During COVID I stumbled upon Kent Nishimura. I can’t recall you doing a breakdown before, but you must have seen him at some point. If not he has that same uncanny ability to capture the iconic parts of every instrument in his arrangements. Absolutely remarkable to watch these guys perform. Thanks Mike!
Mike rakes is style from Michael Hedges and of coarse has expanded on it in many ways. Hedges was an amazing player who is not talked about enough. Check him out.
Reminds me of the late, great Michael Hedges as well. All these years later I remain impressed by the music he created. No surprise that he studied composition at Peabody.
Went straight to Spotify to listen to “Live on the Double Planet.” Been a while since I’ve listened to it. Such memorable performances and the recordings absolutely captured Hedges’ connection with his audience.
Absolutely! I saw Hedges play three times, I was very fortunate. First time I saw him, after the show while he was mingling, I said hello and pointed out that his guitar that he was still holding was really cool. He handed it to me then wandered to talk to someone else. Who does that?!?! A totally cool cat!
Michael, I met Mike the first time he played in America, opening for Justin Hayward and then playing with Justin. Everyone in the audience was simply stunned. After he played, I raced to meet him during the intermission. We struck up a friendship, and since then I spent a week in Italy attending a guitar workshop with him-during which we jammed together (me fumbling, him being amazing). I've seen him play from 3 feet away, and I can easily say that it's hard to relay just how good he really his. I've never heard him make a mistake, never seen him have a second of uncertainty with the guitar. He's simply a talent that is up there with the likes of Hendrix, EVH, etc. A game changer. Anyone reading this- just buy his Cds- you won't regret a second of it.
My goodness me! Another fantastic video, Mike plays this like he’s got four hands….. and Michael your comment nailed it…. What touch….. his touch is his signature, he really transcends beyond the song, it’s like magic
My favorite little touch is that the "drum" section in the chorus was about the same every time. Point is, each hit, each scratch, each tap was on purpose. In other words, as close to perfection as you can get. It wasn't something where he was like now I'm going to go crazy for 4-6 seconds, it was planned as part of the composition. Just genius.
Doesn't that Sound, his Music, even his Presence playing those notes make you smile and feel, umm the Music! Wow! Thanks for your Reaction Michael P. and the Music Mike Dawes!
Yeah I agree. It’s great hearing someone like him or Tommy Emmanuel play a song. They have a way of breaking it down to the basics, and like you said, letting you hear a song for the first time again.
Nicely said about watching how he makes the arrangements and composition come alive. So very right. And seeing Hedges mentioned here, he really did pioneer this approach to guitar playing.
I thought for sure he was going to play the rhythms, melodies, and everything else live in one take. Thats just how high of a bar Dawes has set expectations. Thanks for sharing, it sounds great and the atmosphere sounds oddly fresh even though a million people have covered it. Hope you had fun at the Jason Isbell show.
I had already seen the video when it released, like within 10 mins of publishing. Now I'm here 4 mins after the reaction published. I'm happy Mike has gotten more exposure and you've been a big help in that along the way. Always appreciate your input and Mike's abilities. Edit: I totally agree with you about seeing the composition in it's purest form. When it's one cohesive sound from one player on one instrument but it's all there, it feels more organic and more woven together somehow.
@mikedawesofficial is a legend! His fingers are the length of a large squid, his talent is the size of a small African nation! Being some decades his senior I have to tip my hat to this young man and wish him all the success he deserves! I remember seeing him very early years where he was not so well known, today, he is a global superstart! Respect!
Saw Mike's video come across my feed a couple of days ago and loved it. Totally agree with your thoughts on how his rearrangements of the song make some of the structure apparent in different ways compared to the originals. He has an amazing ability to tease out the most important bits to keep the core of the song while obviously having to scale back to perform it on a single guitar.
I couldn't agree more when you're talking about how the song's are arranged and the appreciation for how the song is actually written. It's incredible, Mike's incredible! ❤
That was a beautiful and amazing rendition. I thank you for introducing me to Mike Dawes. That being said, I kind of want to see a Mike Dawes/Jon Gomm battle.
There’s so much going on technically, it’s really incredible how he can not just play the melody but also convey the emotion of the song at the same time.
Always enjoy your Mike reactions man, he never stops blowing our minds and inspiring the guitar community. You're doing a great thing by sharing his music, hopefully more people get to recognize him.
i'm a big fan of mike dawes for exactly the thing you were talking about here: what an ear he has for arranging legitimately gorgeous tunes that plays to the strength of how the, uh, acoustic fingerstyle sounds. the acoustic guitar has a real gorgeous sound to it almost regardless of quality and mike really pulls out the best of that tone and the best of the songs and melds them together in a way that only a virtuoso could.
Really like what you said about other players who sort of just “show off”. Instagram is over saturated with players posting mindless videos everyday. Mike really takes his time on the crafting of these, which is what I appreciate most about him. The master does it again!
I think it's a real Testament both to the original song and to Mike that this instrumental version still conveys the emotion of the song obviously I don't have a time machine so I can't go back and hear the instrumental before the full produce song but I think even if I didn't know the original this would still make me feel something special.
Been watching Mike Dawes' cover of everlong on repeat since it dropped. The way the harmonics ring out at around 3:01 really just put this raw feeling and emotion inside of me, it's so captivating. Love your passion for music Michael, it's super inspiring, and I find motivation and inspiration to work on my own stuff! keep up the awesome content!
I love the way you teach aswell as sharing parts of your life with us. You are always positive and your enthusiasm is so inspiring. As a non-musician I feel connected in a world I don't really understand. I love watching Mike playing the guitar.
This is why piano was difficult for me. Trying to keep 2 or more rhythms going in my head and hands, cramps my brain. Drummers blow me away sometimes too.
Stunning! AbsoIuteIy Stunning. What a gift. This type of proficiency on the instrument is something I wiII never achieve. But the inspiration he bestows...that's a gift too.
I see a lot of Rolling Stone and guitar magazine articles about the all-time greats but youtube has made me aware of absolute monsters like Mike Dawes, Jack Thammarat, Alex Hutchings. So many great players are not famous. Mike Dawes and Nick Johnston slow dancing in a burning room is next level.
You nailed it with the Re-appreciate the song. We have the "lyrics" though at least if we know the song, and that comes through so well in his interpretation.
This is so awesome that Mike reached out and seen that you were a fan can I recommend daniel padim as another great fingerstyle player you should definitely check out :D
You make an interesting comment about how in this version you feel like you see more of the arrangement. As someone who arranges music for lots of instruments, I see something totally different. What I see in people like Mike Dawes, Andy McKee and the GOAT, Tommy Emmanuel, is their ability to simplify (musically) those different instruments into a rich (and incredibly difficult to execute) single guitar arrangement with such clarity on all of the parts. They have this ability to identify all of the absolutely necessary notes across that arrangement into something that is musically more simple, but sounds far more complex. I am in awe of the skill and talent needed to do something like that.
I don't mind saying that you referring to "Everlong" as a "Classic" really makes me feel old. While I objectively know it's true; the truth hurts. STAY OFF MY LAWN!!! or something.
It’s really not fair, Mike has fingers longer than my forearm! Very talented guy! Another similar player is a guy named James Bartholomew. He got in to building guitars a few years ago, not sure if he’s still posting videos but if you enjoyed this you should check out some of his covers. He does an acoustic cover of Sweet Child of Mine that’s amazing ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pm8btN0cfKk.htmlsi=_qcay2QTW7xmFOCY
Not my type of music what so ever! Like zero! I absolutely would never listen to anything like this!! But.... dude is completely talented in music period from playing performance to production arrangement!! Very talented young man
Michael Palmisano They searched the Scriptures daily To see if it is true The Word of God Is what we need You and I Have all we need The peace of God And God of peace We can have these Old and young In Christ We're one For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities His eternal power And divine nature Have been clearly seen Being understood From what has been made So that people Are without excuse Jesus said Let the little children Come to me And do not hinder them For the kingdom of heaven Belongs to Such as these Truly I say to you Unless you repent ( Change, turn about ) And become like little children ( Trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving ) You can never enter The Kingdom of heaven ( At all ) And whoever receives And accepts and welcomes One little child like this For My sake And in My name Receives And accepts And welcomes Me Michael Palmisano They put a bottle of whiskey In his hands They didn't know What they did For if they knew... God forbids Acts like these So much good We can do To make this world A better place To God I pray Help us now For all to see
Ok I seen you do a old Robin Trower video, I dont know if your a hendrix kinda player but check out Frank marino, Mahaghany Rush, 5 of the greatest blues slingers talk about Marino as guys they followed back in the day, Bonomassa, Johnny Winter, Steve Vai and so on, a true master of blues rock.
This guy is amazing, no question…I’m still not sold on the whole percussion/guitar thing. Not taking anything away from the skill, but how is it really able to translate? I’ll amend this to say that it depends on your appreciation and the time and space. It’s impeccable. Just won’t translate to anything mainstream ever. And that may be just fine.