Roots Moderne: Diego Garcia

Imagine Duane Eddy fronting the Tito Puente Orchestra and you will get a picture of what Diego Garcia’s new music is like. Or imagine Ry Cooder and Manuel Galban’s Mambo Sinuendo on steroids. Or better yet just buy Garcia’s Pachuco record; the sheer joy of rockabilly twang mixing with Latino rhythms is hard to beat.

What makes Garcia (a/k/a EL Twanguero) modern is the undercurrent of sophistication in his playing. This is a fully schooled guitarist who chose to concentrate on a particular sound and nailed it. Also, check out his looping and Frisell-style approach to Charlie Rich’s weeper, “I Feel Like Going Home.”

Discovering underappreciated talent like this is why Guitar Moderne exists.

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Roots Moderne: Sleep Gunner

 I am not sure how I discovered these guys, but somehow I found You Tube videos of Jeroen Kimman and Mark Morse mangling Ira and Charlie Louvin songs in the most creative, anarchic, and yet respectful way. Performing as Sleep Gunner http://sleepgunner.blogspot.com/, this Amsterdam-based duo has finally officially released a recording: Plays The Louvin Brothers Songbook Vol. 1 on 300 vinyl copies or download . While touring in Italy, one of their shows happened to be in a professional recording studio. They liked the live recording of it so much they put it up as a downloadable album.

Sleep Gunner proves you can respect roots music without doing slavish retro versions of it, and have humor in your music without descending into protective irony.

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