Stairways to Heaven

I got a semi-frenzied call from my brother this past Friday night. The first thing out of his mouth:

"Hey Jim, get a pen and some paper - write this down!"

Uh, OK. At least I could tell everyone was fine. He doesn't call too often (our conversations normally result in me calling my mom and his happening to be at home and answering the phone), so when the number came up on my cell phone I was a little surprised and a little worried that someone was sick or worse.

"You have to find a copy of this. Rodrigo and Gabriela. You'll probably find it as Rodrigo y Gabriela."

He proceeded to tell me about who they were, how he found out about them, and how he actually found their CD at BestBuy, so I looked them up on YouTube and found a couple of videos.

I downloaded the album on eMusic, and while I'm maybe not as crazed about it as my brother (enough to call someone out of the blue just to recommend it, that is), I'm very, very impressed nonetheless. The album I downloaded is mostly full of original material, but they very impressively cover "Stairway to Heaven" and Metallica's "Orion".

Long story short, they're heavy metal fans from Mexico City who up and moved to Dublin, Ireland, though they spoke no English. They started performing on the streets, and ... well, let's just say it's unfair that Fall Out Boy is famous and I'd never heard of Rodrigo y Gabriela isn't.

Not yet, anyway.

After I got off the phone with my brother, Nicole heard music playing and asked what I was watching. I explained, and she said "Oh, yeah - they're really good. They used to play them on the radio all the time in Portland."

Really? It was a further confirmation that I am so out of touch with everything, music-wise. I enjoy listening to Sirius, as it's commercial-free, but sometimes I wonder if they're as adventurous as I'd like them to be, because I'd never heard of them. Anyway.

Here's a clip of their version of "Stairway to Heaven", which I post only because it reminded me of the next clip I'm posting, which is also "Stairway to Heaven". If you watch the two of them, you'll understand.

After watching this clip, I remembered a performance I'd seen many years ago on PBS. I remembered it so well because the guy played two different guitars at the same time - one with each hand. Rhythm guitar with the left, and lead with the right - it's all fingertapping, and it's enough to make me wonder if he's human or not. Thank goodness for YouTube - I found it immediately.

So please check this out, too: Stanley Jordan. (If you're impatient, skip to about 2:50 into the performance). I don't know how old this performance actually is, but judging by the shoulder pads he's got under that jacket of his, it's clearly been a while.