December 21, 2020: "This Week in Fingerstyle!"

"This Week in Fingerstyle" by Daryl Shawn on Spotify!

"The most exciting playlist on Spotify" reloaded again for a great Monday morning! "This Week in Fingerstyle" curated by Daryl Shawn!

First up is "For An Audience of Trees" by Kenneth Verheecke. Most every time Ken picks up a guitar he taps into that "essence of the universe" and becomes part of the nature around him! It's a very difficult task but Ken somehow gets inside the trees, plays to them alone and shows us the slow, gentle world of an "audience of trees". This is a look at nature that only a gifted artist can give! It's absolutely beautiful!

"Escape" by "Lance Allen & Avery Bright" has these two masters at their best with what sounds like a steel string layered with a nylon string and a cello combining for an almost mystical and certainly magical sound! Just when I'm sure that all the possible arpeggios have been played, Lance puts it together in a new way and thrills! These two continue to get better and better individually and in collaboration: how is that possible? Wow!

"Peaceful Siesta" by Will Moore is an absolutely beautiful Spanish sound in a slow dance that blissfully lulls us into a peaceful, pleasant siesta! Well done Will!

"Sparkle" is just that! By the one-of-a-kind and exceptional talent of Casper Esmann! Few artists make me involuntarily smile every time they pick up a guitar and Casper is one of those few artists. From his early "Dun Aonghusa" to "Blinded By Sunshine", to the cover of "Chasing Cars" to this brilliant "Sparkle"! A well-named piece since Casper truly makes the "guitar sound" sparkle like no one else! Another masterpiece in Casper's fine and growing repertoire!

"Of a July Evening" by Chris Embers is a wonderful piece that evokes images of the brilliant summer evening sky slowly turning to the west as each star is replaced in turn by another growing in intensity until that apex of darkness when the sky shimmers!

"Vestiges" by Elson Complex is described on his Spotify page as "an oscillating flow of sound with an anesthetic pulse beat", and I couldn't have said it better! Totally mesmerizing!

The extreme talent and diversity of Michelle Qureshi brings us "Watercolors" from her just released album "Sage". Michelle may be the most diverse talent I know and I love her music the most when it is just her and her guitar! That is what she gives us in "Watercolors" and I'm thrilled and totally captivated! A perfect sound captured here, she pulls harmonic colors out of the air and creates a beautifully finished canvas exploring every audio color of the musical rainbow! Perfection with a guitar!

Even though "Dance" was released just a few days ago, I recognize it instantly as the brilliant sound of the amazing Lunng Fern! At only 24 years of age Lunng taps into a wisdom and musical maturity centuries old every time he sits down with a guitar or piano. He is breaking all the molds and creating a new sound combining age-old techniques and styles. "Dance" is an "improv" that entertains like the finest romantic evening in a quiet European café! This is an artist who is currently giving us some of the best music available in guitar and I anxiously await each new piece! Well done Lunng Fern!

"The Voyager" by Donovan Raitt is from his newest album "Water and Light" and is, well, Donovan Raitt! Not many superlatives that have not already been used to describe Donovan and justifiably so. Just put this one on, listen and enjoy!

And Daryl closes out "This Week" with the sophisticated poise and enchantment of Dennis Van Der Sanden's "Bonne Nuit"! So much more than a "lullaby", but definitely directed as a prelude to deep sleep with intense dreams brought on by this pleasant melody built on a heavily structured beat that almost guarantees intense R.E.M. sleep! Totally delightful with just a hint of unsettling, this piece puts you into a state of deep thought on the way to slumber!

Daryl Shawn, thank you again for making my Monday mornings a very special and exciting part of every week!

And that's it for another "This Week in Fingerstyle" by Daryl Shawn who every week puts together "the most exciting playlist on Spotify"!

Remember to "Follow/Heart/Like" the playlist that Daryl Shawn so painstakingly creates every week!

"This Week in Fingerstyle" on Spotify!

(https://randalsview.blogspot.com)