News in a local newspaper, in my city: last night, the artist (name doesn’t actually matters) played without a capodaster.

…aaa…OK.. I guess…?!!

I must tell you I was a bit surprised at first, WTF is that of any interest for any of their readers? I mean, I know that technique of writing the title as catchy as possible, to make people read the article, but still, that’s a stupid title in the whole context of the article.

The idea was that the lady (folk singer/guitar player) couldn’t find the capodaster so she had to play only those songs that she could actually play without trying to transpose them.

However, that was not a news, I was angry for losing time after reading this article and I was also curious, do people actually know what a capodaster is? I asked a coleague here. Nope! So I guess using such a “technical” term in the title of a generalist newspaper is also a mistake. Or it is not? Maybe people get curious to find out what she played without…

Say 10 times in a row: capodaster, capodaster, capodaster…

Now, again, what’s a capodaster?!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Since Pandora closed the gates for Romanian listeners (shame on you, Pandora!), no rights to broadcast here they say, I was looking for a new radio to listen once in a while.

I can tell you I have tried a few, I have also posted something here about it, but this time I am kind of excited about this one.

So, I was looking for some lullabies on the internet, to play for my newborn baby girl so I actually searched for “kids radio” or something like this and there I found it. Kids radio allright, but not only that! Actually, as they say, 350+ news, sport, talk and music stations! More than enough for me.

So, here’s the kids package where you can choose between lullabies, anime, whatever (I usually listen the lullabies station, you should check it out, slow country music, but also Metallica on bells and whistles. No kidding, I had the time of my life playing Fade to black and Nothing else matters to my daughter, everything on ding ding dongs…). 

But, beside the kids package, you should check the Blues channels, where you can choose between Acoustic blues, Blues women, Electric blues, etc. Or how about the jazz package? Jazz fusion, jazz latino, swing, bop, etc.

Or if this does not set you free, then let me tell you what turned my world on: the metal channel! Yeah! Hair metal station, power metal station, classic metal station (I actually asked myself what “classic” means in metal, it means Megadeth, Ozzy, Testament etc)

Don’t you dare try the rock package cause there are too many stations there to pick from.

How about country, baby?! All 70′s, all 80′s, all 90′s? All 2000′s?! Or folk!! Love country or outlaw country (I didn’t know this branch actually exists)

Ah, one more thing: commercials are in the beginning, so before starting the show you need to listen to a commercial about hair loss or something then here you go, no commercial for a very long time, so don’t panic! 

So I guess I’ve already spoken too much instead of pointing you to the package!

So here it is: AOL radio! 350+ stations, I love it, I bookmarked it, I listen to it all day long on my computer!

By the way,I am now listening to “Sinatra style” station. Cool!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Wow! This is all I can say now! Wow! Here’s why…

3 days ago I posted the article about Susan Boyle on Britain’s got talent, without thinking where this might go. As you probably already know, Susan Boyle is the internet star of the moment these days, her performance generating millions of page views all over the world.

So, after posting the article, I went to bed.

What do you know?!! Next morning I looked at my traffic stats and I can tell you in the first second I have felt a big hole in my stomack since everything was gone…gone…only one single spike, the current day…

What? Where s everything gone? Where are my stats since one and a half year?

And then I got it! They were here, nothing was lost, just that the traffic generated by Susan Boyle’s performance was so big that everything else seemed so small that Analytics graphs looked like everything so far was zero…

I can tell you that by the end of the day, 19.932 visitors watched Susan Boyle’s performance on my site. The next day, 10.416 visitors, the next day 7.206. Today, so far I have 3.013 visitors! 20.000 visitors in one day!! Huge traffic compared to everything else, from one single video…

I am not new on this internet, but happenings like this one never stop to amaze me. 5 minutes of video turned one person from nobody to somebody really known…

By the way, probably the same as everybody else, I couldn’t help asking myself who’s this lady? Who Susan Boyle is? Can I listen anything else sung by her?

Well, what do you know? Seems I can. Daily Record found a CD recorded in 1999, where she sings a song. The Millennium Celebration CD, partly funded by Whitburn Community Council, was the brainchild of local newspaper editor Eddie Anderson, who looked for unsigned artists to record this CD.

The performance is just astonishing on this record too…

Listen for yourself and let me know your opinion on this one as you did on the previous one.

Susan Boyle, Cry me a river, 1999

Simon confirmed he arranged for her to appear on Oprah show, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher recently supported her, she seems to have all the visibility she needs to make it big… Simon also told Daily Mail that she could top the Billboard charts in the US.

I can only say this lady never stops to amaze me and keeps me wanting more and more…

And you know what? I would really buy her CD if she will record one, and I don’t know why but I really think she will soon…

How about it, Simon?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

As you probably know, I love YouTube videos that bring something to the table.

So, you may already expect something interesting with the video here. It is not about guitars, but it is about simple people gifted with great talents. I have already said that those who made it big are up there because of a positive complex of happenings and should never look down on the rest of us, because they can never know who could slap you in the face without notice with a stunning performance…

Like the one here. I can tell you I started to watch this video ready to laugh big time, probably the same as everybody there but…

So, to not ruin your surprise, watch this video, of course, with sound. I can’t embed it because embedding was disabled by user request, on YT, but this should not be an issue.

Later edit: I managed to find a video out there, here it is:

And get back here and let me know what you think about the lady there!! By the way, in case you haven’t yet noticed, her name is Susan Boyle. Just for the record.

Isn’t she wonderful?

Unfortunately I could bet that we will never hear about her again, outside this  show. That’s life…

And now Stumble that!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

As you probably know, I love Helloween and the kind of voices this style of music implies. And I love the way Michael Kiske sings. And I do love acoustic guitars. So, considering the above mentioned reasons, any association between these 2 (powerful voice + acoustic guitar) would be a winner IMO.

If I also consider the fact that I kind of missed Michael Kiske’s voice(I was even wondering what happened to him since a while) when I stumbled upon his latest album, Past in Different Ways, I was just thrilled. I keep on listening it over and over again so I decided to put here one of the songs on this album, so we all enjoy it!

Michael Kiske – When the sinner

and A little time

Also, you can check it on Amazon, see Past in Different Ways here!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

I love when well known artists reinvent themselves giving us new reasons to love and admire them.

These days, Sting was here, in a concert in Bucharest, capital of Romania. Well, I wasn’t there, but I can tell you from what mass-media said that the tickets were sold out long before the concert and then those who really wanted to be there bought them at 10 times the price!

Sting was accompanied by Edin Karamazov and his lute. Very interesting, I’d say, Sting playing on lute. They both played instruments built in Romania by a Romanian instrument builder, Cezar Mateescu. Sting personally thanked Cezar Mateescu for the instruments, very nice of him. Also Edin Karamazov was a student of the great Sergiu Celibidache, one of the greatest musicians this country gave.

I was a bit intrigued at first by Sting and his lute, so I searched on YouTube for some videos with him playing lute, and I can say it gives a great sound, it is beyond a “regular unplugged” sound. Even the music is different, it is old, from the 16th century. Cool! Sting singing Elizabethan music.

Here’s a sample:

And another one:

And this one, I couldn’t help it, no lute, but man, how beautiful:

Well, do you like it? Is it Sting here or not?

By the way, you can buy from Amazon:
The Journey & The Labyrinth: The Music of John Dowland (DVD & CD)
Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting 1984-1994

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Rules are made to be followed.

Well, are they really?

One of the things I particularly enjoy when I listen a song is when I hear a chord that in the normal flow of chords just…should not be there, but the very fact it is gives a total new meaning to the song and a totally new sonority to that particular musical phrase.

Rules are made to be followed, there is a reason for which we use G, C, D in G major, right? They sound well together and they follow the rules we learn about as we learn to play the guitar.

But of course, there are people who follow rules and people who break and even make rules. Sometimes you hear a Cm chord in a G major song, and man how beautiful it sounds… That guy broke the rule and it didn’t bother you. Just that, as with everything in life, in order to beak the rules, you need to know them well. Not everybody can break or make a rule, only those that master rules can break them.

Think also about chromatic improvisations. It is not something easy to do, isn’t it? That’s exactly because chromatic improvisation kind of break the rules of scales that we, guitar players are so attached of. It is not easy to start in G major and find room for notes such as F or C# in your musical phrase. That is exactly because you need to know how and when to break the rules in order to make thing work…

I was listening Fuoco nel fuoco, of Eros Ramazzotti, a beautiful Italian song in F#m. Listen the chorus and spot that beautiful Dm in there. And listen to the bass line in the chorus…great find, in my opinion…

Or if it is close to you, Extreme with More than words. Or Radiohead, Creep.

Here’s the song, enjoy and comment!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

There is this discussion on Pribek.net about this fantasy trio. I am also part of it and I could only think of a rock fantasy band, starting from Gamma Ray, from the guitar player actually, Kai Hansen, a guitar player that I used to follow from his early days in Helloween. Jack started a discussion about influences, roots, etc.

I was more and more tempted to point him to Helloween and I couldn’t help asking myself why is that? What keeps me coming back to Helloween? I realized it was part of a very important stage of my life.

So far, thinking back, I was able to clearly see stages in my life related to books and authors. I can remember clearly the following:

Jules Verne, I remember missing only 4 of his books when I was a child, 4 out of 39 I think. Damn, I had a lot of time in my hands back then!

Then, when I grew up a bit, I was in love with Karl May’s books about the Wild West, Winnetou, Old Shutterhand and the rest. Not much about Mark Twain, even if I do realize US readers will probably be way more familiar with his books.

Then I had the Sven Hassel period, missing only 2 of his books, I think 2 out of 12.

Then I started to love John Grisham very much, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, etc…

Then…technical books on IT, marketing, etc. As my literature teacher in high school used to say, read now while you still can because later you will only read technical books. She was right, I might say…

Now, coming back on music, when I discovered music, it was all about rap. MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Kris Kross, Dr Alban. Don’t blame me, everybody had to start somewhere, OK?

Then, I discovered Guns N Roses and it all started to have a different meaning. I have definitively fallen in love with rock music! For good! A friend brought me a tape with Saxon at one moment. I loved the sound. It was Dogs of war. But I still couldn’t tell that’s what I need, what I am looking for! I asked him for more of the same kind. Well, let’s see…Manowar? Well, I don’t know.

Kings of metal…and there I had it. From the moment I started to listen Manowar, I knew I found my music, it all came together, the sound, the rhythm, the voice, the power, the energy and..I think even the message at that moment. I wanted more and more. And then my long time friend and today’s band mate Mihai (and my actual godfather in marriage) gave me tapes with  Helloween, Gamma Ray, Running Wild. Then Cosmin, another long time friend and the bass player in my band gave me Iron Maiden, he was a fan…

Man, what an universe!

See, Satriani, Vai, came a bit later. Malmsteen, Metallica also. For me it was all about Helloween, Manowar. This was what set me on and still keeps me connected. The rest came later…

Up to this day I love to discover new music, I love to discover new bands that I didn’t know about. It’s fun, it’s like reading a great book, like watching a great music. Actually it is more, because that band you discover is the source of a long time musical journey from that moment on.

Up to these days I am fascinated by voices such as Michael Kiske, Eric Adams, Dickinson, Sebastian Bach, Axl Rose, I love them all.

Of course, I like to listen a lot more music these days, I like quiet music also, I love blues, I love pop-rock, but my soul I guess is still in the same area that started everything: melodic metal.

That is why today I feel that nothing complements better this post than a bit of…Helloween!

I want out and a voice that can’t be matched! I also like Andi Derris, current day singer, but I am always amazed of how bad he can sing this song. Andi can not go that high that easy. Also Hammerfall covered this and barely reached those high notes.

So I think that it is very important how your musical education started because it will follow you the rest of your life. It is what you will probably like and judge by for as long as you will live on this Earth. That is why so many people argue about music, because each of use judges by his own standards that started somewhere back in time….

Am I right or what?

Later edit: here’s a video of Hammerfal playing the same song. Great cover, I might say. By the way, is that UDO in the clip next to the band?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

We have this European music show here, Eurovision, each year European countries send a representative to sing a song, yadda yadda.

So far, each year the talk show after the Romanian selection was a very intense fight, people throwing accusations at each other, artists considering they were misjudged, etc. Of course, you know the type of show they put after finding they won’t go further.

This year everything was smoother, seems everybody was OK with what happened, nobody threw accusations at other bands, seems the situation was cool.

I listened the songs in the competition, I will post here the ones that had a chance or meant something, from my point of view, I would like to know your opinion, since, after all, your opinion may be pretty close to what other people would say about the artists here. After all, you don’t know the people in these video so you may have an objective point of view. But then, again, you, like me, like rock and blues, you may not be in the target group for this. And it is an European competition, the music is a bit different, but let’s see…

Due to the fact that almost everybody decided to sing in English this time, you’ll get a pretty good image of the music there.

The song that won the Romanian competition and will go further to the European’s competition that this year will take place in Moscow, is The Balkan Girls, the artist is Elena Gheorghe.

The direct competitor was Catalin with Stop

On the 3rd position was Blaxy Girls, they say they play rock. So they say. The song is Dear mama. They are a project of a very controversial composer and producer here, who turned from dance to a low class, kitschy music that made him a lot of money. I wonder if these girls can actually play the instruments…

Then I will add here Zero, with Sunny days, a song that I actually liked, I like this kind of songs, I play this kind of songs. By the way, in case you can’t tell, this is the band that was tricked here with the paper music, remember?

And the last one is actually my favorite, it’s in Romanian and it’s called Pleaca (Leave!) The guitar player and the drummer are part of THE FIRST BAND IN ROMANIA to have a professional video for a professional music television here. The guitar player has now a recording studio and composed this song also and honestly, it has his name written all over it! Maybe you won’t like the song, but man, I love it! I actually used to play such music a long time ago.

The guy clearly studied his market: needed a song to be played in Moscow. So, here’s a Russian sounding song sung by a girl that has Russian backgrounds. Leave! Cool, I love it!

So, let me hear you on this. Does any of these songs make an impression on you? How do you find them? How about the winning song?

PS: and this one, I forgot about it. The guitar player is my ex band mate, Bogdan.

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

You know, I understand weird performances, I am aware of the “beauty of the ugly” concept, but WTF is Buckethead doing here?

Really, I dig the guitar solo, but the break dance-techno-kung-fu dance?! Come on!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It