duggup

I was in a bookshop today and José González’s cover of the Knives “Heartbeats” came on the player. In truth this was the first time I had heard the song for ages, he sort of slipped off the MP3 player a while back. You will know the song, it was the heartbreakingly beautiful song behind the Sony coloured balls ad. The guitar and the voice was totally captivating.

So when I got home I thought I would see what he has been up to lately. First NPR has Jose Gonzalez in Concert from October last year, live with his gentle acoustic guitar work, distinctive voice and few friends on some of the newer material., performing his neo-folk music.

But over at MySpace there were some tracks from his new album, “In Our Nature”. If you liked “Heartbeats” you will love the places he has found to go in the intervening four years. And as we know the  things he does with covers to make them his own. This guy is great.

González was born in Gothburg, Sweden, to Argentine parents in 1978. He grew up listening to classical music, bossa nova and Western pop. “We always had a guitar at home,” González says in an interview with NPR’s Michele Norris. “But it wasn’t until I was 14 when I picked it up myself when my father handed me these sheets of music of The Beatles and some other classics. That’s where I learned all the chords and learned how to play and sing at the same time. All that music kind of lives with you, but I don’t go back to it that often.”

Here is a performance he gave at the Google campus…

thatch is fascinated by guitars, music, guitars, production, silly noises, guitars and used to be a musician. Did I mention the thing about the guitars?
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