Some English Fingerpicking Guitar for you

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Lustick on March 8, 2012 at 3:05pm

Tried but the link does not get me to YouTube. Anyone else have this happen??

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sanderson on March 9, 2012 at 12:28am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zj0yD_v-o0

Hi Jeff,

Can't seem to get it to work. Maybe it's because i'm from the uk?

If you go to youtube and type in tom sanderson Asranda, that should do it.Or you can view it through my website  's www.bombusmusic.co.uk     it's linked from the listen section.

regards  Tom

I've just tried it and it seems to work now.

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Permalink Reply by Luis Motta da Silva on April 18, 2012 at 4:36pm

I had the same problem. So, I went to google, and wrote:    asranda

That led me straight to the video...

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sanderson on March 9, 2012 at 12:24am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zj0yD_v-o0

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Ellen Cooper on March 12, 2012 at 11:26pm

Nice video, thanks.  Personally I usually prefer British music, but I think everyone would agree your playing is beautiful.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sanderson on March 13, 2012 at 2:53am

Hi Ruth,

Thanks for your comment. It's quite interesting as a lot of people who have listened to my album have said it is distinctly British sounding.No matter how hard I try to play like Big Bill Broonzy, I always end up sounding like i'm sitting by a stream in some meadow nestled in the English countryside .I hope one day to visit your country, where the guitar is buried deep in it's sole.

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Ellen Cooper on March 18, 2012 at 3:05pm

Yeah, I guess the guitar is an American thing, but the British still do it better.  There are no Americans who can compare to Julian Bream or Steve Howe.  And in America there are so many different styles because the country is so big; there really is no "American" mindset or style or whatever.  

We all think of America as the way we are personally, but it just isn't like that; there are many subcultures.  When I was an exchange student at the University of Hull people would assume I played jazz and it always made me mad!  To me jazz is black music and it has nothing to do with me.  I was born in Virginia and grew up in Kentucky, and I have lived very near to Nashville.  To me American music is Appalachian folk music or country and western, stuff like the Carter Family or Flatt and Scruggs.  19 years ago I moved to Arizona and it is a totally different world!  The climate of England was more like Kentucky than Arizona is.  And here there is so much influence here from Mexico.  A guy at work who is of Mexican anchestry wanted to know what grits are and then some people say they have never had cornbread, to me that's just everyday stuff.  On the other hand though I never saw a tortilla before I came to Arizona.  

 

Music just reflects those things too.  I never heard the Carter Family until about a year ago, but when I did I thought,"That sounds like the way I play guitar!"  I have a degree in classical guitar but I doubt Mabelle Carter had a degree in anything.  So I looked up where they came from and turns out it's not too far from where I was born.  It's like no matter what you listen to or what you study you will still be influenced by where you grew up; it's like it's in the air and the water or something!  Ha! Ha!  Now that I've been away from dixie for nearly 20 years I've come to appreciate it and be glad I am southern.  So be glad you are English.  Englishmen are the most graceful and have the best manners and it shows even in their music.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sanderson on March 20, 2012 at 3:16am

Hi Ruth,
What a fascinating email to receive from you.
I love the way that music effects people so differently from person to person.
I am from the group of musicians whom has spent a lifetime searching through record shops to find new sounds. This I think is true of a lot of us Brits, and it is why the music we play ultimately sounds so distinctive as it is the mass of all our global influences coming together to form a familiar yet definitely British sound.
Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to play the way that I do and I wouldn't want to play any other way. You are absolutely right that we are a product of our surroundings and that has a profound effect on who we become.
I also enjoy the music of the Carter family as I am a big fan of johnny Cash and so I was introduced to them through him.
Lovely to converse with you.
Kind regards Tom

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Permalink Reply by Dan G. on March 19, 2012 at 3:23pm

Great stuff. Reminds me a lot of Jimmy Page, which is very high praise! I think it's great that one of your inspirations is Big Bill Broonzy, a "Chicago Blues" icon.

I think that if you love American music, you simply love music. American acoustic music comes in many flavours and has many influences (including influences from across the pond over there) which is all good.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sanderson on March 20, 2012 at 4:08am

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the message.I am deeply flattered by your saying that the track reminds you of Jimmy Page.

Funnily enough, when I was about 18, at the height of my Led Zeppelin obsession (all guitar players should have one), ever day I used to watch the film they made called 'The song Remains The Same' while I was having my breakfast.

There is a scene in the movie of the band in the back of a limousine driving through New York, at this point a Jimmy Page instrumental, Bron Yr Aur,  is played over the visuals and it takes on a wonderfully dream like evocative  quality.That really blew me away. I discovered that there aren't that many albums out there of English sounding guitar instrumentals, so I thought to myself, I'm going to stop working out jimi Hendrix,Van Halen,Led Zeppelin etc guitar solo's and get into the acoustic guitar and record an album of instrumental guitar tracks.

I took a vow never to learn another chord or strum a song again , to  allow the the guitar guide me in the direction of the sound that I wanted to create.

Anyway,a decade and  a few children later I wrote and recorded an Album of guitar instrumentals.My website is www.bombusmusic.co.uk   if you're interested, and the album's called 'Bombus'.

I first saw that footage of Big Bill Broonzy playing Hay Hay along with sister Rosetta Tharpe on a brilliant series of films produced by martin Scorsese called The Blues. If you haven't seen them, I can't recommend it enough to any one who loves music.

There is a wonderful musical exchange between us Brits and you guys. America is the pumping heart and sole,the never ending source of so much music.Then we take it away,digest it, analyse it and return it with a British twist added to it.What a wonderful thing that it is.

You're absolutely right it's all good.

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Permalink Reply by eric congdon on March 25, 2012 at 6:32am

Hi Tom

Funny meeting you here!  Great stuff, highly recommended.  Cheers!

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Permalink Reply by Luis Motta da Silva on April 18, 2012 at 4:34pm

Hi!

I have just watched the video. I liked the guitar sound, the almost uniform strokes (a very consistent playing!). Besides that, the playing technique seems to suit perfectly the kind of music you've chosen to play.

The song itself seems aligned to a trend of musical pieces that dont' have a "melody" in the usual sense of the word. It's chord progresions, punctuated by bass phrases, fingerpicking patterns in a singular cadence, much in the style of late 19th century "impressionist" composers. They didn't aim to tell a "story", but rather to create a musical environment.

It surely is not my kind of music, but it's beautiful. Congratulations!

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