Youtube Music Videos.

You Tube is great for performance videos. It's pretty much essential to me if only for the Tommy Emmanuel performance videos. A post from A'goner Dracule directed me to TE playing Mason Williams' "Classical Gas". I'd heard TE on recordings, but had never seen him play. Because his usual repertoire doesn't bark up my favored tree, it wasn't until I SAW him playing on You Tube that I gained a full appreciation of his virtuosity.

This is about as good a pop fingerpicking performance as I have ever seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S33tWZqXhnk

Emmanuel plays an acoustic 99% of the time, but You Tube also features this one of Tommy rockin' out on an electric (pardon the bad camera work) which is a great change of pace:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwx0wLGxfgg

For me, You Tube is a great resource.

Marty

Ghost,

Always happy to share my passion for Lindsey's material with anyone who might be interested. Just enjoy and spread the word.

Marty

Ghost,

Lindsey's still my #1 guy.

He doesn't have a great voice, but - as you observed - he sells a song with everything he's got. IMHO, he's that rarest of combinations; a brilliant pop songcrafter (a left brain skill) and a crazy ass rock n roll wildman (100% right brain). His seething anger at the women who've betrayed him (at least in his mind/lyrics) is usually evident, and IMHO this adds intensity, even if the music is frothier pop.

He's also the single quirkiest guitar technician that I've ever seen: he employs everything from banjo rolls to (his variation of) classical resquesado strumming. His repeated bends on electric guitar speak to a certain obsessive nature and his fingerstyle acoustic playing is both fantastic and very personal. At the end of the day, there's just about no one I'd rather listen to work a guitar.

BTW, he's done some heavier stuff with Mac ("I'm So Afraid" and "Come" are extended electric guitar workouts and he also reinvents some of the pure pop into rock when Mac plays live. "Eyes of The World" (a rework of Pachelbel's Canon in D as a single/album track) is a screamer in concert.

His solo stuff is all over the board. "Out of The Cradle" is IMHO a pop masterpiece. The three before that wander all over - '50's retro pop to flat-out prog rock - it's pretty clear to me that he was trying to distance himself from Mac style pop. These three IMHO are more for compleatists, tho "Go Insane" is impressive in it's own right.

The three most recent solo efforts are all fabulous....but, but, but...

While "Gift of Screws" is really reminiscent of Mac (when it's rocking) and pretty easy to like, both "Under The Skin" and "Seeds We Sow" are dense, acoustic, finger picking explorations. Not for every taste, but two of my all-time favorite records. SQ on "Skin" drives some people nuts, VERY heavily processed sound - but it's in service to the songs.

Both of the official live CDs "Small Machine" and "One Man Show" are worthwhile. The latter - just LB, guitar and effects, is a pretty astonishing display of his technical virtuosity (both on guitar and electronic manipulation).

Good luck exploring his catalog, nothing out there quite like it.

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a fan.

Marty

I'm jealous. I've heard it 10,000 times, but this will be your first. As Franki Valli put it "Oh, what a night!".

Happy listening.

Marty

PS The record covers a lot of ground. One example: the last acoustic guitar solo piece is not identified by title on the CD. It's actually a transcription of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific. On Broadway, this was a featured number in a hit play. For me, it was only when I heard Lindsey's take on "Cradle" that I understood why.

Ghost,

That version of "This Is The Time" is available on a bootleg 2 cd set called Live at The Coach House. It's a rip off in that it's sold as a double CD, but the 2 discs are actually the same (ah, bootlegs). The good news is that it's often available cheap and, judging from the recording, it was one absolute monster of a r'n'r show. SQ is better than average for a bootleg. This one has been in heavy rotation in my car for many years.

BTW, the studio version of the song (on Out of The Cradle) features a very different solo. That solo is one of my favorites, too, in that it is somewhat unusually constructed and virtually ignores the vocal melody line. You might want to check it out if you're not familiar.

Marty