Relaxing, romantic, and inspiring, The Candlelight Guitarist? performs a tapestry of gentle jazz and classical guitar styles. Music for Rest & Renewal (with nature sounds) is softly melodic music, with soothing sounds ... more »of nature: ocean, birds, rainfall, a stream and waterfall, fireside, and night sounds. WIND AND WIRE, Minnesota Public Radio, KFAI 90.3 FM: "The Candlelight Guitarist? album will probably surpass your expectations, as it did for me. Seldom do I hear music so perfectly balanced with nature sounds where the music is of such high quality - soft yet not syrupy, melodic but not shallow or sing-songy, sincere without being overblown or pretentious. ...Singling out more tracks is tough because the whole album is excellent. The pace is never hurried, thankfully. The words 'rest and renewal' are well-earned. However, I can't help but think that this album would also play well in a car during a leisurely drive through the woods or along the shores of a lake. ...If you're someone who enjoys acoustic guitar music...you can't go wrong with The Candlelight Guitarist's Music for Rest and Renewal. Powell's playing is gently dexterous and soulful (carefully balancing finger pyrotechnics with heart and sincerity)." ---reviewed by Bill Binkelman. ABOUT THE NATURE SOUNDS Digitally recorded in stereo, each locale chosen for its peaceful ambience and soothing character. The music was inspired by the serenity of the nature sounds, and composed to be a melodic counterpoint. THE OCEAN: Huntington Beach, about 1/2 mile south of the pier (midnight, over two days). Santa Monica Beach, about 1/2 mile north of the pier, early Sunday morning. Malibu Beach, off Pacific Coast Highway. STREAM and WATERFALL: Winter Creek and Sturtevant Falls (Angeles National Forest). RAINFALL (after long dry spell), WITH HAWK, OWL and OTHER BIRDS: Big Tujunga Canyon WIND THROUGH TREES: Big Tujunga Canyon, after midnight. NIGHT SOUNDS, BIRDS AT DAYBREAK: The Verdugos, a mountain-desert area.« less
Relaxing, romantic, and inspiring, The Candlelight Guitarist? performs a tapestry of gentle jazz and classical guitar styles. Music for Rest & Renewal (with nature sounds) is softly melodic music, with soothing sounds of nature: ocean, birds, rainfall, a stream and waterfall, fireside, and night sounds. WIND AND WIRE, Minnesota Public Radio, KFAI 90.3 FM: "The Candlelight Guitarist? album will probably surpass your expectations, as it did for me. Seldom do I hear music so perfectly balanced with nature sounds where the music is of such high quality - soft yet not syrupy, melodic but not shallow or sing-songy, sincere without being overblown or pretentious. ...Singling out more tracks is tough because the whole album is excellent. The pace is never hurried, thankfully. The words 'rest and renewal' are well-earned. However, I can't help but think that this album would also play well in a car during a leisurely drive through the woods or along the shores of a lake. ...If you're someone who enjoys acoustic guitar music...you can't go wrong with The Candlelight Guitarist's Music for Rest and Renewal. Powell's playing is gently dexterous and soulful (carefully balancing finger pyrotechnics with heart and sincerity)." ---reviewed by Bill Binkelman. ABOUT THE NATURE SOUNDS Digitally recorded in stereo, each locale chosen for its peaceful ambience and soothing character. The music was inspired by the serenity of the nature sounds, and composed to be a melodic counterpoint. THE OCEAN: Huntington Beach, about 1/2 mile south of the pier (midnight, over two days). Santa Monica Beach, about 1/2 mile north of the pier, early Sunday morning. Malibu Beach, off Pacific Coast Highway. STREAM and WATERFALL: Winter Creek and Sturtevant Falls (Angeles National Forest). RAINFALL (after long dry spell), WITH HAWK, OWL and OTHER BIRDS: Big Tujunga Canyon WIND THROUGH TREES: Big Tujunga Canyon, after midnight. NIGHT SOUNDS, BIRDS AT DAYBREAK: The Verdugos, a mountain-desert area.
CD Reviews
The Candlelight Guitarist is calming, no-stress music.
Tiffany Blocker, DVM | Tustin (Orange County), CA | 06/16/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I listen to The Candlelight Guitarist when doing surgery. The music is very peaceful and relaxing, and I really enjoy it."
Beautifully Mellow Sound
Jana L. Perskie | New York, NY USA | 03/26/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The talented and creative Bradley Powell is the Candlelight Guitarist. His music is original and some of the most soul soothing I have ever heard. "Music For Rest And Renewal" is just that. I often come home from work stressed-out to the max, put this CD on, and after a while the tension just flows away to the strains of his finger-style guitar. It rarely fails. Mr. Powell is accompanied, beautifully, by sounds of nature, including the ocean, birds, rainfall, a stream and waterfall, fireside, and night sounds, all digitally recorded on-location specially for this CD. The sounds are quite subtle and enhance the album tremendously. A blend of soulful Spanish, romantic classical, and gentle jazz, I often meditate to the music and sounds of nature offered here.
The artist features a quotation on his Website, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is extremely appropriate to the music he makes, "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting -- a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I highly recommend "Music For Rest And Renewal," especially for those who live in a big city, as I do, and are nature deprived.
JANA"
A Wonderfully Relaxing CD!!!
Kristi Ahlers | Illinois | 02/09/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This was a wonderful CD collection of artistically put together tracks that incorporate the sounds of nature. I found this collection to be a great relaxation tool since I received it.
Bradley Powell is a very talented artist and his work on this CD is an apt demonstration of what he is capable of. I highly recommend this CD. A must have in todays stressful world."
An Arc of Guitars and Gentleness.
Themis-Athena | from somewhere between California and Germany | 03/28/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Moved by our nation's events," in the fall of 2001 guitarist Bradley Powell decided to create "a healing work for people" and "light a musical candle," the artist's website explains about this CD's genesis. Growing up in a family of inventors and original thinkers, Powell picked up his first guitar at age ten and later had the opportunity to study, inter alia, with jazz guitarist Joe Pass, Dr. Ronald Purcell (including one master class taught by Andres Segovia), and David Rose of "Little House on the Prairie" fame.
The twelve tunes presented here form a musical arc from Spanish melodies to inflections of jazz and classical harmonies, and from daybreak to nightfall and to the promise of another day. True to the project's title, they are mostly quiet in mood, charming in their very unpretentiousness; and soothing like a hot bath or an evening by the fireplace. While Powell's crisp, precise fingerstyle technique speaks to both the quality of his training and the extent of his talent, he realizes that this is not the place for six- or twelve-string fireworks a la Segovia (or, for that matter, California's own fingerstyle wizard, Alex De Grassi, or his cousin, Windham Hill Records founder William Ackerman). Instead Powell keeps it simple - deceptively so - both melodically and in terms of arrangement. Three tracks - "Waltz of the Clouds," "Rainy Day Canon" and "Tomorrow Is a New Day" - are soft, tasteful duets with the flute(s) and oboe of Gilberto Hildavio, and there is also an overall slightly more elaborate instrumentation on the last track; otherwise, this is mostly about the warm, gentle sound of classical guitars blending with the sounds of wind and water, of seagulls on the Pacific Ocean, and of owls and other birds in California's woods, mountains, and deserts.
Contacted by email, Mr. Powell was reluctant to give specifics as to the types of guitars and strings used in the recording, but kindly confirmed that most of the pieces are played in standard tuning, with the guitar tuned down to D for "Rainy Day Canon" and "Waterfall Cove." He also mentioned the place that both guitars featured on this CD have in his life: one, his everyday companion; the other, a guitar that has been in his possession since college and has been fine-tuned by the hands of luthier Jose Oribe.
Whether you've just been through a period of emotional turmoil, or had a bad day at the office, or are just looking for the perfect music for a few quiet hours at home: I'm sure you won't be disappointed in turning to this CD.
"There are two ways of spreading light - to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." - Edith Wharton.
Also recommended:
Soul Mates & Kindred Spirits
Sunflower Serenity ...Watercolor Odyssey (solos with nature sounds)
Golden Eagle: John Denver Instrumental Tribute
The Water Garden
A Windham Hill Retrospective
A Windham Hill Retrospective
Touch-Windham Hill 25 Years of Guitar
Guitar Virtuoso
Art of Segovia"
Perfect
G. Sawaged | Canada | 02/07/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A perfect blend of instrumental music with nature sounds. Truly the best I have heard in a long time. The music is immediately soothing and melodic,..with each playing I loved it more. If you are feeling down-in-the-dumps, then you need Brad Powell. It'll lift you out of the doldrums, guaranteed. I highly recommend this cd and his "Soul Mates & Kindred Spirits"."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1