John Raptis:Exquisite Guitar !!

Somewhere on this blog is a video of me singing one of my songs;'Amaranth.' If you look on the right -hand side of this page,half -way up you will see 'Amaranth' written.If you click on this you should be taken to the video.

You will, in fact, be taken to the top of the page  and see my video ;"Hide Away, Hide Away,Hide Away'.If you scroll down underneath you should see;'Amaranth'.

In fact, through some error, there are two videos of this song. I can't erase one of these videos because , from past experience, if I did, I would erase both, so I'm leaving them both there.

I hope you like the song, but I mention it in particular, because of the exquisite guitar playing by John Raptis.
I think you will agree that his guitar playing on this track is beautifully executed.

John also played the guitar on ;'Hide Away, Hide Away, Hide Away 'and it is well worth a listen to. Athough the guitar playing on this is outstanding, the guitar solo really soars and.I still get the shivers when I hear that solo, even though I have heard it quite a lot!

Anyway, back to Amaranth.

I remember recording this in the Underground Studio, Athens, which is owned by John.

I  sang and performed a very rough version live on guitar in front of him. He listened attentively, made a few musical signs on a piece of paper,and said:" I've got it; let's try it in the studio.".

So we did what we thought was a run -through, a sort of rehersal, before we'd start discussing exactly what sound and atmosphere we wanted and what instruments would be used.Luckily he had the recording equipment on.

When we finished doing the recording- it's very short, about 2minutes 20 seconds- we both knew that there was no need for any more recording !!

I like to think that the video captures the spontaneity of those moments in the studio.O.K, one or two parts were added later, but the backbone of the song is in those 2minutes 20  seconds.

Whenever I hear it, I always mutter to myself: "Wow, John Raptis and his exquisite guitar playing!"

I hope you do the same.