Pierre Bensusan, Donal Lunny, Richard Leo Johnson, Michael Hedges, Stephen Fearing, BeJae Fleming, Laurence Juber, Micheal O'Domhnaill, Dan Crary, Doc Watson, Dick Gaughin, John Renbourne...
Sounds Like
Everybody has their own opinion, but we've collected the following in the wild: Joni; Ani; Nora; Pierre; but the personal favorite is from Chad Haatvedt at Folk City - "She makes a guitar sound like nobody else."
Gayla Drake Paul is a force in songwriting and guitar performance. With 15 CDs to her credit, she is an artist who has made major contributions to her field. (See www.digitaldreamdoor.com, which ranks her as one of the top 100 acoustic guitarists on the planet, and also recommends her solo guitar CD in their top 10 Suggested Listening for Acoustic Guitar, and recently chose Broken Blues as one of the top 100 acoustic CDs of all time). A rarity beyond her achievements as an instrumentalist, she is also regarded as one of the finest songwriters of her generation, with an intimate and evocative voice.
She is a frequent contributor to the fastest growing guitar magazine in the country, Premier Guitar, and is in their Top 10 articles downloaded list every single month. She has authored the revolutionaly Accelerated Guitar Method; Book 1 is currently available from CDBaby, and Book 2 is in the publication process.
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Francesco Paladino asked her to score a short film, Bluesblood and Mud Flowers, which led to an additional collaboration, The Iowa Stories, which won a Gold Remy at the Houston WorldFest International Film Festival in 2007 and has recently been released for European distribution. Francesco will return to the US in July 2008 for another collaboration about the Mississippi River. She was featured in the September/October 2006 issue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine as one of the premier women flatpicking guitarists working today.
In 2003 after a decade of intensely hard work with 10 internationally released and acclaimed CDs , a shoulder injury made it impossible for her to play. Soon afterward she was diagnosed with cancer, and spent 2004 recovering from both. She continued to compose, and produced a film score for a National Forestry Service DVD, taught numerous songwriting and guitar clinics, and continued to host the Iowa Guitar Summit series. In 2005 she released 4 new CDs, and re-recorded and re-mastered two that had gone out of print. In May of 2006, she released Here in the Center of the World with drummer and percussionist Eric Douglas.
In May of 2007 she released the long awaited song-cycle The Wheel, a journey through a year of solar holidays. In January 2008 she released "Pour Me," another solo effort with 10 new songs. She's currently working on additional guitar instruction books and composing music on a John Dick Double Forte nylon string guitar for a new CD project.
Well, it's Saturday night, technically Sunday morning and I just thought I would contact everyone on my friends named Gayla category to wish you a great Sunday and a wonderful upcoming week! Hope that you are enjoying the arrival of spring!
Great thanks for helping Department of Virtuosity with spread the Virtuosity worldwide!
The 10th issue of Department of Virtuosity has been published!
There you will find 13 reviews most of whom are virtuoso-oriented albums: Epidemia (6 reviews of CDs and 2 of DVDs; melodic fantasy power metal from Russia), Lua Hadar (2 reviews; jazz with female vocalist from the USA) and Zonata (3 reviews; neoclassical power metal from Sweden).
The effects are available on: www. hmpmag. pl (please click the golden banner of DoV)
I just wanted you to know that I've been listening to your albums loads lately whilst I've been sewing and it's like your in the room with me, which makes everything seem good.
Just a quick 'hi' to say what a boost to the spirits 'Conspicuously Happy' is. Lovely image and great picking as always Gayla. Needed a lift over here in the UK after the sad loss of the great John Martyn last week. Take care,
More than welcome, I hope it's useful! I see so many artists struggling with feeling like they HAVE to do all this online stuff, but I think it's really up to you to pick and choose! Or at least if you're on all the sites, you pick and choose how much you interact with them.
And Happy 2009 to you and yours as well! It feels to me like something has lifted, I hope I'm right. :) ~ Heather
WOW! That's all I can say after reading your profile. You are quite accomplished! I promote music on my site because I love it, but my good ness you have the talent! This particular profile pic that I have up right now is me and my daughter at Diversifest in Tulsa - 2 day music festival from 2007.
Thanks for adding me. It was great to find out about you!