YouTube – Antoine Dufour & Tommy Gauthier – Catherine.

Hello Guys! Check out my new YouTube video =D

I think I’ll have to post videos more regularly. Can’t let the subscribers down, huh. Having that many subscribers (yes, for me 28 subscribers is a whole lot,) is quite a motivation!

It’s a cover from Antoine Dufour’s Song for Stephen. Rate, comment and subscribe if you like it! Thanks in advance ^-^

10th Annual IGN Tour Live Recording in Victoria, BC

Looking back over the past decade of work with International Guitar Night, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic about the different tours and shows, especially with our 10th touring season coming up this fall. IGN players include giants like my friend Pierre Bensusan, the awesome Ralph Towner and Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

What’s cool, and I think exceptional, about the show is that we’ve also included artists who were completely new to the performance scene in North America, such as players like YouTube whizz-kid Antoine DuFour or flamenco player Gerardo Nunez. Players are accorded the same billing regardless of their “headliner” status in IGN shows.

From a promotional point of view, pulling off IGN has not been an easy feat. It’s been a process of slow, steady, at times anguishing, growth. And I am thankful for loyal friends like Herschel Freeman, our North American agent, Dr. John Barrow of Stoneyport Associates in the UK, Pacific Music’s Mike Peters, and Jane and April at Harbury Publicity for their loyalty and devotion to the cause.

SHOWTIME

The 2009-2010 season includes, Lulo Reinhardt, Harp Guitarist Stephen Bennett and Israel’s Itamar Erez. Stylistically, this is a classic IGN line up– a couple of outstanding fingerstyle players and two awesome, eclectic nylon stringers. And, as usual there are a couple of interesting “never before in IGN” twists:

Harp Guitarist Stephen Bennet

Until now, we’ve never had a harp guitarist; there’s certainly none finer than the pre-eminent Stephen Bennett, who’s as respected by his contemporaries like Tommy Emmanuel as he is with younger players like Andy Mckee.

The Amazing Lulo Reinhardt

We’ve never had a gypsy-jazz player in the show before, and this time we’ve got a great one; Django’s great grand nephew, Lulo Reinhardt, who, to the great benefit of IGN has a penchant for rumba and flamenco as well.

Itamar Erez

Fans of the band Oregon and Vicente Amigo will welcome the composer and guitarist Itamar Erez, who is our first ever Israeli player. This guy is an uncompromisingly meticulous player with a sophisticated sense of harmony and an absolutely awesome tone and stage sound.

Oh Yeah, and, YOURS TRULY!

Anatomy of a Live Recording

Ater the IGN 2009 US tour was completed in Mid-February, I headed to Victoria BC to meet this new line up of players. Here’s a video diary of the first day, meeting Mike Peters and the other guys, then getting right to rehearsing…..

Milke Peters, the dude who makes it possible to record live albums in Victoria!

THANKS BRUHTUH F.O.A.M.

It’s a pretty intense thing, throwing together four people who don’t know each other, with distinct cultures and styles, then asking them to record a live album with a full program of all original collaborative material in 4 days! As you can see, things came together pretty quickly with the program; quite a risk, actually.

Thankfully, we all *really* enjoyed each other’s company. For me, it’s a bit easier than with the other guys. Mike Peters, the producer, and I are old friends. I’ve been working with the Cowichan Theatre, where we’ve been recording our live album, since 1999! A very good group of people there, who’ve been very devoted to IGN for many years.  I can’t believe I’ve known the stage crew there so long. It’s like we’re growing old together….

We also have YOWtv star Suzanne Teresa, model/photographer, and her lovely husband Alec, working on photos. This year we have a couple of new players: Warmland Studios, a young group of guys and gals who shot a DVD of the show for us, and Wynn Gogol, the audio producer, who’s worked with BC slide guitar legend Harry Manx. You can see a montage of some of our various friends here….

Here’s a picture of some of the friends backstage:

Brian and Doug Wong, our new friend from CanDisc

Seriously, Doug’s one of the nicest guys on the planet!

A sample of the final product

PERESTROIKA

I’ll be posting some songs from the upcoming CD along with bios, our tour schedule and more info soon….

Last week, my new friend and producer Wynn Gogol sent the next to final rounds of mixes for our “INTERNATIONAL GUITAR NIGHT LIVE” series recording.  I’m going to give a listen to the material this weekend and will probably provide some audio highlights as a preview here at this blog early next week. Stay tuned if you’re interested. This year, we also have a high quality DVD for the tour that’s being produced by Warmland Studios.

It’s a very cool group we have this year; Django Reinhardt’s great grand nephew Lulo Reinhardt, legendary harp guitarist Stephen Bennett, and a very cool pianist/guitarist from Israel, Itamar Erez....

Check it out:

Hard to believe it, but this is our 10th season as a touring act. We started out as a Bay Area thing more than 15 years ago, working in small venues like Strings and the Freight and Salvage, and California World Music Festival. With the help of the Herschel Freeman Agency, Bert Jansch’s booking agent in the UK, John Barrows, and select sponsors like Stonebridge Guitars and Acoustic Guitar Magazine, we’ve grown into a global thing with up 60 shows each season in very classy venues.

After going round and round for years on what kind of releases to produce with IGN, Herschel and I decided that a one of a kind live album series would be best. But, how to do this? We got the live album concept going with the help of Steve Vai and Favored Nations Records. Peppino D’Agostino, whose solo projects are on Steve’s label, put in a good word for IGN with him. Then, friend and Guitar Night alum Pierre Bensusan put together the opportunity for us to record the first album with them. We recorded each show nightly, with the help of our manager Rich Rice, of the California Brazil Camp, We then selected the best pieces for inclusion on the album It featured Pierre and me along with the Brazilian composer-genius Guinga, and three time Grammy winner Andrew York. It was a great album and a dream come true to play with these guys. Check out these cuts from the Favored Nations release, “An Evening with International Guitar Night, Live”:

Pierre Bensusan, Andrew York, Guinga, Brian Gore: “How Should I Know?”

Andrew York: “Moontan”

Pierre Bensusan and Guinga: “Without You”

Andrew York and Brian Gore: “Loom of Desire”

A few years after this album, I called an old friend who worked with Warner, Canada, Mike Peters. Mike and I had known each other for years as friends, but it had never occurred to me to ask him to help with our album series. We had a 25 city tour coming up, and we wanted the album out *before* the tour, so people could buy it at the shows. The line up featured Peppino D’Agostino and Andrew White, and also was the national debut of Antoine DuFour. Antoine was a relatively unknown player at the time who gave me his first CD after a show in Quebec:

We got together in Victoria, rehearsed for two days, and recorded a show which was then released on the second IGN LIVE album. And that process really laid the groundwork for the series. It’s a bit of a trial by fire thing, but never let it be said that solo guitarists aren’t up for a good challenge, right?  So far I’d say we’ve all done a pretty good job with it, too. Since then we’ve released two others. IGN LIVE II with Madagascar guitar legend, D’Gary, Miguel de la Bastide, and Clive Carroll;

And also, IGN LIVE III with Cecilia Zabala, Dale Kavanagh and Andy Sheppard.

Paranoid Android (not on the album!)

I get to accompany on all these albums, which is a pretty good gig indeed. Stage right has been my front row seat to some of the best guitar music on the planet, which is a consistently humbling and inspiring thing!

I mentioned yesterday that my birthday was this past Sunday. One of the gifts I was lucky enough to get was Antoine Dufour’s Existince album.  I’m sure at some point during the life of this blog I’ll talk about my love of Andy McKee, another great acoustic guitar player, but that’s how I came across Antoine.

The first few times I listend to Antoine’s stuff, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. It felt “choppy” to me, but I kept listening and listening and I’ve come to find that I really love this guy’s music. He blends that peaceful acoustic feel with what I’d call hints of jazz and that makes him stand out in the world acoustic guitar playing.

What do you guys think? Quick fingers, huh?

-DS82

photo courtesy of: www.weheartit.com

Sometimes it’s the perfect time to fall in love.

With music, that is.

I have an iPod shuffle, and sometimes it’s really annoying when you’re in the mood for a certain song or a certain kind of music, and the songs that are automatically selected are anything but satisfactory.  When I’m in the mood for something peppy and I feel like turning cartwheels in my head, the songs that come up are slow and atmospheric.  When I’m in the mood for something slow and atmospheric, the songs that come up are peppy and cartwheel-in-your-head-turning kinds. 

Sometimes I go through huge downloading binges and at the end of the day, I have no idea what I downloaded.  The beauty of the iPod shuffle is the element of surprise it brings.  Sometimes I’ll be going for a stroll, and the songs that are chosen magically correspond with my mood and fill me with inspiration.  I wish I could explain to you the emotional response I get from music, but I’m sure many other people have the same thing.  Sometimes an entire album, an artist’s repertoire, will mesh with my mood and my current inner state.  I thank Bon Iver for making a long winter a good winter.  A bon hiver, if you will.

So these are the songs that are currently getting played on my iTunes, the songs that I always hope I get to hear when I’m rockin the shuffle.  I highly recommend you give them a listen:

• “Lover’s Waltz” by AA Bondy

I have to admit that I first heard this song at my cousin’s wedding last weekend.  This was the song they played during her first dance with her husband.  It’s kind of reminiscent of a young Van Morrison, and the lyrics are drop-dead gorgeous:

And your shipwreck eyes,
They sing to me
As we ride a killer whale
Across a diamond sea
Over our heads, over our heads

And a lovers’ waltz will turn until the end

Now that’s romance.  Like, eye-tearing, chin-quivering romance.  Only the best kind.

• “Heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez (The Knife cover)

I have this little game I play sometimes, where I listen to a song and imagine having stellar guitar-playing skills and a really wicked, raw voice and awing an appreciative, slightly intoxicated crowd with my musical abilities.  I know it’s totally lame, but whatever.  That’s what I do.  I think I first heard this song on an episode of Bones (extra lame) and I knew right away it was my main man Gonzalez and I was pretty sure I had downloaded it during one of my downloading binges.  I was taking a walk and this song came on and I played it over and over and over and imagined me singing it awesomely.  I also had no idea it was an acoustic cover, and I have no idea who The Knife is.  After this version, though, nothing else could compare.

• “Paper Aeroplane” by Angus & Julia Stone

This was a classic case of the right song and the right time.  I really like this brother-sister duo from Australia, but this is the only song by them that isn’t too . . . happy.  Like potato chip commercial happy.  You know those songs that are so indie/kitschy/cute that they can only accompany images of children eating nutritious yogurt or a close-up of coffee creamer being swirled into a mug?  I really dig Angus’ voice, but Julia’s rubs me the wrong way.  I feel like she’s trying too hard to be Joanna Newsom, an artist whose voice makes me want to bang my head repeatedly against a wall.  Like, you’re not a children’s entertainer or a cartoon owl.  No one sings like that!  No one!  Except Julia Stone, apparently.   My only other qualm with A & J Stone is that they’re too good-looking.  Indie artist models.  Pffff . . . give me Pomplamoose any day!  I miss those West Coast hippies, but I needed a break.  Again, love the guy, not too crazy about the girl.

• “Oh so Insistent” by Andrew Bird

This song makes me want to learn how to play the violin or become a gypsy.  I don’t know much about Andrew Bird other than he’s an Illionoisemaker and he plays all his own instruments and also sings (although not in this song).  Goddamn those multi-musically talented people! 

• The entire repertoire of Antoine Dufour.  Lovely, rainy day music.  Perfect for today.
• “Between the Bars” by Elliot Smith

Drink up, baby.  Oh man.  I know this song is oldish and everyone and their mother and their mother’s goat has covered it, but it is such a beautiful and heart-wrenching song.  I want to lie on my bed surrounded by candles with a bottle of kosher wine and lie and drink and sleep to this song.  Over and over.  Crimson and clover.

• “Kim and Jessie” by M83

Odd experience with this song.  I thought it was Tears for Fears.  I could have sworn they were an ’80s band.  I was wrong.

• “Kids” by MGMT

Follow this link, or go to Eric’s blog: http://thehek.blogspot.com/ for the story behind the video.  Cool song, even cooler video.  I’m addicted to that guy’s face.  So hypnotic.  The only downside: this song gets stuck in my head like you wouldn’t believe.

Happy listening, my little pilgrims!

As before, this is another vid that I have found starring Antoine. One of my more faved artists. I really enjoy the fluid motion of sound that comes from his style and genre of fingerstyle guitar. Watch and see for yourself.

Forastiere at Echoes 2006

It was an international guitar morning here at Echoes as three virtuoso guitarists played live on the show.  Echoes has always been a home to finger-style guitarists.  Michael Hedges, Will Ackerman, Alex De Grassi, Kaki King and Preston Reed are among those who have graced the Echoes Living Room.  Today we had three players from three points in the world, Pino Forastiere from Italy, Antoine Dufour from Quebec and Craig D’Andrea from Connecticut.  They’re all on  Candy Rat Records, which, though you might not suspect it from the name, is the home to many of the best young finger-style musicians around.  Along with the Tompkins Square label, they’re leading the charge in new music for acoustic guitar.

The musicians are all post-Michael Hedges players, musicians who tap the bang their instruments as often as they pluck them.  But they all integrate this technique into intricate and evocative  music.  Forastiere’s compositions, heard on his new CD, Live, are woven journeys that sound like he’s having a five way conversation with his guitar. We play a lot of musicians who employ digital looping in their performance, often setting up grooves and ostinatos, but Forastiere does it without electronic enhancements, weaving circuitous, contrapuntal melodies simultaneously over ostinato patterns.  You can see how he does it on the accompanying DVD to Live, or in this YouTube video.

Forastiere has grown a Lincolnesque goattee since this was shot.

Antoine Dufour likes to play percussion and melody simultaneously, often rapping rhythms with his finger nails and fist on the guitar’s body while executing finger-ballets on the strings.  You can hear his music on his latest CD, Existence, but he’s another guitarist you have to see to believe.

BTW, the bandana isn’t a fashion statement. He uses it to dampen resonance on the headstock and to wipe his sweaty palms.

Craig D’Andrea is the youngest of the three artists.  A scant 24 years old, technical expertise seems to ratchet up exponentially with each succeeding generation.  I kept trying to hear the Emo influences he mentioned but he seemed to be pure bred Hedges-influenced to me.  His new album, Getting Used to Isolation is a step forward in his development as a composer.

I recently got an email from a listener who, after insulting me, requested “ “less motonotous [sic] guitar show-off finger work.”

This listener wanted more electronic music, but I think they’re not hearing the elements that these players and electronic music share. Finger- style guitar has evolved immensely in the last 30 years.  Leo Kottke was the leading edge of the old school if you will, but players like Michael Hedges and Don Ross (who Dufour and D’Andrea both cite extensively) altered the paradigm with their tapping approach.  They are the second wave of acoustic guitarists who are post-electronic music and you can hear that influence spinning through acoustic guitarists  more and more each year.  No one in this crew cited electronic music, but I think its influence in terms of cycling patterns and interwoven melody lines is there nevertheless.

These three guitarists are currently touring together with gigs in Philadelphia at the Tin Angel, Wednesday March 11 as as well as performances in New York, Cambridge, MA and  Bridgeport, CT.

Forastiere’s Echoes’ concert is already scheduled to air on Echoes March 24.  Antoine Dufour and Craig D’Andrea will soon follow.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Wird mal wieder Zeit für ein bischen Musik. Wer mehr von Antoine Dufour hören will sollte mal auf http://www.candyrat.com gehen und stöbern. Lohnt sich.  Soll keine Werbung sein !!

Habe heute Stahlträger auf meine FenderStrat gezogen. Stahlträger deshalb, weil ich zur Zeit keine Kohle für Saiten habe. Da lagen noch Saiten für mein Jazzgitarre rum. Die alten Saiten auf der Strat waren nur noch Scheppersaiten. Also Geldmangelmut zusammen genommen und draufgezogen. Und? Boahr, sind die dick Mann. Klang, überraschend gut,  mache mir aber Sorgen um den Hals. Die alten Saiten waren mir aber eh zu dünn. Nun muss ich meine Spieltechnik nicht mehr soviel ändern, wenn ich von der Jazzgitarre auf die Strat  wechsel.

I will be working hard on writing some album reviews. I don’t know where to start… except for loading up my bong with these dank ass green sticky buds, and popping in some cd’s. For now, you can check out the following list of some bands I like.

NOTE: If your favorite band is not on there, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like them. It just means that I didn’t think of them.

The List (In No Specific Order):

• 311
• Incubus
• Umphrey’s McGee
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Moe.
• Dispatch
• State Radio
• Bob Marley & The Wailers
• The Police
• The Eagles
• Allman Brothers
• Cream
• Blind Faith
• Eric Clapton’s Other Stuff
• Traffic
• 10 Years After
• Bob Dylan
• Peter Tosh
• Tool
• A Perfect Circle
• Puscifer
• Fishbone
• Reel Big Fish
• Mighty Mighty Bosstones
• UB40
• Bootsy Collins
• George Clinton
• Larry Graham & Graham Central Station
• Andy McKee
• Antoine Dufour
• Don Ross
• Mason Williams
• Edgar Cruz
• Time Lapse Consortium
• Soulive
• Phish
• Grateful Dead
• Janis Joplin
• Jimi Hendrix
• The Beatles
• The Rolling Stones
• The Flaming Lips
• Slightly Stoopid
• Robert Randolph & The Family Band
• Pepper
• Victor Wooten
• Sublime
• Long Beach Dub All Stars
• Pink Floyd
• Led Zeppelin
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Lou Reed

Alright. That’s the short list. That’s all I want to think of right now. Do me a favor and load a fat bowl and chief it up like a mad scientist.

Está simplesmente genial… hehehe…

Jerry’s Breakdown composed by Jerry Reed, played by Antoine Dufour and Tommy Gauthier on a single guitar.
Thanks Lori for finding this fabulous clip!

I love guitar solos. As a child, my father exposed me to various types of music. One genre that I listen to is rock, even though I am eclectic. There was a point in time where I did not really enjoy this music, but I’ve learned to appreciate guitar solos, electric or acoustic.

This appreciation grew as I listened to works from amazing guitarists ranging from the blue-sy type note playing by David Gilmour, to the hard rock of Jimmy Page (and personally, these two are my personal most favorite guitarists of all time).

Trying to experience other types of guitar solos, I ran across this guitarist while searching videos in YouTube – apparently you’re bound to stumble into something interesting when you look around this site.

This particular song is very sweet. He isn’t using standard guitar tuning.

Here is the tuning according to the description on his YT: F#ADGBE with a partial capo at the 2nd fret on string 1,2,3,4.

I probably will try to learn how to play this on my guitar. I love the texture of his music. This one is just the best to me because I like the way his emotion is portrayed in this work. I also like the way that it’s dedicated to his wife.

There’s not too much I can say about this dude other than to check out his work.

Andy McKee swung by Carnegie Mellon with fellow Candyrat artists Craig D’Andrea and Antoine Dufour. Got to listen to youtube hits like Rylynn, Drifting, For My Father, Tight Trite Night, Africa, which were all breathtaking to hear live. An encore and a standing ovation later, I stuck around to get signatures, and waited till the end with Natasha. We actually had a really pleasant conversation with all three of them. Andy is a typical nice guy, humble, helpful, unpretentious, genuine, low-key, nerdy? (likes dungeons and dragons), loyal, down-to-earth. Antoine is a funny (although sometimes unintentionally), who speaks English as a second language, and may come off as clueless and misunderstood. Craig is 23, and a chilled-out recent college-grad, sorta balances the trio by getting them out to bars at night, with Andy being engaged, and Antoine being married with one kid

Anyway, got to talk with them for a while after the show, and when we got to their car, they asked us if we were going out later, and invited us to have a drink with them. Without a doubt, we agreed, picked them up at Hampton Inn half an hour later and went to Doc’s House at shadyside. We got to talk about a wide range of things, influences, inspirations, aspirations, experiences, and it is great to sit down with the three of them and really talk to them in a non-concert dynamic. They are just three normal people road-tripping around the northeast trying to make a buck doing what they love. Got to learn about their mutual respect for Don Ross, the big daddy of fingerstyle picking as they have led me to think, who have influenced and recruited all three of them to the label.

Just another Saturday night with three of the best fingerstyle guitarists in the world road-trippin in a cream-blue minivan.