"Randal's View!"

"This Week in Fingerstyle" by  Daryl Shawn ! August 28, 2019 by Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog" "The most exciting playlist on Spotify" reloaded again for a great Monday morning! "This Week in Fingerstyle" curated by Daryl Shawn ! Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds! First up is "Birimintingo" by the master of many genres, Jim "Kimo" West ! What an entrancing thrill! Improvised solo runs to thrill any shredder but done with the calm presence of Master West so that if you close your eyes you will find yourself firmly in West Africa. From the main guitarist for Weird Al Yankovich, who is also one of today's slack-key greats, this piece is truly wonderful! "Luna is Dancing" by Henrik Janson is a calm, peaceful walk through the moonlight! As beautiful as the title suggests! When Glenn Roth does a cover, it's not just a cover! Glenn meticu

“Artistry Tuesday” Featuring Lance Allen August 27, 2019 by Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog" It is with some trepidation that I write a little about Lance Allen and for an article about a musician, strangely I’m going to focus more on his story than on his music. There are many great guitar players today and Lance Allen is certainly among them, but that is where the story of Lance Allen begins.  It has always been difficult for musical artists to find an audience and/or make a living at their craft of “music”. Out of the millions of would-be professional musicians on this planet only a handful at any one time ever “make it”, that is manage to find a way to pay all their bills with the earnings from their craft. Decades ago if you talented enough and driven enough that meant finding a way to convince a studio to let you record yourself and somehow manage to pay to press that recording onto an LP and then getting in the car and driving around th

August 20, 2019 "Artistry Tuesday" Featuring Glenn Roth by Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog" When someone writes a song about my hometown, they definitely get my attention! "Boulder Morning"  by Glenn Roth captures both Glenn's virtuosic playing ability and also the energy and vibe of Boulder, CO! Based in Connecticut, Glenn can be found playing his beautiful music everywhere from the underground subways of New York City, to Boulder, CO and the rest of the world! Very few people have their own TV series, but Glenn has managed to independently create his own TV series on YouTube with " Busker TV " and over 50 unique episodes revealing the true musical underground of NYC! Busking is tough work, especially in the caverns of the subways but a great way to hone or display your skills, and Glenn has plenty of skills to display! A master at both original tunes and covers, Glenn's ability knows few, if any, bounds! Whether you ar

"This Week in Fingerstyle" by  Daryl Shawn ! August 19, 2019 by Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog" "The most exciting playlist on Spotify" reloaded again for a great Monday morning! "This Week in Fingerstyle" curated by Daryl Shawn! Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds! First up is "Electric Soul" by the dynamo duo of Rodrigo Y Gabriela! This husband & wife guitar duo turned the music world on its head in 2006 with the eponymous " Rodrigo Y Gabriela " album and haven't looked back. They may have done more for the resurgence of the nylon string guitar in popular music that anyone else on the planet. It doesn't get any better than the music that these two make! "Tiento Antiguo" = Wow! Daryl Shawn has again astounded me with another piece that has escaped my ears until now. Have to check out the Rodrigo library ASAP! Unbelievably beautiful!

August 13, 2019  “Artistry Tuesday”  Featuring  Ken Bonfield by Randal L Meek Ken Bonfield is an artist’s artist in every sense of the word. True and dedicated to the art of music, guitar and fingerstyle in particular. Having taken the stage for going on five decades, Ken has seen firsthand the many changes of the musical landscape. Ken’s early influences included Dylan, the Dead, Simon and Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, John Prine and Cat Stevens to name a few. In his early 20’s Ken was performing covers at clubs at the exhausting rate of four to five 45 minute sets each night!  Then life took him in a different direction professionally while he continued in his spare time to hone his craft with a 1936 Martin 000-18 and a Santa Cruz 14-fret Koa & Spruce guitar.  His days of doling out 100+ covers/night long passed, Ken began to really focus on the intricate possibilities of fingerstyle and alternate tunings in that golden age of 198

August 12, 2019 "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! Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds! First up is "Vitamin G" by Stephen Bennett: nice and light from one of the masters. Wonderful. "Voyage By Night" with Shai Sebbag &   Maneli Jamal  is earthy and mysterious with an apprehension that keeps us on the edge of our seats! Pulled me out of the last bit of Monday morning sleepy! Tremendous! "Feel it Still" cover by   Lance Allen   and   Mark Kroos   will get you on your feet and dancing around the room even without   Lance 's signature coffee! I'm not a dancer, but I love tunes that make me feel like dancing and this is one! Well done Lance and Mark! "Preludio de Adios" by Daria Semikina is beauti

August 6, 2019 "Randal's View" “Artistry Tuesday” featuring  Tommy Berre ! Throughout history most people just go where the wind blows them. There are always a few intrepid souls who "go against the wind" and then there are the truly rare individuals who actually "tame the winds". Within that last category is Tommy Berre like a norse musical Demi-god from the north of Norway! It is well-known that for a successful music career, talent makes all the difference, and first and foremost, Tommy Berre seems to have an endless reservoir of talent. Listen to the early "Duende", "Salvador" & "Ambros" and be stunned at the beauty, melody and sound quality that Tommy manages to achieve. When I first heard "Duende" it became the standard for my own goal of recording quality (little did I know that Tommy managed this alone from his home studio). In the ensuing years Tommy has released a huge catalog of

"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! This morning I had this wonderful thought again that for the last year, for the first time in my life, I really look forward to Monday mornings! And "This Week in Fingerstyle" is the reason why! Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds! First up is "Awaiting" by  Chris Embers ! Few pieces have such beauty and universality that they can translate to multiple different instrument platforms and retain their fiercely moving quality: "Awaiting" is one of those pieces. Haunting and searing this is the "Guitar Version" of a piece that you can find in strings and also piano. It's beautiful in all versions, but since the guitar is my instrument of choice the guitar version is my favorite. Th