"Randal's View!"

"This Week in Fingerstyle"  by  Daryl Shawn ! January 20, 2020 by  Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog"   "The most exciting playlist on Spotify" reloaded again for a great Monday morning, and the first of the new decade! "This Week in Fingerstyle" curated by  Daryl Shawn ! Daryl does all the selecting of the tunes, I just make a few comments. Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds as we check out what gems Daryl found for us this week! First up is "Kite" by Ken Verheecke who makes us all feel like we can fly when he puts fingers to strings! A beautiful song in the ethereal, aery-heights style of Ken! If you want to feel good on a Monday morning, put this one on and soar like you were meant to! (I may have stolen that line from Ken himself!) With Aurah Daryl managed again to find yet another group I was not familiar with, and what wonderful stuff! "Pleasant ...

"This Week in Fingerstyle"  by  Daryl Shawn ! January 13, 2020 by  Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog"   "The most exciting playlist on Spotify" reloaded again for a great Monday morning, and the first of the new decade! "This Week in Fingerstyle" curated by  Daryl Shawn ! Daryl does all the selecting of the tunes, I just make a few comments. Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds as we check out what gems Daryl found for us this week on this last monday of the decade! First up is a new original: "Quandary" by the incomparable Casper Esmann ! Casper is an artist who makes the guitar sing whether he is doing a cover or one of his originals like "Quandary". I particular love the treble range in Casper's playing as he does something unique that just makes the guitar cry out and pull you in along with creating that involuntary smile I get whenever I hear Casp...

"This Week in Fingerstyle"  by  Daryl Shawn ! January 6, 2020 by  Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog"   "The most exciting playlist on Spotify" reloaded again for a great Monday morning, and the first of the new decade! "This Week in Fingerstyle" curated by  Daryl Shawn ! Daryl does all the selecting of the tunes, I just make a few comments. Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds as we check out what gems Daryl found for us this week on this last monday of the decade! First up is the title track "Good Light to Go By" from the just-released album of Vin Downes . This is exquisite guitar in every sense, from the insight, brilliance and sensitivity of the artist/composer to the recording quality achieved at Imaginary Road Studio with master sound engineer Tom Eaton! This is essentially the perfect album written as an album and performed by one of today's master guitar...

"This Week in Fingerstyle"  by  Daryl Shawn ! December 30, 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 ! Daryl does all the selecting of the tunes, I just make a few comments. Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds as we check out what gems Daryl found for us this week on this last monday of the decade! First up is "Cheap Thrills" by Cim Frode! Wow, what a great way to end the decade! This one has some cool surprises for you. Cim is just fantastic as always! "Somewhere in Paris" by Henrik Janson adds some strings and it fits right in for a New Year's celebration anywhere! Movie theme for sure! Love it! "Warmth" by Agustin Amigo! His newest and part of the "Slow and Peaceful Guitar" album that Agu...

"This Week in Fingerstyle"  by  Daryl Shawn ! December 23, 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 ! Daryl does all the selecting of the tunes, I just make a few comments. Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds! First up is "Bouchon" by Brique a Braq ! Derek Mount is an incredibly talented artist and this piece comes from the just-released "Woodworks, Vol. 1" on the Sonder House Label. Even on a compilation album of some of the best guitarists on the fingerstyle scene today, "Bouchon" stands out as one of my favorites on the album! With a simple two beat oscillating start it opens up and develops with different voicings, but keeps it simple and satisfying in a folky, western shuffle style. Derek reminds us that ...

"This Week in Fingerstyle"  by  Daryl Shawn ! December 17, 2019 by  Randal L Meek "www.randalsview.blog" (1 day late because of my first-ever studio session yesterday) "The most exciting playlist on Spotify" reloaded again for a great Monday morning! "This Week in Fingerstyle" curated by  Daryl Shawn ! Daryl does all the selecting of the tunes, I just make a few comments. Put your headphones on or AirPods in and disappear into these wonderful sounds! First up is " Basil Wahn 's" take on the Celtic traditional "Si Bheag Si Mhor". Often written "Sheebeg & Sheemore" it means "The Big Hill and The Little Hill", how cool a name is that?  Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) was o ne of Ireland's best and most prolific melodic composers who wrote his music for the Harp. Now a treasure trove of beautiful melodies that translate well to the modern altered tunings of the guitar...

“Good Light To Go By” by Vin Downes 2020 I’m feeling like “king of the world” as one of four individuals on the planet lucky enough to have been sent a “pre-release” version of Vin Downes’ album “Good Light To Go By”, and from the first few notes I virtually melt into my seat and the words that come to mind are “absolute beauty, serenity and peace through sound!” Looking at the notes on the page, the tablature is not unusually difficult, but oh the sweet sound produced from those notes on a page! Vin is not “good”, Vin is exquisitely “great”! The lead piece, “Falling Into Place”, is played in “Open D5” and has a quality that ranks it with some of the best guitar ever played!  The melody is a “soft happy blissful” and leaves no doubt that this album is one of the best of the last few decades. The recording at legendary “Imaginary Road Studios” provides an unsurpassed quality in the sound that almost stuns with its depth and clarity capturing every nuance to t...