A Musical Start for 2018

And just like that.... Two Months of 2018 have raced by...

2018 began on a high note of music....

7th January 2018 
#OLPSchembur celebrated 60 years with a musical extravaganza featuring talented musicians of the like of Ram Sampath, Darren Das and Shankar Mahadevan. 

There was absolute nostalgia in the air as alumni and ex-students from school connected after 30, 40, and some even after 50 years... Made a host of new friends just being part of the celebrations. Was great to just connect with old friends - could remember many of them, but some of them just didn't ring a bell. 

It was really a wonderful experience for me to be a part of the evening as part of the organising committee, as I spent the last few months of 2017 coming up with ideas for promoting the event on social media. 

The day was one of celebration as even the morning was dedicated to celebrating our school in all its splendour. Was wonderful catching up with teachers and batchmates, including some famous ones. 

OLPS Batch of 1986

with the famous mythologist - Devdutt Pattanaik

A great way to celebrate the first weekend of the year. 

14th January 2018 

The music continued on the next weekend... This time it was Country Music at the Neighbourhood Winter Festival organised at the Carter Road Amphitheatre... The artiste, none other than Keith Pereira, a young country star from New Zealand (making his first musical appearance to Mumbai). Was a privileged member of the audience as part of the artiste's family (he's my nephew). Took a trip back memory lane to some of the songs I've enjoyed listening to and singing through the years.... The Eagles, Garth Brooks and more.... but the best was the finale.... Country Roads. 

20th January 2018 

Another weekend and the musical spree continues... Back to school yet again as a special guest on the Annual Day. And honoured for my contribution to the Alumni celebrations of two week ago. 

  
But the greater joy came as a parent of two wonderful musically talented sons... both of them singing in their respective sections. Still receiving accolades from people I meet for that flawless rap sequence.   

Yes indeed.... 2018 has had a great musical start for me... And I hope it brings you lots and lots of music for the rest of the year.... 


Getting back to this blog after a long time... I do hope to be able to make more time to keep the music alive...

Best of Country

My eldest sister celebrated 25 years of marriage earlier this year. The first wedding in our family - it was a real union of families, especially considering that both the families had strong music roots. Our choice of music was mainstream pop, a little rock and some pop jazz, and a lot of oldies. But now, we had a new musical influence in our family... an introduction to the world of Country Music... and the country music has gone down (in two senses) really well. Down as in to the next generation... and also down geographically to New Zealand. Apparently there is a flourishing interest in Country Music in New Zealand, and it is a proud moment for our family that my nephew Keith Pereira is making waves in the Country Music scene there by being the overall winner at the Auckland Country Music Awards.... 

Keith has recently launched his YouTube channel - The Country Coffee Club where he posts some of his excellent covers for all to hear. And one of the artists that I've heard thanks to Keith's dad has been Randy Travis - who celebrates his 58th birthday today. While Randy Travis has many #1's on the Country Music charts, this song has been his highest scoring hit on the Billboard Hot 100 - Three Wooden Crosses.

That song also hit an emotional string of my heart for many reasons actually - one of them on the spiritual note. The song also fitted well with a post I wrote on a new blog I've created to share my experience of Walking With Jesus. 

While on the spiritual level, today is also the birthday of a Grammy winning Contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter and worship leader, Chris Tomlin. Over the past three years in Mumbai, I've been fortunate to have involved in the music ministry in our local Catholic Charismatic Renewal Group... and being called on to play music at some of the retreats they've organised. Also been called upon to share the Lord's Word through teaching Catechism to children and youth in the parish. Our God is good, he is great... Here's one of the songs of praise that I've sung and played to - How Great Is Our God.

And as I wind up, I must thank all you wonderful people for your support on this blog... I just had one of my best days yesterday... with more than 350 viewing my celebration of the music by my little son Kendall in the post - He's Eight Today... This Musical Little Boy. Thank God for him. 

Sing Me Back Home

Last year on this day... a Country Legend went back to his home on the sky... on the same day that he was first born... 79 years apart... That's Country Legend Merle Haggard. 

Do you know his songs... Try a little quiz...

 

How did you score... share your points in the comments...

Paying double tribute to Merle on what would have been his 80th birthday but is also his 1st Death Anniversary... the music industry gets together today at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena to celebrate his life playing tribute to him - Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard. The all-star concert performances by Willie Nelson, Keith Richards, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, John Mellencamp, Dierks Bentley, Sheryl Crow, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams Jr., Toby Keith, the Avett Brothers, Alison Krauss, Ronnie Dunn, Alabama, Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Jamey Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lucinda Williams, Ben Haggard, John Anderson, Connie Smith and Bobby Bare.

Meanwhile at the other end of the world diagonally - down in New Zealand, a couple of young Country musicians have paid their own tribute to Merle Haggard - presenting Keith Pereira and Jeremy Hantler.

If you liked that, do subscribe to the The Country Coffee Club where Keith promises a lot more of his music productions in the days to come. 

Music In The Family

Don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing gonna be alright
Singing' don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing gonna be alright

Rise up yest'day morning... Look at the daily news...
Three little birds sitting on the masthead... Celebrating the birthday of a Reggae legend
BOB MARLEY (1945-1981)

Was a national holiday in Jamaica yesterday to celebrate Bob Marley Day. In addition to being the icon of Reggae and spreading the sound of Jamaica throughout the world, Bob has passed the music down generations. Have liked the song by his son - Ziggy Marley - This Train (from the album Family Time) - this version has the voice of country legend Willie Nelson. This song was part of a winning sequence for a competition I had trained the boys of Our Own English School at Sharjah a few years back. 

Just a few days ago - 2nd Feb actually - Bob Marley's grandson Skip Marley signed up with Island Records and shared his first single - Lions.

Besides Bob Marley's birthday, yesterday was also the birthday of Natalie Cole (1950 - 2015). The daughter of jazz icon Nat King Cole who became as 'unforgettable' as him with the tribute to her dad, called 'Unforgettable'. Here's one of my favorites from both father and daughter - L.O.V.E. (You could check out my cover on my SoundCloud channel)

  

My blog content team (my two sons) had lined up an entire list of musicians and artists who celebrated their birthdays yesterday... including 

Axl Rose (Guns n Roses) - Sweet Child Of Mine is Kaniel's favorite lead rift.

Rick Astley - famous for 'Rickrolling' on Never Gonna Give You Up.

There's one more family that I need to mention in this post - nowhere as famous as the Marleys or the Coles. But the family celebrated the birthdays of not one - but two professional musicians from the extended clan... Just in case you're wondering, I'm referring to the Pinto clan - my own.

My eldest nephew - Keith Pereira has turned out to be quite a celebrity in the Country Music circles in New Zealand having performed at the Auckland Country Music Competition and having won honours at the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards. This young Biomedical Engineer is going places. He just launched his Facebook Page (Keith Pereira Music) including this recent video - Shotgun that's piling on the likes. Keith also featured on the earlier post on this blog entitled Pure Country.

Didn't I say two? The other singer in the clan with a birthday yesterday has been active on the Mumbai advertising and jingle circles for years now in addition to jazz performances and more recently Bollywood background vocals. Bianca Gomes (Pinto by marriage to my cousin Neumann) is a member of the all star musical collaboration Ananthaal with the very talented composer and producer Clinton Cerejo and 'Jai Ho' Vijayprakash (the background vocalist). Check out my favorite from her repertoire - Manhattan from English Vinglish.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIANCA  

(though a day late)

LET THE MUSIC AND THE CREATIVITY SCALE TO NEWER HEIGHTS IN THE YEAR AHEAD

Pure Country

Keeping up with Musical Birthday, today (May 18th) is the birthday of a 'Pure Country' singer. 'Pure Country' is actually the name of his debut movie. The birthday boy is George Strait, popularly known as 'King of Country', who is among the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. 

'I Cross My Heart' from the soundtrack of 'Pure Country'. Well 25 years ago today, there was another 'crossing of hearts' at the engagement gathering of the best 'country guitarist' that I personally know. I was there because it was a celebration in the family - the engagement of my eldest sister to this quite shy and definitely humble musician. The new musician in the family was a cool guitarist who tuned my ear to listen and appreciate country music better, while introducing me to some of the best country music, I would never have heard otherwise.

My 'only' musical brother-in-law has just added a feather in his 'country' hat - a musical next generation that riding high on the Auckland Country Music scene. In the recent Auckland Country Music Awards, my eldest nephew, Keith Pereira won the Male Vocal and the Instrumental categories...

And as one thing leads to another... a news update... 
 

a TV interview... Rockin' The Planet with Shane Hales (along with another talented youngster, Kylie Austin)

a charity concert performance at Te Puke Country Annual Fundraiser...

And its only just begun...

Keep it up, Keith... We're proud of you...