Billy McLaughlin

this is one of the better cds i have found for my wedding and it shipped fast

I purchased this CD for my 78 yr old mother, a widow, who is getting remarried this Sept. and needed some recorded music to play before the ceremony and for the processional and recessional. She absolutely loves the CD and plays it over and over and over! It is a beautiful CD and I would highly recommend it for anyone needing this type of music.

This was a great resource for prelude music as well as music for the ceremony. It is a nice blend of classical and contemporary. I used it for a friend's wedding and we were all very pleased with it.

I am in the process of selecting music for my daughter's wedding and wanted to listen to a variety of music. This CD provided that for me. Now I have a better idea what selections we will use through the ceremony.

I bought this CD hoping to find some background music for my wedding reception and (fingers crossed) ceremony. While the music and recordings are high-quality and the cd does sound great, it sounds a little "father-of-the-bride."

It sounds a little like the kind of music that would be the stereotypical background music in a movie about weddings. Much of the tracks are 4 piece string quartet and, because of this, it lends itself to a more traditional wedding ambience. I recommend this piece for anyone looking for purely traditional, and possibly stereotypical wedding music. If you want something more upbeat, I recommend anything by Michael Buble or standards like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

This is one of the first cd's I purchased by Billy. I highly recommend it if you are new to his music.Fingerdance

I first heard Billy McLaughlin's music on National Public Radio, and then on the NPR Living Room Concerts compact discs. The recordings on this disc are all at once lively and refreshing, yet also melodic and restoratively soothing. The feeling for me is akin to that first beautiful April day when you can go outside without a jacket and just revel unfettered. You just want to bury your face in the music and laugh and smile and sigh.

I am buying this cd today for the second time because my son, now seven chose this cd when he was two years old as his favorite cd in the house. For the better part of five years he has liked to listen to this each night before bedtime. Our first copy travelled to Grandma's, on vacations, and everywhere with us. ~ It was so loved, and it has gone missing...

Several markedly less satisfying months have passed without it being in our home. My son recently mentioned that he would 'really like' another copy for his birthday. I was proud of my child for making such a superb birthday request. The music is good enough to pay for twice.

Billy's finger-tapping style and amazing compositions will blow you away. I find this CD to be alternatingly relaxing (Coffee Break, The Good Wife), energizing (Fingerdance and Helms Place - two of his more famous recordings), fulfilling (Stormseeker, Lila's Healing).

Each and every song flows together to create a dream world of harmonious notes which defy description, except that by the end, you just know that you were meant to listen to this CD.

I'm afraid I can't add much more to this review than my title. It's simply a delightful recording, one I play over and over. The man has got it.

Tapper, finger-stylist, melody, heart & soul, ... This guy has everything going for him.

Billy MacLaughlin is an expert in the art of playing the guitar with contemporary percussive techniques and alternate tunings.

Some of the greatest solo acoustic guitar you have ever heard.

This has been a customer favorite in my massage practice. I have received several inquiries about it. The guitar is wonderful and there isn't one song that I don't like. The whole album just flows perfectly.

This recording really transcends all types of categorized music and speaks completely for itself. Billy McLaughlin is probably the world's best kept secret. This CD will relax and entertain you anytime you want. I have listened to this disc to fall asleep about fifty times, and I still get goosebumps when I listen to the way McLaughlin works those alternate tunings and two handed techniques. I think it is one of the finest CDs I own.

Wow, I totally disagree with the review written by John Dilberto for this CD!!! Yes, the guitar work by Billy McLaughlin is really stunning, as usual. The accompanying music by Soulfood is not obtrusive or "smothering" to me at all. I like the combination of the meditative electronic stylings of DJ Free, which really match the guitar work very well. Combining the two different styles enhances each. True, you do not get just fingerstyle guitar work here, but that is the point. If you want just pure guitar music then get Billy McLaughlin's excellent, chart-topping CD "Fingerdance". This CD grew out of a meeting between Soulfood and Billy McLaughlin back in 1997 on Soulfood's web radio program "Earth Beat". From that meeting and performance the two decided to collaborate on "Guitar Meditations", and create something oriented towards contemplation and relaxation. To get a good idea of the feel of the music try the last cut "Into the Blue, Out of the Blue part 2". This will give you an idea of how the electronic soundscapes fuse with the guitar. Really, this is a wonderfully and very fine, relaxing, yet interesting CD. There has been no "smothering".

I could listen to this album all day long. Very relaxing. I would recommend this to anyone who loves the sound of the classical guitar

Much of Billy's acoustic stuff is unique in some way, while maintaining consistent sounds. How he is able to generate such diverse yet harmonious notes time and again is beyond me.

Clockshop and Hold on To Forever are masterpieces. The pauses, just enough grit, personality, wow.

This CD has become my favorite of acoustic works. Billy truly out did himslef. The recording is excellent and his skills are really demonstrated. Great CD

I first picked up this cd after seeing Billy McLaughlin live. He opened for another fingerstyle great, Adrian Legg. I was absolutely blown away by the style of his play. Most of his playing is done using the two-handed touch tap technique al la Stanley Jordan, but that's were the similarity ends. McLaughlin plays an entirely acoustic set with a bluesy, hip-hop feel. This isn't just all solo guitar though. On several tracks, McLaughlin adds drums, keyboards, some trumpet, and a touch of electric guitar to support him. It never detracts from McLaughlin's guitar as that remains firmly the main presence and force of this album.

The album opens with the title track and sets the mood of what is to occur over the next 47 minutes. It's an upbeat tune with guitar melody and rhythm playing at the same time with different hands. "Clockshop" is my favorite of the album, and it composed of a beautiful melody countered with a nice baseline all done on one guitar. The solo work doesn't stop there as can be heard on the passionate slow playing on "Hold On to Forever". McLaughlin doesn't lose anything by having musician's (organic or digital) backing him as on the funky "11", and the more laid back "Candleman".

McLaughlin is definitely someone to see live if you can get the chance. If you can't, pick up one of his albums. This one is quite a good representation of his ability and playing style. If you like fingerstyle guitar, or just good music you'll love this.

Yeah, I'm a guitar lover. I make no bones about that. Always have been and always will be. And nothing makes me smile more than hearing my favorite instrument played by a master, like Billy McLaughlin. I first heard his work about five years ago, on a guitar compilation disk from Narada, and was just blown away by his song Helms Place. Being new to guitar back then, I'd never heard anyone play like that, both hands just workin' the strings and frets. Well, after that I kept an eye out for more of his work, and when this came out I was very pleased. All of the songs are winners, but Hold On To Forever has to be my absolute favorite, with Soulmates close behind. The electronic sounds threw me off at first, and that's the only reason this is getting 4 stars instead of 5. I'm glad he is experimenting, but his solo guitar work is where his true brilliance lies.

Also, check out his CD Fingerdance and his new "best of" disk, Acoustic Original, on which is County Wicklow Mystic, one of my all-time favorite songs.

Billy McLaughlin is an extremely talented fingerstyle guitarist who had a bit too much time in the studio for this album. When he lets his guitar do the work, the songs are excellent but this album tends to be overproduced. Especially cloying is the elevator music version of the Eagle's "Best of My Love."

Still, I enjoy most of the album. But if you haven't heard McLaughlin before, I would heartily recommend "Fingerdance" as a good first choice.

I own this one on vinyl and I had the privilege of seeing the movie when it came out. I finally broke down and bought the MP3 version for my iPhone and iPod. Both the movie and the soundtrack rate 5 stars. It's one of the few successful jazz movies of all time and a great sound track with some of the greatest jazz musicians jamming.

Amazingly good! Whether you're chating, reading your favorite writer, making love or just spending some time for yourself, this music will overwhelm you.

I'm not so keen on jazz music; however, I must say that this album is excellent, probably the second best of its kind after the all-time classic soundtrack for "Ascenseur Pour L'Echauffaud" ("Elevator to the Gallows"), one of the masterpieces by Louis Malle. The music here is certainly high class material: atmospheric, suggestive and wonderfully interpreted. If you're a jazz buff and haven't heard it yet, be sure that you've missed half of your life, so GET IT RIGHT AWAY!

I've never seen the movie and really, I don't have to. I love this album. I thought that it was very nicely done and it is so perfect. But really, it was the song "Round Midnight" with Bobby McFerrin that caught my ear. Listening to him singing that muted trumpet is sooo heavenly. So, I had to find this album if only to hear this song. It was a real treat that I got the other songs as well. "Fair Weather" by Chet Baker is another favorite of mine. I would urge any jazz lover to pick this album up. I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed.

This is an Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD. The DVD of the movie is available but I would start here first. Maybe because one doesn't need to have the story told to you on wide screen and dolby sound. This CD is "intimate". Like the "Blue Note" it resonates lonesome nights in distant foreign places where the echo of the night is in Dexter Gordon's lingering Sax wail. Then perhaps none of that is important. Perhaps it's the compilation of so many jazz voices all in this one CD. While making this movie, Warner Bro could have bought rights to the Blue Note records as background. But it was important to give a fresh sound to the challenge of making a film about jazz. Warners turned to Herbie Hancock to develop the music background and Dexter Gordon to write compositions for the film. They did so beautifully without loosing the essential flavor or sense of place and time depicted in the film: Paris and the Fifties. If your interest is to develop or explore jazz music from the early 50s, here's your opportunity. Central to the background are musicians of the caliber of Chet Baker, Ron Carter, Billy Higgins, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hucherson, Bobby McFerrin, Lonette McKee, John McLaughlin, Pierre Michelot, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, and Tony Williams. You can rent or buy the DVD. This CD will help you soak up that atmosphere now lost from places like the "Blue Note". In this CD you will hear the echo of the strains of 50s jazz normally heard "back then and round midnight". Listen to "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and "Una Noche Con Francis" and your heart will be lost. ps: I have the original vinyl LP version of "Round Midnight" and somehow, scratches and all, it's almost better heard this way.

Billy McLaughlin is an incredible guitarist and this album of Christmas songs is no different. It is relaxing, peaceful and uplifting.

This is the last solo album Billy recorded before being diganosed with Focal Dystonia, a mysterious disease which crippled his left hand and took him out of solo performing for 5 years.

You can hear a sample of "Into the Light" on his website and learn more about his disease and imminent one-handed comeback concert (April 7-8, 2006 in Minnesota).

This instrumental CD will evoke emotion - guaranteed. It will relax and move you as Billy and a former student of his paint one incredible picture after another. Sure to be a favorite of any McLaughlin fan.