Vallenato Music

Archive for February, 2009

I’ve done a lot of travelling in my time and I’ve spent most of that time in Europe. I have to say that I have tended to avoid the colder parts of the continent, and have always gravitated towards warm islands, where the pace of life slows down. Last summer was my first experience of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. I spent a good amount of time island hopping before I settled on the island of Rhodes as my base.

I earn my money playing simple acoustic gigs in the bars of the islands and I was able to pick up more work on the busier of the islands, which you would imagine. Rhodes is the largest islan in the Dodeconese , although not my favourite, but something has to give when you are trying to earn enough money to live this sort of lifestyle!

It was here in Rhodes that I discovered the beauty of traditional Greek music. I had of course heard traditional music from countries all across europe but none gripped me like the greek music did. There is something so heart warming about it, yet at the same time melancholic. It’s impossible to put into words just how beautiful it can sound when played right. I was fortunate enough on my travels to play with some of the foremost Greek artists on the islands on my time in Rhodes, and some of them were kind enough to teach me some ancient Greek music I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity and I play greek music wherever I travel, and no matter where I play my Greek music, it goes down a storm!