For those funky lines and great soulgrooves… MonoNeon! (my favourite bass player on YT)

Gosh, I really love this guy’s playing. I embedded only two examples here, but he has tons of stuff on his YouTubechannel. It’s Dywane Thomas Jr., as an artist going by the name of ‘MonoNeon’. He’s a young bass player from the United States. I found his videos a year ago on YouTube.
Yes, once I stumbled upon his channel I couldn’t of course miss his funny colourful presentation and his peculiar way of playing (and dressing up) his instrument – while being right handed, Dywane plays a right-handed bass guitar upside down with the left hand! – but right from the start I was infatuated by his bass playing alone. Awesome funky lines and soulgrooves all over the place.
It’s also obvious from MonoNeon’s videos that he’s an adventurous musician, looking for ways to try out new things and further develop his playing. Outside of his blues- soul- and funky homebase his playing of other genres is also pretty amazing. He knows his Zappa and his Coltrane and he even does a few videos where microtonal playing is involved, ranging from Indian raga-related to modern Western stuff.
I made a YouTube-playlist with a great selection of his videos, you can play my playlist from here. Otherwise, you can of course also visit his channel. This dude’s playing is a real delight, so check out what he’s got in store for you. Enjoy!

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Texan teen Sarah Jarosz is a huge talent

In the press she’s been called (Gillian) ‘Welch’s lost young daughter’ 🙂 Bluegrass-country-folk songwriter Sarah Jarosz – a Texan teen, born in 1991 – is still very young and a huge talent. Her breakthrough album ‘Song Up In Her Head’, released in the summer of 2009, was now given a five star ‘top of the world’-review in Songlines (September 2010) by reviewer Rose Skelton who uses superlatives like ‘supertalent’, ‘fabulous moments’ and ‘exceptional piece of work’. On YouTube I found this track from Sarah Jarosz’s celebrated album, titled Shankill Butchers, a song she covered from The Decemberists. All the other tracks she wrote herself. Great to hear this new young talent.

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