Paula Maya CD Release Scheduled May 7

I'm excited to annouce that Paula Maya's new CD, Iluminar, is being released to the world May 7! It's an awesome collection of Brazilian and world-pop songs, and I'm delighted to be featured on guitar. We'll be playing tunes from the album, as well as a few other crowd favorites, at One-2-One in Austin on May 7, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., and we hope you'll join us!

If you haven't already, I recommend you check out Paula's work on YouTube!

A Quick Look: Gabriel Santiago

It's been another busy week, but I'd like to get a start on a new string of posts. I've recently had the opportunity to take lessons from several Austin musicians, and I'd like to share a bit about them and our meetings over the next few posts. Until I have a chance to flesh out the whole series of posts, I'll just put up a few videos.

First on the list: Gabriel Santiago. A Brazilian-born guitarist, Gabriel is phenomenal on both electric and acoustic, but his nylon guitar stylings and compositions have really been on my mind lately. He cites many composers and guitarists as influences, among them Pat Metheny, Milton Nascimento, and Toninho Horta (Toninho's 1988 Polygram/Verve recording Diamond Land has been in my car the last couple of weeks--it's well worth a listen!), and his small-group arrangements and compositions are sort of goals for me. This is just a couple of posts from his substantial body of work: more videos can be found at his YouTube channel, and at his website, www.gabrielsantiagoproject.com. Enjoy!