Tracy Chapman gives a beautiful performance of Ben E. King’s 1961 classic, Stand By Me. The lyrics and her voice go right to the heart, and her guitar accompaniment shines with beautiful simplicity.

Guitarists, musicians in general, everyone, we all love a good story. Conductor Benjamin Zander.

I opened an email a few minutes ago, from Dalton Santos, asking me to take a look at this video. I’ve never heard of Dalton before. All I know is what I see in this video, and that he’s from Brazil, and that he wrote me a nice email.

I get lots of requests from players I’ve never heard of, asking me to post their videos. I generally decline, especially the non-classical stuff. Usually the visual quality of the video just isn’t very good, even though the playing might be great. Or the audio quality isn’t very good, or the music isn’t very good. Or something. You get the idea. I generally like a video to have the whole package: good production values, music that interests me, and a certain measure of emotion that comes across.

In this case, even though rock isn’t my usual cup of tea, everything is there: the visuals, the sound, the skill, and a nice positive creative energy. I think it’s a pretty neat video and I’m happy to post it.

Bom trabalho, Dallton!