Search - Eltjo Haselhoff :: Fingerstyle Guitar Solos

What a great CD!

Mike | 04/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sometimes it amazes me that there are great artists that nobody has ever heard of. How is it possible? In a world polluted with cheap, commercialized and noisy music, this CD is a breath of fresh air. I love this CD. Eltjo is a great guitarist with a real magic touch. There may be indeed some influences by Chet Atkins and clearly some by Tommy Emmanuel. but most of all Eltjo displays a strong, personal and highly versatile (finger-)style. It just amazes me how someone can create so much music with just six strings on one guitar. Sometimes it's as if you're listening to an entire band! "Snow in London" is my personal favorite, it's the most beautiful ballad I have ever heard. For me, this song alone would be enough to buy the CD."

An awesome guitarist!

Kimberly McConnell | Netherlands/USA | 04/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Eltjo Haselhoff is a Dutch guitarist/composer, and this is his debut CD. If you listen to the first track for about 10 seconds you will conclude that Eltjo Haselhoff is an awesome guitarist. And if you listen to the rest of the tracks, you will find that he is a brilliant composer too, who manages to expose beautiful melodies with impressive guitar techniques. His playing is ultra-smooth, with a bright, clear, ringing tone, and a great sense of timing and melody. Ten of the tracks are originals, and Eltjo clearly demonstrates that he also understands the art of writing good music. There are many great guitar players out there - and Eltjo clearly is one of them - but I believe there are not many good composers, yet, Eltjo is one of them. About half of the songs are slow and mind-easing ballads (e.g., Snow in London, Myosotis, Jantine), the other half consists of foot-tapping, hand-clapping, up-tempo fingerpickers (e.g., Tap Your Foot, Mugle, Tumbo), but all of the songs are characterized by strong and elegant melodies - some of which definitely have the potential to become famous 'evergreens' one day - and a great sense of timing. This is also a highly versatile disc, with styles ranging from almost classical guitar (Morgan Magan), through Celtic (Snow in London), Jazz (Roundback Rag), folk (Pingu) all the way to great Bluegrass (the end of Tumbo, where Eltjo plays the traditional bluegrass tune "Jaybird", including a great fiddle solo!). I think this CD will be highly appreciated by anyone who likes acoustic guitar (? la Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel, Michael Hedges and the like) or acoustic music in general, and probably also by many others not particularly into guitar music at all. This is because Eltjo's music is indeed quite accessible. There is no doubt in my mind that this guy is going to be very famous one day. Five stars, for a very impressive debut CD."

Beautiful

Henry M | Netherlands | 04/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am an acoustic guitar freak and own hundreds of guitar CDs. What I like about this CD is that every song is good. Many guitar CDs have a couple of good songs and some more songs 'to fill the gaps'. Every song on this CD, however, has been carefully composed and performed. They are all quite different, but I like them all, not a single weak bit on this CD! Eltjo's melodies are undisputedly his strongest point. Elegant, surprising yet accessible, often very original (e.g., Phoelix & Grimm, what a brilliant song!) but always logical and never far-fetched, they have it all. Last but not least, the sound quality of this CD is exceptionally good. Very pure, clean and extremely natural. This CD is between my favorites, and I am eagerly waiting for the next CD of this great Dutch guitarist."