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- Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There is no such thing as Art not being related to freedom of expression, especially when it comes to music. Often, though, the will of an artist, in this case, a musician, at times needs to compromise between different factors, such as what an artist really wishes to express through music, what his/her fans want to hear from such musician and what the record label is prepared to invest on something that cannot guarantee necessarily a financial return, no matter the depth of quality expressed by the artist's record.
The concept of uncompromising Art expression is something that adheres perfectly to the vision that American Guitar Master and singer/songwriter JD Simo has of music. Simo is one of those very rare artists (in every possible meaning of the word) that, since the beginning of his career, has always shown through his records that he would never, at any cost, betray his musical heritage and trade it with something else that doesn't belong strictly to his personal taste and appreciation.
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- Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There is no such thing as a relatively easy record to make, when it comes to Blues, neither for a pure Blues artist nor for a Blues/Rock one. The presence of Blues songs in an artist's album always requires a certain amount of passion, dedication and soul to be applied to them, some inner pathos that encompasses the tunes both musically and lyrically, elements that are all needed to make those Blues tunes to sound true and credible enough to every music lover.
After the great success of 2016's album Dust And Bones, highly praised worldwide by the Music Press and his many fans, American Guitar Maestro and singer/songwriter Gary Hoey wanted desperately to incorporate some solid Blues vibes in his next career move. The extraordinarily talented guitarist has always been a notoriously hard working musician for all his life, therefore he used wisely every moment of the last 18 months following the release of the Dust And Bones album, while on tour, not just promoting the record but also writing new material and cementing friendships with fellow, highly talented musicians like Eric Gales, Lance Lopez and Josh Smith, for example, in order to enable Hoey to build the right platform that would help him building the aforementioned Blues vibes he was searching for.
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- Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Some of the most common definitions found next to the word Artist in few of the most renowned dictionaries worldwide are related to an Artist being either "someone who practices or is skilled in an art", or "someone who displays in his or her own work qualities required in an art form, such as sensibility and imagination" or, most simply "an artisan".
Right now, in the whole of the Blues and Rock music business, there is a very restricted circle of musicians able to incorporate all of the aforementioned definitions on being an Artist and most certainly, the legendary 67-years-old American guitarist and singer/songwriter Walter Trout belongs to that circle.
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- Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
It's a great sign for the music business to have young artists challenging themselves to find their own music formula, by creating fascinating cut-and-paste montages of different genres like Ambient, Acid Jazz, Electronica and Funk, with highly interesting results.
One of the most interesting projects recently released by producer and musician Ricky Simmonds, a.k.a. Twig Pigeon and involving the aforementioned genres is called Beyonds, a sort of autobiographical EP where the New Zealand-based artist translates, through his songs, the life's learning curve he has been into in recent years.
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- Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There has always been, in the music business, an old saying about the fact that great albums are made through difficult circumstances and the past decades of music have amply proved this old saying.
A music genre that has often been associated with personal losses, hard times and difficult circumstances is the Blues. The very same genre that formed and shaped the solid roots of Rock And Roll, a genre that has allowed (and still does) many artists, through the years, to give voice to the pains of their heart and souls, either through their lyrics or through an instrument that, since the dawn of Blues, has symbolized the whole concept of being a Blues musician, the guitar.
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- Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Elegance is a word that doesn't necessarily belong to an age range or to a merely aesthetically pleasing display of clothes or behavior but, to Bluebird Reviews, is more related to an artistic expression of the finest quality.
In that respect, the third album of the London-based singer/songwriter Tristan Mackay, called Invisible Light and released on 14th February, frames perfectly the amount of talent of a still very young artist that, through his new release, has certainly penned his finest body of work to date.
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- Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There are records able to put yourself in peace with the whole world out there, maybe due to their purity, the optimism that transpire from their lyrics or maybe, just maybe, because there is true artistry behind such records.
American Troubadour Danny Lynn Wilson, after many years spent On The Road trying to reach that fine but decisive balance between clever songwriting, exceptional vocal delivery and inspired musical arrangements, through his brand new record called Peace Of Mind, he has certainly achieved that artistic goal, thanks to a series of life daily vignettes translated into songs of fabulous intensity and depth.