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This post was originally written on February 4th, 2011

The past few weeks have been freezing in the City of Brotherly love!

For some reason, when the mercury dips low, I get an overwhelming urge to listen to music fit for a much warmer climate.

When the blustery weather grips the city, there is nothing like venturing out to a pub or coffee house, putting on headphones and having Bob Marley warm your thoughts with his dreams of ultimate freedom.

There’s just a certain feeling that you get watching people walk by bundled up in coats, scarves and hats while the tropical rhythm of Reggae music hints at what’s in store once the winter is done having it’s way.

It’s been cold, but I’ve really been feelin’ it!

Besides, nothing makes a better excuse for staying indoors playing guitar than brutal ten degree weather.

It’s also very effective at reminding you just how lucky you are to be blessed with warmth and shelter.

So here are 3 island gems that have been keeping my soul warm over the past few snow dusted weeks..

Legend – The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers – There’s not much that needs to be said about this “best of” Bob Marley LP. In fact, I think they did a pretty incredible job of summing it up with just one word.. LEGEND. And this album is most definitely a legendary collection from a legendary music icon. Literally every track on this disc has already been written into the history books of music!

Purchase Legend – The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers for only $10.

The Harder They Come – Original Soundtrack – For those of you not familiar with the movie The Harder They Come, it’s a cult classic that tells the age old tale of the struggling unknown artist achieving his dream while highlighting the laundry list of evils waiting to take it all away. The soundtrack features the star of the movie.. none other than Jimmy Cliff himself and produced the kind of timeless classics that most modern day million dollar Hollywood movies could only dream of producing! The stand out track on this LP is Many Rivers To Cross which over the years has been endlessly covered by other artists. In my opinion, no version has ever lived up to the emotional powerhouse that was originally laid down by the master himself.. Jimmy Cliff.

Purchase The Harder They Come – Original Soundtrack for only $9.49 and The Movie The Harder They Come for only $13.49.

Heart of the Congos – Many music fans have never heard of the legendary reggae group the Congos. If you’re one of them, you need to remedy that asap! With an incredible falsetto that would drive most modern r&b singers to commit suicide by microphone cord and a hauntingly religious sound, the Congos prove once again that the best things in life are usually the rarest and hardest to come by! This album features some very tasteful background guitar work by a true guitar master and one of my all time favorite guitarists.. Ernest Ranglin aka Bob Marley’s guitar teacher.

Purchase Heart Of The Congos for only $11.07 or Download the MP3 for only $8.99.

Each of these recordings has helped me get through many gray winter days and nights.

Which albums have been keeping your soul warm over the last few bitter winter months? Let us know in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you.

Nothing makes a roadtrip more enjoyable than good music.

This past weekend I had a three hour car ride out of Philly ahead of me so my girlfriend Brielle and I grabbed our pug Caezar, loaded up the car and put the ipod on shuffle mode.

Just outside of New York City on a rolling strip of snow covered mountainside it came on. The jazz classic Moanin by legendary drummer Art Blakey. And when I say classic.. I mean CLASSIC!

Moanin’ is a timeless jazz standard that is as fresh today as that fateful fall day in 1958 when Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers braved their way into the recording studio to pour their hearts out through their instruments for the benefit of endless generations of musicians and music fans to come.

Featuring one of my all time favorite musicians, trumpet legend extraordinaire.. Lee Morgan, Moanin is a party song to end all party songs.

Now when I say party song, I don’t mean the electro-talentless juvenile drag and drop stick figure art that music industry marketing execs have swindled modern music fans into spending their hard earned money on.

You know what I’m talking about.. the kind of song where the annoying “artist” of the moment loads up his autotune computer voice and spouts nursery rhymes over recycled samples of degenerating drum loops and undefinable knob twiddles.

No, this is a real party song! And at this party supremely talented master musicians are the guests of honor.

For the entire 9 and a half minutes that this song played I was transported to another universe. A universe where troubles don’t exist and you’re ultimately connected to a divine source that speaks through the musicians into the music and directly to your soul.

This recording should be in the collection of anyone who has even the remotest desire to listen to quality party music that contains some actual substance.

It’s deep and it will move you.

So my recommendation is this.. the next time that you find yourself on a long drive through a snowy mountain covered hillside, throw on Moanin’.. forget your troubles.. take in the scenery.. and let the party begin!

Purchase Moanin’ by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

This is a quick guitar lesson on how to play Niki Minaj Right Thru Me from her Pink Friday LP. I’ve been hearing it so much that it really got stuck in my head. Something sounded so familiar about it but I just couldn’t figure it out. All of a sudden it hit me.. It’s sampled from Joe Satriani’s Always With Me, Always With You from the Surfing With The Alien album. That combined with the fact that I couldn’t get it out of my head meant only one thing.. I had to do a guitar lesson on it! If you want to play the Satriani version, just take the whole riff and lower it one whole step starting it with your 4th finger on the 9th fret instead of the 11th fret. The free tab download will be posted in the next few days.

Don’t miss my previous post – I Don’t React To Dumb Sh*t – and my next post – Party Music For A Snow Covered Mountainside

I was watching a documentary style t.v. show about prison a few weeks ago. They were in the prison yard interviewing a well respected inmate who was serving a life sentence. Even though he was well respected, some of the other prisoners were yelling things at him while he was being interviewed. The host of the show asked the inmate if it bothered him that they were being rude and interrupting him. His response.. “No, ’cause I don’t react to dumb sh*t!”

What a great outlook! I was stunned at such a simple yet profound response. How much better would my life be if I just stopped reacting to dumb sh*t? Having a reaction to insignificant and negative behavior from other people just validates it and gives it power. Not reacting just shuts it down.

If you really think about it, how much of our valuable time and energy is wasted when someone insults us, puts us down, makes us feel bad or is just plain mean spirited? First you get hit with the insult, then you waste your time feeling bad. After that you waste more time trying to analyze and figure out where this person was coming from and why they have such a harsh view of you.

In my experience, it’s never about you. It’s always about the other person who’s projecting negativity on you and putting you down. Do they really view you that way? Could it really be true? WHO CARES!!! Just keep doing your thing. It’s a proven fact that the reason why people impose they’re misery on you and put you down is because they are unhappy and insecure with themselves. Putting you down makes them feel better about they’re own hang ups.

Need proof of this theory?? Just think about the fact that there were times when Jimi Hendrix was booed. Could it be that the people booing him were right and Jimi sucks at guitar. Of course not! It’s just like I said, those people reacted to greatness with booing because of their own issues of ignorance, insecurity and inferiority.

As a guitar player, you are always going to receive criticism. 99.9% of it will not be constructive. You’re always going to be compared to other players, most of whom will have completely different styles than your own. But what you have to realize is that playing guitar is an artform and art is subjective. Everyone has their own opinion about what makes a great artist. Another thing to consider is that most opinions are completely uneducated ones.

So try this out along with me.. The next time that someone criticizes your playing or puts you down in general, don’t even acknowledge it. Don’t waste your time feeling bad or analyzing their comments. Just move on to bigger and better things that your day has in store for you. Be that O.G. in the prison yard.. Don’t react to dumb sh*t!

I Don’t REACT TO Dumb Sh*t!, ANGELODESTEFANO.COM by AngeloDeStefano
Start making t-shirts on zazzle

The holidays are officially over and I think it’s safe to say that by now most of us are back to our grind. For me that means getting back to teaching guitar both in person and online. About this time last year in January 2010, I launched the ADblog, a new feature on this website. It started out as a sounding board to express my thoughts on music and guitar related topics. It’s also turned into a great way for me to further connect with you guys, let off steam, and write reviews on some excellent products that I’ve come across. So in the order that they were posted.. here is the best of ADblog 2010.

5 Reasons Why Lil Wayne Should Learn To Play Guitar

5 Reasons Why Justin Bieber Ruined My New Year’s Eve

5 Hip-Hop/Rock Collaborations That Changed The Game

7 Guitarists Who Have The Goosebump Factor

Guitar Hero Meets Real Guitar

Let Your Game Speak Your Name

DVD Review: Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn In Session

AD’s Guitar Christmas Wishlist

Top 10 Guitar Lessons of 2010

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read my blog. Be on the lookout for new ADblog posts in 2011