Just got back from Portugal and Spain...

If you've been reading my travel blog or main blog, you know I've been away for the past couple of weeks.  I won't post about my travels here, since I'm already doing it elsewhere.  However, I did want to plug a band I discovered in Lisbon.  One thing I love to do when I travel is listen to street bands.  Some of them are surprisingly excellent.  If you read this blog regularly, you may know that in May of 2013, my husband and I went to Italy and Greece and while we were in Florence, we discovered a wonderful guitar player named Piotr Tomaszewski.  I made a couple of videos to his music…





This time, my street music find was in old town Lisbon, where a band called Guents Dy Rincon was playing by the waterfront.  They were pretty awesome.  I took photos and a very quick video.  The dancing black man asked me if I wanted to buy their CD, which I was happy to do.  I'm listening to it right now and have got to say, this band is pretty excellent.  Checking YouTube, I see that others thought so too.





If you like music with an exotic beat and soulful guitar, these guys are pretty great.  It's a pleasure to listen to them, but I enjoyed watching them play just as much.  I love it when I buy street music that turns out to be awesome.  I have found good stuff in several countries now and there have been times I have had the chance to buy music and didn't, then regretted it.  So now, when I take trips and hear something I like, I buy the music and support the talented people making it…

Seriously, check out this band.  They're awesome.

Street musicians...

If you've been reading my other blogs, you know that I just came home after a lengthy vacation in Italy and Greece.  Our vacation was pretty musical, actually.  When we were in Florence, we ran across a street musician playing guitar.  Somehow, his guitar playing touched my heart and I ended up getting very emotional.  The musician's name is Piotr Tomaszewski and though he hails from Poland, he has really mastered the beauty of Latin style guitar.

We bought the two CDs he was selling and I listened to them last night... and I am so glad we bought those discs because my initial weepy reaction to Tomaszewski's music was on point.

Last year, my husband and I were in Salzburg, Austria and ran into the Don Kosaken Chor, who were singing down by the cathedral.  Their music is sacred and classical, but it still made me cry.  I bought one of their discs, too...

There have been other street musicians who have touched me, but it's only been recently that I've started buying CDs when I get touched on the heart through my ears.  I learned my lesson when we were in Barcelona and ran across a hilarious band who sang a hilarious song about wanting to hire a prostitute but only having enough money to buy a cup of coffee.  They had CDs available, but I didn't buy one and later really regretted it.

Aside from street musicians, I also spent a lot of time hanging out in the piano bar on SeaDream I, singing along with George the pianist... even though I got sick with a cold and lost my voice.  The power of music is strong... what can I say?