Spanish Music, Spanish Guitar, Music in Spanish etc!
It’s no secret that I am a big music lover. Music is my passion on so many levels and good music can make a huge difference in any day, and especially a blue one. I still remember clear as a day how my favourite street-musician-moments in my time in Spain made me feel while I was listening to them. My very first meeting with the Spanish guitar, in Málaga, was magical, and I think I will never forget it.
These guys even made it to my blog header, and every time I see the picture I remember that wonderful warm afternoon in that narrow street in Málaga, sitting at a small table at a tetería only a few meters from these talented musicians.
Another great moment, was when I came across another super talented guitarist in Barri Gotic in Barcelona.
I was so lucky to come across this same person 4 times, and I enjoyed all of them immensely. I wrote about it here and here.
People some times ask me if I can recommend some Spanish music and one thing that makes me very happy is when I help people discover and love new music. When I talk (apparently passionately) about music that I love, and people get so curious about it that they listen to it and in one case, go ahead to buy all the albums they can find of that artist. I love spreading the word about good music, so I thought why not do that on here too?
By the way, the friend who bought all the albums of a group I talked about, bought the albums of Chambao, one of my favourite Spanish groups. The concert back in Decemberfilled my soul with happy-music-energy that lasted for weeks. Beautiful flamenco-fusion-chill music. (In the post about the concert I posted lots of links to good songs) Chambao is from Málaga.
Obviously there are loads and loads of bands, and I am just going to pick out some of them. Can I please start with Maná, although they are not even from Spain? This Mexican band was the first band I heard about when I moved to Spain. It was my Spanish teacher in the beginners class who recommended it when one of the students asked for good Spanish music. (That’s why it took me some time to even know they weren’t Spanish. I guess the teacher thought the student wanted to listen to music in Spanish and this was her favourite group in Spanish, while I thought she was recommending a Spanish group.) That same month, short after I heard about them for the first time I was lucky to catch them on their tour around Spain. I guess Maná would be characterized as latin rock. This band is still going strong since their start in 1986, and they have won 4 Grammy awards, and 7 Latin Grammy awards, and more, just on a side note.
A "younger" band is Macaco from Barcelona (with members from all over the world). I have been lucky to see these live as well, and they didn't disappoint. They play reggae/latin/rumba.
An old classic is Antonio Flores (1961-1995). Sadly, after his mother died, he went into a deep depression and took his own life, and he actually became more famous after his death than before. One of his biggest hits is "Alba" a song written to/about his daughter, Alba. His music is pop/rock with a touch of flamenco. Antonio Flores was from Madrid.
We also have of Celtic music, Celtas Cortos, from Valladolid. They play Celtic rock! I love Celtic music and it was a nice surprise to find Spanish Celtic music. They have made a whole bunch of albums, and over the years, their style has been influenced by Caribbean music, flamenco, electronic music and reggae.
And now that we're at it, can I please include Hevia as well? This gaitero from Asturias really knows his stuff. (His stuff in this context would be the bag pipe.) Who knew I liked these pipes so much? I didn't until I heard them live in Oviedo.
I would like to add a pop group from Las Palmas as well, Efecto Pasillo. Their song "Pan y Mantequilla" was 'nominated' as the 2012 summer-song by Antena 3. The video was shot in Las Palmas in the area I live!
I LOVE finding new music. I don't really ever listen to the radio so I don't know all that much about what's out there and what's new. If you have any tips for me on Spanish music I would be very happy to hear them!
Happy weekend!
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