I always found Country music as something deeply related to USA rural
areas and I gotta admit that I never gave this music style a chance. I
don't know, it was folk music, it was out of my musical universe, but
this fact was turned upside down because of internet.
I started dropping by English speaking forums in 2002. In one of them I found out back in 2009/2010, we were just 15 registered members, so it was more quiet, more friendly than those absolutely crowded boards you can easily find in the net, I mean, we shared a closer relationship. I was the only non USA forumite. The other members came from different USA States. Some of them began to recomend me Country style bands and singers. I love country music since and even when I’m not an expert, I already know what I do like and what I do not.
However, having in mind that Country music is not very popular by this side of the Atlantic Ocean and that I live in an island, I soon realized that it was gonna be way complicate to have a chance to see a Country band live. No promoter would be interested. Costs were too high. Profit was more than uncertain.
Last week, in a local newspaper, I saw a picture that showed a red bearded guy with a hat on, next to three guys and one girl. In the headline I read: “Red Beard to perform their country/blues debut album “Nobody’s Gonna Bring Me Down” at the Guiniguada Theater on Thursday”
I swear that when I saw the red bearded guy with the hat on, I said to myself “for sure this guy comes from the USA” and regarding the other four,…...I assumed they were from the USA too, so I dropped by Youtube to look for some of their material. At that point, I still thought that this band came from abroad, maybe from the US, -lead vocal’s English pronuntiation was almost perfect- but then, I noticed that a Youtube video showed a local TV interview with the guy with the beard. I clicked on the fly and when I listened to him, he’s not from abroad, and not only he's Spanish but the guy also talks like me, with my regional accent! ... .¡¡¡Red Beard is a country band from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria !!! I was astonished and all excuses, difficulties and drawbacks that I usually find out to justify not breaking my daily routine and not leaving home during the week, suddenly disappeared. I could not miss "Red Beard".
I parked the bike near the theater and while I was walking towards it, Jaime Jiménez, red beard’s owner, was heading to the venue too.
Concert was to start off at 20:30. Just five minutes delay.
Red Beard stepped on the stage under dim lights. Alba Cabero on cello , Alvaro Betancor violin, Juanma Barroso on bass guitar, Marco Valero banjo and electric guitar and Jaime Jimenez, acoustic guitar and vocals.
I loved the concert. It kept my attention from the very beggining exceeding my best expectations. For the first time in my life, I had to buy the CD at the end of a show.
"Red Beard " offers a powerful, direct, convincing live show, filled up with tons of energy that overflowed the Guiniguada theatre with a fresh, personal and elegantly delicious country, conquering the not very large audience from the very first song they performed.
Jaime Jimenez’s voice, warm and deep on some occasions, mighty and feeling loaded in others, the lack of Spanish accent of his English pronuntiation and a nasal tone that sounded to me typically North American, made me wonder if I was sat in the theatre watching a USA country group perfoming live or I was sat in a bar in Nashville, Tennesse watching a local band live instead. The way he used the slide and played acoustic guitar, fitted perfectly with Valero’s electric guitar and banjo playing, giving the band sound tonal strength and a presence reinforced by Juanma Barroso’s mighty bass guitar playing plus the country atmosphere coming out from Alba Cabero’s cello and Alvaro Betancor’s violin.
I really liked Valero’s guitar performance. With a sober phrasing, a well balanced fretwork spiced up with clean, bright harmonics and delicious riffs, all wrapped up in that pure Fender twang coming out of his two Telecaster, -I think both semi hollow-, he kept tracks tension-release perfectly, allowing me no distraction whatsoever. Great job with the slide and banjo too.
" Red Beard " is a drumless country band, so bass player Juanma Barroso had to cover the whole rhythm section, usually shared between bass guitar and drums. I also liked his playing, setting cadence, dealing nicely with silences and not letting escape a single drop of the compact and solid tone the band delivers in their live shows.
Finally, Alba Cabero’s rhythmic cello and riffs coming out of Alvaro Betancor’s violin, completed the band identity with that typical and characteristic Country tone.
Anyway, I left the theater greatly pleased with the concert, I had the chance to see live a true and a real Country band and I was confidence that the tons of endorphins my brain generated after that magnificent spectacle came from a very well job carried out by neighbours of my hometown.
"Red Beard" CD, randomly played on my computer along with the music of Shooter Jennings and his father's Wylon, with the Williams' saga, Hank, the father, Hank Junior, the son and Hank Williams III, the grandson, with David Allan Coe's, with Dave Alvin's, with Big Bill Broonzy's ........, is simply one more among them. I do not notice the slightest difference between the sound, the style, the feeling , the rhythm, the punch of Red Beard and groups and soloists mentioned above. They sound just as well and create the same atmosphere as the rest of my favorite country groups.
Music business is not easy and it is much more complicated when sea water surround you. Costs for bands are usually very high, so many of them are torced to give up, but the quality of this first album makes me strongly encourage them to keep on that path. I am already waiting for their next album, "Volume II"
I started dropping by English speaking forums in 2002. In one of them I found out back in 2009/2010, we were just 15 registered members, so it was more quiet, more friendly than those absolutely crowded boards you can easily find in the net, I mean, we shared a closer relationship. I was the only non USA forumite. The other members came from different USA States. Some of them began to recomend me Country style bands and singers. I love country music since and even when I’m not an expert, I already know what I do like and what I do not.
However, having in mind that Country music is not very popular by this side of the Atlantic Ocean and that I live in an island, I soon realized that it was gonna be way complicate to have a chance to see a Country band live. No promoter would be interested. Costs were too high. Profit was more than uncertain.
Last week, in a local newspaper, I saw a picture that showed a red bearded guy with a hat on, next to three guys and one girl. In the headline I read: “Red Beard to perform their country/blues debut album “Nobody’s Gonna Bring Me Down” at the Guiniguada Theater on Thursday”
I swear that when I saw the red bearded guy with the hat on, I said to myself “for sure this guy comes from the USA” and regarding the other four,…...I assumed they were from the USA too, so I dropped by Youtube to look for some of their material. At that point, I still thought that this band came from abroad, maybe from the US, -lead vocal’s English pronuntiation was almost perfect- but then, I noticed that a Youtube video showed a local TV interview with the guy with the beard. I clicked on the fly and when I listened to him, he’s not from abroad, and not only he's Spanish but the guy also talks like me, with my regional accent! ... .¡¡¡Red Beard is a country band from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria !!! I was astonished and all excuses, difficulties and drawbacks that I usually find out to justify not breaking my daily routine and not leaving home during the week, suddenly disappeared. I could not miss "Red Beard".
I parked the bike near the theater and while I was walking towards it, Jaime Jiménez, red beard’s owner, was heading to the venue too.
Concert was to start off at 20:30. Just five minutes delay.
Red Beard stepped on the stage under dim lights. Alba Cabero on cello , Alvaro Betancor violin, Juanma Barroso on bass guitar, Marco Valero banjo and electric guitar and Jaime Jimenez, acoustic guitar and vocals.
I loved the concert. It kept my attention from the very beggining exceeding my best expectations. For the first time in my life, I had to buy the CD at the end of a show.
"Red Beard " offers a powerful, direct, convincing live show, filled up with tons of energy that overflowed the Guiniguada theatre with a fresh, personal and elegantly delicious country, conquering the not very large audience from the very first song they performed.
Jaime Jimenez’s voice, warm and deep on some occasions, mighty and feeling loaded in others, the lack of Spanish accent of his English pronuntiation and a nasal tone that sounded to me typically North American, made me wonder if I was sat in the theatre watching a USA country group perfoming live or I was sat in a bar in Nashville, Tennesse watching a local band live instead. The way he used the slide and played acoustic guitar, fitted perfectly with Valero’s electric guitar and banjo playing, giving the band sound tonal strength and a presence reinforced by Juanma Barroso’s mighty bass guitar playing plus the country atmosphere coming out from Alba Cabero’s cello and Alvaro Betancor’s violin.
I really liked Valero’s guitar performance. With a sober phrasing, a well balanced fretwork spiced up with clean, bright harmonics and delicious riffs, all wrapped up in that pure Fender twang coming out of his two Telecaster, -I think both semi hollow-, he kept tracks tension-release perfectly, allowing me no distraction whatsoever. Great job with the slide and banjo too.
" Red Beard " is a drumless country band, so bass player Juanma Barroso had to cover the whole rhythm section, usually shared between bass guitar and drums. I also liked his playing, setting cadence, dealing nicely with silences and not letting escape a single drop of the compact and solid tone the band delivers in their live shows.
Finally, Alba Cabero’s rhythmic cello and riffs coming out of Alvaro Betancor’s violin, completed the band identity with that typical and characteristic Country tone.
Anyway, I left the theater greatly pleased with the concert, I had the chance to see live a true and a real Country band and I was confidence that the tons of endorphins my brain generated after that magnificent spectacle came from a very well job carried out by neighbours of my hometown.
"Red Beard" CD, randomly played on my computer along with the music of Shooter Jennings and his father's Wylon, with the Williams' saga, Hank, the father, Hank Junior, the son and Hank Williams III, the grandson, with David Allan Coe's, with Dave Alvin's, with Big Bill Broonzy's ........, is simply one more among them. I do not notice the slightest difference between the sound, the style, the feeling , the rhythm, the punch of Red Beard and groups and soloists mentioned above. They sound just as well and create the same atmosphere as the rest of my favorite country groups.
Music business is not easy and it is much more complicated when sea water surround you. Costs for bands are usually very high, so many of them are torced to give up, but the quality of this first album makes me strongly encourage them to keep on that path. I am already waiting for their next album, "Volume II"
One of their tracks: "Here comes the storm"
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