Music for the soul and inspiration.

[alexandr]

Carlos Santana is my favorite guitarist.  A fan of his work since 1977. And a young talent.  Super!!!

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

One of my all time favorites, his band Santana and the Latin sound.

[rockstar.esq]

alexandr,  I agree with you, and your post reminded me of a day in the 1990's when I heard "Smooth" for the first time.  It was on a radio playing in the background with a group of friends.  When one of his note rung out, I immediately said "That's Carlos Santana!".  Nobody else in the group knew who I was talking about.  I think one person actually corrected me and said it was Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20.  We all went on to find that we were both right, as it was the first radio release of his album of duets.  

Years went by before I learned some things that really show how special Santana really is.

He played a Gibson SG for most of his early work, it's incredibly iconic at his Woodstock performance.  Now there are tons of famous musicians who played SG's but any list of them will tend to make Santana look like an outlier.

Think of the sound of AC/DC, or Led Zepplin.  They were using the same guitars, and often the same amps, yet Santana somehow pulled this crystalline singing Latin horn-like treble out of the crunchy, shrill "classic rock" gear.

Santana and a guitar maker called Paul Reed Smith met in the 1970's and Paul was determined to make a guitar for his hero.  Eventually this progressed to making a signature model.  Legend tells that Paul presented Santana with his first effort.  It was allegedly so good, that Santana didn't believe that Paul could actually reproduce it.  Paul accepted the challenge, and made a second, equally good guitar.  Santana agreed to the signature guitar deal.

Electric guitarists are a fickle group, but they will agree that most guitar hero's play either Gibson or Fender instruments.  Santana's endorsement, and signature guitar propelled PRS into the top three in an incredibly short amount of time.

If you listen to the guitar tone in Santana's work in the 70's with an SG, and compare it to his tone on the Supernatural album, it's actually pretty obvious that he's using a completely different rig.  Yet his musical signature is perfectly recognizable, with no repetition of the old material.  

A huge number of popular hits across genres, and bands all share the same session musicians in the recordings.  These session musicians have a veritable arsenal of equipment to transform themselves into whatever is needed, yet they have no signature sound.  It's not surprising, because most people are inspired to pick up electric guitar in order to sound like their hero's.  Mimicry is built into everything that electric guitarists obsess over. 

So that moment in the 1990's where I recognized him from a background snippet of a solo is pretty amazing because he had completely transformed his rig, his tone, and the production of the song, yet his signature was plain as day.

The title of this thread also struck me, as I recall seeing a program on the Supernatural album.  Each artist in turn was shown saying that just being around Santana was a peaceful, and soulful experience.  Thanks for reminding me of all of that.

[alexandr]

"Found" for myself another cool group. I listen with pleasure.

 

[Scott NC]

  Reminds me of Whiskey River.

 

[Frosty]

Seeing as you brought Willy up, this is just one of my many favorites of his. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1JOFhfoAD4&ab_channel=TobyKeithVEVO

But I really like Garth Brooks too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN3XfhMSCCo&ab_channel=GarthBrooks-Topic

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  Don't blame this on me.  My post  was relvent.  But since YOU de-railed it heres one I like.  Buck Owens is a favorite and I like Dwight.

 

[Frosty]

I was going nuts there, no sound! I searched it out and still no sound, so I started one I'd been listening to earlier and NO SOUND! I tried more music and a couple lecturers I follow and NADA, no sound! I shut the comp off and restarted it and still no sound. 

To take a break I sat back to listen to the audio book I'm on. . . NO SOUND! ARGH!!

I can hear the TV, I didn't go deaf (No matter what Deb says) what's going on?

OH blankety BLANK! My headphones are patched to the computer so I could listen to music without bothering Deb. Unplug the patch cord or put my headphones on and there is SOUND!

There you go Scott, I April Fooled myself 9 days late but I got myself a good one!

Frosty The Lucky.

[alexandr]

Music of youth. Gorgeous performance.

[BillyBones]

I have been a Santana fan since i was a kid. I have a "for radio release only" LP of Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles live. About 4 years agos i got to meet the man. One of the nicest guys you could ever imagine. 

Speaking of Willie, last night i watched a movie with him. Would have loved to have seen the cast in concert. It was Willie, Travis Tritt, Kris Kristofferson, with a guest appearance by Waylon Jennings.