil Lynott’s statue, outside Bruxelles club in Harry Street, Dublin, Ireland

Bon Scott,  Fisherman’s Wharf, Fremantle, Western Australia

The statue of Jimi Hendrix, Seattle

The statue of SRV in Austin

I also searched for a statue of Elvis, there are plenty so I couldn’t stop at a particular one, I know one myself, close to where I live so in the end…no statue of Elvis here.

Any other you may know?

PS: I was quite sure I will find a statue of Jaco Pastorius, isn’t there any?

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Just a song that made my day today, a happy song: Chicken fried.

Enjoy!

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