Customer Reviews

Venus Over Venice

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A collection of beautiful alternate tuning fingerstyle guitar pieces, with a few vocals, a la Windham Hill or Narada. Has a bit of the feel of the late Michael Hedges, a little Shadowfax, and of course, there is that wonderful version of "Walk Away Renee" with David Wilcox. Listen to "Ancora Un Istante" beautifully sung and played by Mr. D'Agostino. It's a song you'd like to hear at sunset in an outdoor Italian cafe -- after which, you'd cancel your ticket home.

More than a year after I wrote the review above, I had the good luck to go on the first cruise sponsored by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Peppino D'agostino was one of the teachers, and he is as nice a human being as his music is beautiful. I saw him after dinner and casually mentioned how much I liked his version of "Walk Away Renee." He replied "bring down your guitar, I'll show it to you." Bravo Peppino. . ..

Few CD's have moved me as this one has. Often you find one song on a CD which has the 'right stuff'. There are several on this CD.

After hearing one song, Venus Over Venice, on the radio I knew I had to have the CD. Little did I know that song after song were just as touching.

From the masterful acoustic guitar, to the pan flute, to the heart-wrenching Italian lyrics on one song, to the remake of Walk Away, Renee, I just can't say enough how glad I purchased this CD. I hadn't even heard of Peppino before this, and really haven't heard much of him since.

But this CD stands on its own, a classic masterpiece!

An absolutely incredible experience in jazz guitar. D'Agostino delivers an exotic experience to the ears. This CD is a must.

Upon hearing this album, I could not believe that someone would have the tenacity to give this album one star. Have a little lenience, sir! There's always gotta be that one guy who's adversely different from everyone else... Anyway, this is a wonderful and beautiful acoustic album. I saw this guy a few days ago in concert, and his music is just as uplifting on record as it is live.

There are some GREAT songs on this CD, like Ancora Un Istante and Walk Away Renee. And there are some that are more like alternate tuning muzak tone carvings that lack inspiration and don't really grab you or hold your attention, but are perfectly pleasant to listen to. For guitarists they are all interesting from the standpoint that they're done in open tunings with finger style playing.

But the great songs on this CD are so good they are worth the price of admission alone. I have several hundred CDs in my collection with a large percentage of acoustic guitar artists, and Ancora Un Istante is probably my favorite all time acoustic guitar song with or without lyrics. It is sung in Italian, so I have no idea what it means, but it's one of the most beautiful songs I've heard. It's really exquisite, and probably never gets played on the radio. It's one of those independent artist gems that doesn't make it's way into the mass media. If anyone knows Italian and can translate the lyrics, I'd love to know what they mean.

This CD is one of Peppino's early and best efforts. Grand Canyon, Desert Flower, and Walk Away Renee alone are worth the cost of the CD.

Not only is this a wonderful album, but if you get a chance to see Peppino in concert, don't pass it up.

There is no question D'Agostino is an excellent guitar player, and for this reason I gave this CD one star. However the music it self is very bland and not interesting. This is ideal "muzac" for elevators. I had trouble hearing the entire CD in one sitting. It just did not move me. His lattest CD, that I heard parts of on NPR's Echoes, seemed more provocative. Venus over Venice has a very main stream sound. Perhaps that is why I was disappointed with this recording. If you like fluid music with a creative edge, a la ECM lable, then this CD is not for you.