Just did some maintenance on the template of this weblog and my other weblog BrownNoisePhotos. I removed some buttons in the right bar that didn't had much use anymore. It seemed that they didn't generate much extra traffic to this weblog. I also brought down the number of posts that is shown on the homepage. This all together makes that the page loads much quicker is my impression.
From next Saturday on I will visit the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. so I'm not sure if I'm able to post some new stuff. If not you have to be patient until the beginning of February.
To all my family, friends and visitors I would like to wish everybody a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful 2009.
Here is the animated version of our new year wishes made by my beloved wife N.
Although you always have to be careful with good intentions, but I will try to post a little more often than I did last year.
It's been quiet over here way too long. It's not that I didn't had things to write or post about, on the contrary I would say, but for many reasons I couldn't find the time and energy to post.
Anyway, let's not whine too much, count my blessings and move on and post.
This reason for this posting is caused by a performance we saw about three months ago at Parkpop 2008 by Monte Montgomery. Before the festival I never heard of this guy, but he was one of the big musical surprises from the past year. Besides the first pic here I also posted about him on my photoweblog BrownNoisePhotos here and here, including some pics that I shot during the festival.
Monte Montgomery is an excellent guitar player, who plays electric acoustic guitar, but in a way and with an technique where a lot of electric guitar players only could dream off. Only accompanied by bass and drums he gets all the space to show his excellent style and technique, but without showing off or musical freaking.
Listening to some of the soundclips on Monte Montgomery's website from some of his (studio)albums made me realize that this is the type of band that comes out best in a live setting. It's not that the studiotracks are bad, but somehow something got lost from the live energy during the studiorecordings.
At his performance at Parkpop 2008 he also did a really great instrumental version of Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing". I don't have have any video from that performance, but I found a video from another perfromance. It's the first embedded video after the picture.
During my search for the "Little Wing"-version of Monte Montgomery I also bumped into some other versions. The second video is also awesome. This one is done by a guitarist called Carlos Vamos. He does an amazing tapping version.
I guess the third YouTube video isn't a big surprise. It's a version done by Stevie Ray Vaughan, who of course was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix.
The fourth video is quite a different cover version done by The Corrs. Some might find this a sappy version or even call it blasphemy, but I can appreciate this Irish folk version. I like the sound of the tin whistle and the Dobro guitar solo a little after 3 minutes.
The last video is not a cover version of "Little Wing", but a video from Monte Montgomery shot at the Parkpop 2008 festival with a compilation of his performance. It gives a good impression about what we saw and experienced.
Enjoy the videos and if you ever have the chance to visit a concert of Monte Montgomery I surely would recommend to go!
click on the pic for a bigger image
Monte Montgomery
Jimi Hendrix
Carlos Vamos
Stevie Ray Vaughan
The Corrs
Little Wing