Gomes: Colombo

Anthony Gomes is a familiar face to anyone following the modern blues scene. He has been carving out his own space as an unapologetically rock-influenced bluesman and songwriter since first coming to national attention in the late 1990s. He is that rare artist able to take the Zen simplicity of blues music, fuse it with the rush of rock and roll, and write memorable new songs that exist somewhere between creative geniuses Willie Dixon and Billy Gibbons. He stands his ground as a creative artist, not a derivative history lesson, and is eager to push the blues back into the mainstream.

This selection of chamber music by leading Portuguese composer Pedro Faria Gomes was written between 2007 and 2018. The works encompass themes of memory, change and waiting, with the concept of time being a central preoccupation. Though he has drawn on music from his country’s folk traditions – in Memória and in the Sonata – it is always with new harmonic insights and subtlety, creating undeniably invigorating additions to contemporary chamber music repertoire.

Make sure you have your stereo (or iPod) at a safe level of volume when you start this disc because it kicks in full throttle and rarely lets up! That is a good thing, especially if you are a fan of great guitar driven rock n’ roll. After it warms your player up for a few seconds, then crank this as it should be. New Soul Cowboys are a hard rockin’ trio based in Nashville, Tennessee. The album kicks into overdue from the first second with “Painted Horse”. IMO, you just can’t go wrong with opening a CD with a killer track about the freedom of blazing a trail on a Harley Davidson. The subtle banjo adds an interesting flavor to the song while the gang vocals will have you chanting along in no time.

Canadian-born guitarist, singer, and songwriter Anthony Gomes is a critically acclaimed chart-topping artist who plays a style of modern electric blues that incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, and country. Born in 1975 in Toronto, Canada, to a Portuguese father and a Canadian mother, he began playing guitar in his early teens and moved to Chicago, IL, in the late '90s with hopes of establishing himself as a musician. After honing his craft on the Windy City club circuit, he moved to Nashville, TN, where he found a home for himself amid the city's renowned music scene.

Mantua and the Gonzaga family represent one of the summits of European humanistic and Renaissance expression. This project addresses one of the city's greatest periods with sacred works by the leading musicians of the Gonzaga court, at a time when music was the primary tool employed by the Gonzaga dukes to assert their prestige over other Italian cities; this golden age began with the foundation of the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara and its cappella under Giaches de Wert during the rule of Guglielmo Gonzaga in 1565 and lasted until the sack of Mantua in 1630. The Ensemble Biscantores specialise in the performance of late Renaissance and Baroque music; here, thanks to the research, study and transcriptions made by its director Luca Colombo, they explore the Mantuan court of the Gonzagas and the liturgy specific to the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara.