Tag: music

Sunday’s Here – Hallelujah

Walk and play

After a week of fighting some kind of virus that has been giving me a combination of cold and flu symptoms, I’m hoping to shake it on this Sunday.  The plan is to get a bit of work done around the house and go for a short hike to get enough fresh air.

Of course, there are lots of great spots to go for a hike around here and I do have a location in mind, such as in this image (it won’t look like this anymore, as this is from earlier in the Autumn season).

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Autumn Serenity

It should be restorative to walk through the landscape, as it is a beautiful day.  I might even capture an image or two!

Then there will be time for guitar practice, for which I have a specific goal: with this week’s passing of the great Leonard Cohen, I want to spend time on improving my playing of his magnificent song, Hallelujah.  There are many great covers of this song by artist ranging from Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright to Jon Bon Jovi, but for my ears, I always like going back to the master…

 

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Relaxed Sunday – Vacation and R.E.M.

A nice day coming up!

As we’re still waiting for all the leaves that have dropped in the yard to dry out a bit from the soaking that they received over the past week, I’ll spend a bit of time shopping on this lovely Sunday.  My wife’s birthday is coming up, so I will find something of interest!

Additionally, I’ll spend a bit more time planning our vacation in Italy next year, with a bit of additional research about the lovely Chianti region.  As we’re going in mid-May, there’s plenty of time, particularly since I already have our lodging booked.

This will be our first sizeable vacation trip since our visit to Scotland in 2013; we spent some time in Maine last year that was very enjoyable, but not as long a vacation.  We’ll spend a couple of days in Rome after arriving, before going up the country, where we’ll be staying in Colordesoli for just over a week.

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Eilean Donan castle

This image is from our trip to Scotland, where Eilean Donan castle was on our list of locations that we wanted to visit.  Our trip to Italy will require a bit less driving around, as we covered over a thousand miles in Scotland 🙂

Guitar practice

There will be time for guitar practice, which has been focused on a bunch of fundamental skills over the past number of weeks, as I’m trying to create more independence in each of my fingers; it’s amazing how much our fingers are used to working together most of the time!

As I have been working on improving my fingerstyle skills, I’ll be spending some time today re-learning ‘Everybody Hurts‘ by R.E.M., which I have thus far only played using a strumming pattern.

A great song, and thanks to Justin Sandercoe of JustinGuitar, whose lessons are available on YouTube for free (it’s a good thing to support him, though, as I have done, by picking up some of his books and courses), I will have a solid starting point:

Enjoy your day!!

Sunday Morning – Gov’t Mule

The mule kicked!

This Sunday morning, we atually slept in (that’s 7 a.m. before the dogs woke us up 🙂 ), as we came home late from the concert we attended in Boston last night.  The concert was by Government Mule and featured Blackberry Smoke as the opening act.

I had not heard anything by Blackberry Smoke prior to hearing them last night and I was truly impressed with them, as their blend of Southern Rock  was executed with zeal, passion and skill!

Gov’t Mule sounded fantastic, as they put on a 2+ hour show filled with a blend of orginal material and covers that just blow one’s mind.  Warren Haynes played like only he can, effortlessly switching from blues to rock and even some jazz.  His guitar choices, all Gibson on this night, were rather modest with a significant part of the show played on this vintage Gibson Firebird.

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Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes

Toward the end of the show, winds started picking up and blowing through the Blue Hills Pavillion, which is right on Boston Harbor; no matter, Warren and the band were not slowed even though their hair was blowing all over the place.

With Gov’t Mule, one can always expect some amazing covers in a show, and I was not disappointed, when Warren played the opening notes of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’.  Their rendition was truly stunning, putting both Warren’s guitar and vocal skills on display.  Here’s and older video to get a sense of it…

Saturday’s Sunrise – pt 5

Tiny Light

This Saturday is starting with great weather to kick off what is going to be a fantastic day!  It’s always good to have some plans for the weekend, which is the case today!  First, let’s take a look at a morning image from a couple of years ago…

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Hydrant Morning

This image comes from one of my commute photos acouple of years back.  Clearly, the hydrant is getting good reception with its antenna attached!

Tonight, my wife and I are going to a show at Blue Hills Bank Pavillion in Boston: we’re going to see Grace Potter, which is a show that I am very much looking forward to seeing!  It should be a perfect evening after a rather hot day!

Hope you have great plans for your weekend too!

Sunday Morning – Forever Young

May your heart always be joyful

Starting off this Sunday morning with a bit of music and photography, as I’m surrounded by sleeping Corgis and the sunshine comes in through the windows.  A bit of relaxed Sunday morning time both looking back and forward while practicing a bit of guitar!

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Bottle Baby

This first image is from Spring 6 years ago, and it still makes me smile to see the eagerness of the little lamb, as it’s being fed.  Lambs are a sure sign of Spring!

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Summer Beauty

This second image is more looking forward toward Summer, as it is from last year during one of my visits to Tower Hill Botanic Garden.  A beautiful day filled with sunshine, flowers and the great outdoors!

Here’s Bob Dylan with the Band playing Forever Young, as it’s one of the songs in my playlist:

Have a wonderful day!