Do you guys remember that post "East Meets West with Sucess" I made waaay back in 2011 where I discuss recording tablas to a latin/bossa nova composition of mine?
Well, I finally got to finishing up the recording of the song 2 weekends ago at House Studios DC. And I can tell you, the song sounds great and I'm very pleased with how it turned out:
On another note, my next album "Guitar Gumbo" is currently being pressed in Oregon as I speak, and I should have physical copies at my doorstep in about a week, just in time for my tour the following weekend down in Tennessee.
I also uploaded another song from the "Guitar Gumbo" album on my youtube channel titled "Back at the Ranch." It's a Chet Atkins / bluesgrass inspired composition:
Got back recently from a successful show at Dandelion Communitea Cafe in
Orlando FL, where I spent all last week at. Beneath all the tourist attractions
like Disney World and Universal Studios, lies cool little local hang-out spots
to check out the local live music and arts scene.
The venue where I played my show, Dandelion Communitea Café, I call this place "Orlando's Best Kept Secret!"
This vegan organic teahouse is a quiet, quaint, comfy, hip, and trendy remolded
one-story house, so it has that comfy feel and you feel like you’re right at
home in your living room. I also like how this place is more than just a
business only concerned about making a profit for themselves. This place serves
as a focal community hang-out spot, where they host weekly local live music,
drum circles, yoga workshop, and other events. They are also eco/environmentally
conscious, try to promote green living, and usage of compost.
The food here is good (and healthy), flavorful, full of unique spices and
condiments, which comes to a surprise as I am not a vegan/vegetarian. Their burritos
are as filling as a Chipotle burrito, hand-pressed like a Panini to give it a
warm crunch exterior, and filled with unique tasty items like seeds I've never
had before. I strongly recommend the "whirled peas," which is like an
avocado dish but healthier while flavorful.
Someone did a video documentary on this nice little place, which pretty much
summarizes the character of this place: http://vimeo.com/4663254
Another place I hung out a lot was Natura Café.
A great chill hang
out spot nearby the University of Central Florida, this place really seems
interested in promoting the arts and culture to the college kids near UCF, and
it's mostly nearby UCF college kids who are patrons of this place. They have
original music 7 days a week, and I even saw on their music calendar a chapman
stick player, whom I unfortunately missed. They have open mic twice a week,
which is always packed, and originals only, which is good for encouraging
creativity. There should be more places like Natura near colleges throughout
the country, as it's great to see college kids engaging in the creative arts,
rather than killing brain cells at a frat party.
The venue, however, is not a complete listening room, which is ideal for
musicians who want a respectful crowd. When the audience is small, around 10-15
peeps, they are quiet and fully attentive to the music onstage. However, when
the place starts getting packed, unfortunately, there's lots of chit-chat, side
conversation, and noise in the audience as the performers are playing. However,
most places in the country are like this, and the venue is already doing a
great job at trying to promote local original music.
They also have great hookah specials. It cost $11 regularly, but during happy
hour, they have half-off hookah, amounting to a total cost of $5.50! This is
super cheap compared to where I live (DC/Baltimore), where hookah joints charge
$15-20 per shisha on average.
I also did some exploring at
Downtown Disney, a large outdoor shopping mall right outside of Disney World,
full of gift shops. I caught this incredible flamenco player, Nicholas Marks,
at Pleasure Island. Not to use a cliché, but he’s the Hendrix of flamenco
guitar. This fiery showman flips his guitar in the air, plays behind his head,
upside down, sideways, lap-style, twirls his guitar around, you name it, all
while churning out blistering flamenco licks and impeccable rhythmic strumming
over a prerecorded jamtrack, to get the audience dancing and grooving. Apparently,
he plays EVERYNIGHT for FREE at Pleasure Island, so be sure to catch him if you’re
ever in Orlando:
So, I just recently finished a sucessfull set at the DC Folk Festival last week. The whole event was tons of fun. If you live in the mid-atlantic, you're lucky. There's some folk music festivals going on this summer, and looks like they're FREE:
June 27nd to July 1st - Smithsonian Folklife Festival - http://www.festival.si.edu/ Been to this in the past, this is more like an "outdoor interactive museum" with lectures, demonstrations, displays, than an actual music festival. However, it's FREE, informative, and you can always learn something new.
July 20th to 22nd - Artscape - http://www.artscape.org/ Been to this multiple times in the past. The largest free arts festival in the nation. This isn't really a "folk" festival, but they've got all sorts of top-notch national performing acts and performances. In the past, they've had Cake, Los Lonley Boys, Robert Randolph, Al Green, Issac Hayes, The Chinese Acrobats, and it's FREE!
Sat Sept 1st - DC Blues Festival - http://www.dcblues.org/index.php?pageRequest=Festival Been to this once in the past, had some solid local blues acts peform. I was lucky enough to catch touring Mississippi funk-bluesman Lil Dave Thompson at this before he unfortuantly passed away, what a talent! It's also FREE!
Ever wanted to know how to create your own fingerstyle arrangement of a song? I just recorded a begineer's video tutorial on how to make a basic solo instrumental fingerstyle arrangement of a song and breaks it down step by step. The song I use as an example in the video is the Titanic theme song "My Heart Will Go On." Hope you enjoy it:
Hi, hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Anyways, I'm playing Sat June 2nd at the
Washington DC Folk Festival in Glen Echo Park. I'll
be playing from 1-1:30pm at the Yurt Village Stage and admission is FREE! Come
check out the other great performers and showcases on multiple stages as well.
Fore more info:
Hi, just wanted to let you know that I recently picked up a bi-weekly residency playing @ Java Mama's in Resiterstown, MD during brunch from 11am-2pm. My residency begins this sunday March 4th, 2012. Check my website gig calendar www.stevehungmusic.com or FB page: Steve Hung for updates. Hope to have brunch with you soon!
