Thursday, December 13, 2012

“Carmine Street”


Happy Thursday! Sorry to have missed Photo of the Week yesterday, but I’ve been going through a busy patch of late—all good things though.

A short post today with some fantastic guitar music by a contemporary player whose compositions & playing are both fascinating—Kaki King. You can learn more about Kaki King on her website or from the ever-present Wikipedia, & if you're not already familiar with her, I certainly hope this sparks your interest in her music.

“Carmine Street,” which makes extensive use of the “tapping” technique (as do a number of other King compositions), comes from her 2003 debut album on the Velour label, Everybody Loves You. In a review of the album on Allmusic, Thom Jurek writes:

Simply put, Kaki King possesses the most original voice on the acoustic guitar in a generation….Everybody Loves You is the most auspicious, tender, and tough instrumental debut by any guitarist in a decade at least. It is singular in approach and peerless in execution; and in its poetic, raggedly graceful manner, it is simply a treasure of individuality and idiosyncratic virtuosity, visceral truth, and verve.

Since this debut, King has released eight more acclaimed albums, including the 2012 Glow, also on Velour. She just completed a tour (& I missed her Portland show, for which I feel endless chagrin), but if she comes by your town, don’t make the same mistake as me—do go hear her show! I won’t make the same mistake twice.

In the meantime, enjoy this lovely recording.




Image links to its source on Wiki Commons:
Kaki King at the Knitting factory, 2004: by Empress Ericka. 


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2 comments:

  1. Cool! I've always loved tapping; the late Michael Hedges was another who made extensive use of the technique. And of course I've been lusting after a Chapman Stick for decades now.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Roy: Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, Kaki King covers a couple of Hedges tunes--she played on of his harp guitar numbers, & I posted that video a while back. The Chapman Stick is a pretty cool thing indeed.

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