Yes, I do read (some of) your e-mails!
—–Original Message—–
From: Claudia
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 1:12 PM
To: Stereogum
Subject: Performance on Letterman Last nightHey Scott –
I check out your site everyday and appreciate all the music you share.Just wanted to share something of my own…saw this guy on Letterman last night and was floored..the lip-trumpet solo in the middle of the song had me going bananas.
Was able to find the performance posted on Letterman’s site…
Thanks Claudia. Pretty cool. Sorta Kaki King meets Michael Winslow.
Click here to watch Raul Midon perform “State of Mind” on Letterman. (Real Media)
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nice. i think his album is coming out later this year!
ok i was ready to shit on this but then the mouth trumpet solo shut me the funke up. now im just jealous.
Hey did you hear about this supposed speculation that Conor Oberst was found dead in a hotel in France? Its on the CNN website, hope it’s not true though.
Someone e-mailed me this:
Conor Oberst dead ABC.com Screengrab
Take with one million grains of salt.
yep, BS
was started a few days ago:
I totally agree with tobias funke. Non-trumpet solo was shite AC, mouth trumpet solo made me soil myself.
I haven’t smoked enough bongloads today to really get into this guy’s music, but I could definitely see him touring with Ben Harper, Keller Williams or someone similar.
Damn I miss college.
Oh, and I only wish Conor Oberst was dead. Could we at least trade him in for a return of Elliott Smith?
C’mon, no props for my Police Academy reference?
Nobody mentions his guitar playing. Incredible percusive style, and he effortlessly hit this overtone note within his staccato strumming that really sang. Why do blind people have to make sighted people look like such musical chumps all the time?
The lip-horn solo was right on the verge of being Bobby McFerrin-esque, but he totally sold it, especially in combination with the rhythmic chord changes. I non-ironically love this guy.
Wait, this dude’s blind?
Raul Midon is an amazingly talented musician. I used to see him at the Van Dyke cafe on Miami Beach. His guitar playing is impeccable, his songs are great and he’s got that mouth trumpet down. It makes it all the more amazing that he is blind and still able to play with such skill and accuracy.
Please people, spread the word about this guy. He is a truly talented artist and deserves some credit/support for his hard work.
B-A-N-A-N-A-S!
Can anyone MP3 this clip?
Damn. I don’t think the cbs link is working anymore. Anyone else having trouble? (I’m watching his Millenium stage show on Real Player, so it’s not my real player). It’s damn good, but there’s no mouth trumpet (yet).
never mind. He does some of it about 2:45 into the show. I’m just impatient.
More Raul listening and video to be found here:
http://www.manhattanrecords.com/raulplayer/
Full disclosure: I built the Raul player for Manhattan. I kind of like him – my wife not so much so.
oh he’s blind? so that’s how an unknown, barely-not-busking dude gets on dave letterman. and NOW i see the police academy reference, well done gum, but when i didn’t know who kaki king was the reference part of my brain turned off.
kaki king is a guitar player and she does a lot of the percussiony type slap guitar style with lots of harmnoics that this guy kind of uses
He toured with Jason Mraz last year, and was just incredible live. One of those opening acts that accomplishes the remarkable feat of winning over a reluctant audience. He totally blew me away.
Raul is fantastic! I saw him open for Jason Mraz and bought his EP at the show. He got a great review in People (not that People is really a reputable source for good music reviews, but still…) and I saw him again at the Detroit Festival of the Arts a couple weeks ago. FANTASTIC! Love his guitar style and his voice. People who were walking by the tent were stopping to soak it in…
Also, he and his wife Kat seem like really cool people. I am on their e-mail list and once wrote back to one of their announcements and she wrote back right away to thank me for the support.
Definitely check him out!
Thanks for turning me onto this guy. Definitely going to catch him when hit his Chi-town next week.
~ Colter
haha is claudia his publicist or something?
Yo, that song was terrible. Yeah, he’s a good musician, but the song itself was laughable hippie horseshit. Maybe he should let somebody else write his songs for him. “I was sad, but now I’m feelin’ fine.” “Everybody’s actin’ so outrageous, it’s gonna take a lot of love to turn things around.” He reminds me of Eagle Eye Cherry.
Does he do the mouth-trumpet thing on other songs? I suppose it’s cool for one song. I mean, I couldn’t do it, but then again I would never want to.
That was worth waiting for. Yeah, that CBS link was a bit slow, but I was diggin’ that! Once in a while, I do the lip-horn thang. Drives my wife nuts!
his guitar style is a complete rip-off of Kaki King, im utterly amazed. It sounds EXACTLY like her if he wasn’t signing.Plus his lyrics arent that worthwhile. i like songs about war
Raul Midon also plays in the Elements of Life band led by Louie Vega of Masters at Work. It’s very latin-jazz oriented, so less room for him to cheese things up. I haven’t even checked his solo work, but he’s a good guitar player with a nice voice that reminds me of dude from Blaze.
Another good mouth-trumpet player is Ed Motta, this humongous Brazilian dude who sounds like Stevie Wonder meets Chick Corea.
um. . .kaki king’s playing might sound like Raul, but I can tell you that Raul did not rip her off. first of all, he’s blind (and about 10 years older than her, and has been playing like that for decades) so maybe she ripped him off. second, he was born blind, has NEVER seen anyone play a guitar, so he plays percussive because that’s the only way he knows how. further more, he has perfect pitch, as well as perfect time, and while his lyrics might be a bit cheesy sometimes, his pure talent is so amazing, that seeing him perform live is one of those truly awesome experiences.
one of the photos says he was found dead in paris, but goes on to talk about deputies–are there deputies in paris??just a question
this raul guy doesnt impress me. what bugs me is people flip their shit over his guitar playing and mouth trumpet. keller williams has been doing this shit (and in a much more interesting way) for almost 20 years, and he’s not being paraded around the US like some show pony. so whatever. i prefer keller, and this guy’s a sap. my friend shana is blind, and she rides horses. and she wouldnt need any sympathy if she wrote dumb lyrics, and neither does this dude.