Il 4 Aprile saremo a Milano per le sessioni Live del 1M Festival. Sarà possibile seguire le performance dal vivo in streaming attraverso il sito 1MFESTIVAL.

I concerti cominceranno alle 21:00. Poco prima dell’inizio dell’evento posteremo sulla nostra pagina Facebook gli orari precisi della nostra esibizione.

On Thursday, April 4th, we’ll playing a set with the band at the 1M Festival in Milan, Italy. It will be filmed and streamed live, so you can watch us here: 1MFESTIVAL

The event kicks off at 9pm ( that’s 2pm US Central Time ) – sometime before then we will update our Facebook page with the exact time of our performance.

Hi people!
Two things coming up for Gaia Groove…tonight we’re playing a live set on one of Rome’s top stations, Radio Rock 106.6.
We’ll be playing in a beautiful, fully equipped recording room at Radio Rock’s headquarters, in the heart of the city.
We’re scheduled for 7pm, ( 12 noon central time in the US ) and you can listen online here: direct link.

This Tuesday, for those of you who will be in Rome, near Piazza Navona, we’re playing a show at the beautiful Etablì winebar…set in a 16 century building on “Vicolo delle Vacche” ( a narrow cobblestone street – makes for difficult loading/loading of gear but it’s worth it ), it boasts antique furniture, flattering low lighting, excellent food and of course…wine! No going wrong with that…
Come and join us!

Questo Sera, ore 19:00, i Gaia Groove in elettrico su Radio Rock 106.6 FM, un mini concerto dal vivo in diretta su Saturday Rock Live!
Si potrà ascoltare anche in diretta streaming tramite il sito di Radio Rock.

Link diretto.

Martedì sera saremo all’Etablì, vicolo delle Vacche 9, a due passi dalla splendida piazza Navona. Veniteci a trovare in uno dei locali più caratteristici e confortevoli della capitale, ingresso gratuito e tanto blues.

Le elezioni sono passate e le carte sono in tavola, il futuro è ancora incerto ma per quanto ci riguarda l’incertezza è più rassicurante di una dipartita inevitabile. Si è messo in moto un cambiamento, “le fragole sono mature”.

Se volete stemperare lo stress accumulato in questo periodo, veniteci a trovare questo venerdì, 1 Marzo, al Druids Rock ( Piazza dell’Esquilino 1, Rome, Italy ). Igresso gratuito e tanto BLUES.

Vi ricordo inoltre che il 14 Marzo saremo ad Ombre Rosse (Piazza S.Egidio 12/13) a trastevere Roma.

Elections are over, the cards are on the table.

A great wave of change, in the form of Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement, has completely upset the balance, wedging itself in between the Bersani-led left coalition ( that was favored to win, but being spineless and lacking as it is, actually lost votes ) and the Berlusconi-led right coalition ( how he got any votes at all at this point should be the subject of a psychiatric case study ).

The result? A precarious government with no real majority: although the Five Star Movement is the most voted party in the Chamber of Deputies, and the second in the Senate, it will (obviously) not have a majority, not being allied with any other party.

So, the Five Star Movement is in the government, and represents the only real, transparent, honest, democratic part of it – and it will stay true to itself, not giving in to bribes, threats or pressure.

People are shouting out to them to team up with the left, so at least a stable government can be formed that can immediately make much needed changes.

This is also because there is rumor of left and right teaming up, which of course is scandalous.

But it won’t happen. Nobody wants a revote in the next months, least of all Grillo’s Stars, but it’s important that the Movement remain true to itself, so no alliances; it has always been an antipolitical party – new, fresh, opposite. To ally themselves with the left would be to betray that spirit.

We’re ecstatic that Five Stars got such an amazing result; we hope for the best for Italy, knowing things will be tricky in the next months.

The best relief for stress brought on by elections, debates, scandals, economic downfall ect. is music of course.

We will be playing live with the band at Druid’s Rock this Friday, March 1st in Rome (Piazza dell’Esquilino 1). The Blues never fails us…come on and see, you’ll feel better. There’s Guiness too, which can’t hurt.

March 14th we’ll be at the lovely locale Ombre Rosse, in the heart of Trastevere (Piazza S.Egidio 12/13).

Hi folks,

as you can see we are starting to add new upcoming concert dates in Rome, so check out our live shows section if you’ll be passing through the Eternal City in the months of February and March.

January is almost over, and I’m very glad to report that it has been our busiest time ever, due to two main things we’ve been working feverishly on: our 2nd album and the Movimento 5 Stelle campaign for the upcoming Feb elections. For more on the latter subject, I urge you all to read this article by Eric Ellis at The Global Mail, where he interviews comedian-turned-political-activist Beppe Grillo right after the 2012 Municipal elections. He effectively explains what the Five Star Movement is about and what it’s aiming to accomplish.

Excerpt of the article:

“Neither right or left, Grillo’s anti-politics, internet-led Five Star Movement, the Movimento 5 Stelle or just M5S as Italians know it, has just swept into the mayoralty of one of Italy’s most important cities, Parma — source of the world’s best-loved hams, cheeses and pasta sauces and, also, home of the indigestible $10 billion Parmalat corruption scandal that continues to disgust Italians.”

[...]

“Grillo also declines to call the M5S a party, preferring the more populist “movement”. Whatever M5S is, it’s young and rampant. Apart from Parma, it has recently taken three other Italian mayoralties, with candidates aged 26 to 32 years. In 2010 local elections, its vote was an average 3 to 5 per cent. In recent municipal ballots, it tracked at 10 to 15 per cent. Nationally, an Ipsos opinion poll on May 21 had Grillo’s M5S at 18.5 per cent popularity, second only to the big-tent Democratic Party on the left, and outstripping former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom.

As M5S’s notional leader, Grillo refuses to parade the movement’s candidates in the conventional media, and rare is the Italian journalist who has interviewed him. Grillo sees local journalists as irrelevant and if he wishes to talk to the press, he does so with foreign reporters. The candidates also bypass the media, consulting direct with voters via technology. This sidelining has engendered a deep animosity from the Italian media, who demonise him and often cast him as “un-Italian”.

Mass movements like Grillo’s — organised via the internet, text and social media, and bypassing the traditional outlets of communication to take anti-austerity, anti-corruption mantras direct to the citizenry — are sweeping a deeply wounded Europe. As the continent descends further into its economic mire, these movements are tearing up the long-established rules of politics. And they expose a profound disgust for a centuries-old political class that seems clueless and incapable of correcting Europe’s many ills.”

So, that is what we’ve been up to, and we hope to see you soon at one of our live concerts!

Un Saluto, Hilary & Emiliano

Siamo molto felici di ringraziare Radio Rock, in particolare Fabio Giannotti e Jelena Milic, per i complimenti che ci hanno rivolto e sopratutto per il fatto che sono un paio di settimane che mandano nelle rotazioni i brani di “Trouble & Truth”, il nostro disco.

Presto vi faremo partecipi di significative novità e a breve aggiorneremo le date dei Live che stiamo programmando.

A huge thank you to Radio Rock, ( Rome’s biggest rock radio station, 106.6 fm ), in particular to Fabio Giannotti e Jelena Milic for their compliments on our music and for broadcasting songs from “Trouble & Truth” in the last couple weeks!

Coming soon, an update on future appearances and concerts.

Happy New Year folks! We’re celebrating by playing the blues

Here’s to a new year with no Troubles and filled with Truth!

Hi All,

I have a special surprise for those of you who live in Italy: if you should feel inclined to get up extra early on Christmas morning, you can watch me perform with The Sessions Voices on TV!

We’ll be doing a couple of traditionals – “John Henry” at 6:42 am and “Jacob’s ladder” at 8:45 am – on channel one ( RAI 1 ) for the program “Uno Mattina”.  It will also be available on the “Uno Mattina” website ( in live streaming and subsequently in the videos section ).

If any of you are in Rome for this holiday season, come and celebrate with us! The Sessions Voices will be live in concert on DEC 26th at the Big Mama blues club in Trastevere ( here is the facebook event with more details ); and on DEC 27th another show in Piazza Risorgimento.

Emiliano and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, relaxing holiday season. Thank you for supporting our music … we couldn’t do it without you

Hilary

Happy Holidays everyone!

I want to give a huge thank you to every person who made this year so special. We are working on the songs for our next album, due out this summer, if all goes as planned.

I am very pleased to announce that we will be guests on the Prairie Home Companion 2013 Cruise in August! Actually, to say I’m “pleased” is quite an understatement…I think it will be the most fun and exciting thing we’ve ever done. The cruise will start off from Barcellona and end in Venice – more details here:

APHC At Sea Barcellona–Venice 2013

These days I’m rehearsing with The Sessions Voices, learning all my vocal parts and listening to the harmonies. It’s fun! We’ll be doing some Holiday shows this month:

25 Dec – A surprise for everyone…
26 Dec – live @ Big Mama (ingresso gratuito, tessera non obbligatoria!)
27 Dec – live @ Piazza Risorgimento

21 dicembre – live @ TeFenua (Ostia Antica)
25 dicembre – sorpresa per tutti…
26 dicembre – live @ Big Mama (ingresso gratuito, tessera non obbligatoria!)
27 dicembre – live in Piazza Risorgimento

Hilary

Hi all,

as you can read in this article, Twitter and Instagram are feuding. As a result, Instagram photos can no longer be seen directly on Twitter.

While this may or may not interest you, we wanted to reiterate that:

you can see our Instagram photos here:  INSTAGRAM

you can follow our Twitter updates here:  TWITTER

Game of Thrones guitar Cover (blues version)

An acoustic and electric guitar cover of the main theme song from Game of Thrones. Arranged and performed by Emiliano Martino.
Original song and soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi.

I’m a big fan of this show and its soundtrack. I watched all the great covers of the theme song on youtube and, since I didn’t see a blues/bottleneck version out there I decided to contribute one.

Thanks for watching and listening. And special thanks to Hilary Thavis for helping me shoot this video.

Waiting for season three …

Emiliano

Details:
I recorded this song using a Model L-05 Larrivée acoustic guitar plugged into a DI box, then directly into a Digi 002 Rack.
I recorded five different guitar tracks plus one Zoom H4N track ( for ambience ).
One one track I used a vintage Ibanez distortion pedal ( TS 8 ) and a T – Rex delay pedal.

The video was recorded with a Canon 5D Mark II camera and a Canon 24-105 mm lens.

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Il Trono di spade, cover di chitarra acustica in versione Blues.

Sono un grande fan della serie televisiva “il Trono di spade” ed amo in maniera viscerale la colonna sonora. Così ho deciso di omaggiarla a modo mio, arrangiando una versione contaminandola con il blues, il mio genere musicale preferito.