"Tranquilo" by Dave Pepper

Given the overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia engendered by the current situation, it is a corrective to share evidence that we are not all hemmed into a narrow space necessarily. While clearly the limited chance to see live music indoors, in company & in a crowd is presently denied to us for sure, the fact that there is something of a Coventry & Warwickshire musical diaspora out there and to be able to review two records by prominent members of it within a fortnight is uplifting.

Last week I told you about "Doing Nothing" by Luke Concannon, currently based in New England while today the spotlight turns onto Dave Pepper who is in southern Spain.with his latest release, "Tranquilo"

The last song by Dave I told you about was "It's Christmas" back last December which was… well, a Christmas song. You hopefully will also remember "Asylum" by the X-Certs which appeared on ‘Hot Music Live Presents Volume One' & which features Dave too. "Tranquilo" in no way resembles either of those two songs. In fact if you have followed Dave's long & extremely varied career (or at least tried to: you'd need a large research team to accurately pin down all his groups & tunes, let alone styles) you'd instantly recognise his tendency to avoid stagnation by ever moving onwards: a true musical nomad if there ever was one.

This one does however reflect both his long term virtuosity which is common to all his career phases & a long term interest in flamenco music which I'm sure is being enhanced currently.

This absolutely exquisite track (originally conceived for a soundtrack) is actually a long one (eight & a half minutes) but never outstays its welcome, driven by his masterful guitar playing & with prominent pan pipes (you can also hear his keyboard skills underneath: several of his most popular bands involved him playing these rather than guitar). Evocative, mesmerising & as far as I'm concerned, an aid to mindfulness & destressing. 

It's great that local musicians go out into the wider world to spread the news about our music, but let's not forget what their wider experience sends home, enriching the scene as  "Tranquilo" does: and the good news is that this is but the first track released from an album of similar material which Dave is currently working on.