MP3 Max Goldston - Western Age

Acoustic western fingerstyle rock with a western/new age feel.Hence the label Western Age.

7 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Fingerstyle, EASY LISTENING: Background Music

Details:
My father, Robert Goldston, was a renowned historian and author. My mother was a classical pianist. In the 1950's they moved from Greenwich Village to a small island in the Mediterranean called Ibiza, famous amongst artists and intellectuals at the time. There I was born. We traveled back and forth pretty much all our lives.
When I was 5 I started playing the pots and pans in Vermont. My parents hence bought me my first drumkit with a Dave Clark 5 logo on it - I started learning
classical guitar, blues, and rock when I was 11. Throughout my younger years I was involved in jam sessions with adult players.
In 1976 we moved to upstate New York. At college I formed a duo with an old friend from Ibiza. We were called Tim and Max and we had a great following. We played original acoustic folk. After a few years I moved back to Ibiza and fell in love.
In 1986 I formed my first cover/original band called Obsession. We played mainly in hotels but took whatever we could get. In 1988 we were invited to record three songs on a promotional album. After a year we were all original and changed our name to Limites. We were then offered a full free demo recording in Madrid by Audifono Recording Studios. The engineer liked us so much he became our producer. In 1989 we entered the VII Pop-Rock contest in Mallorca - the most important contest in Spain. We moved through the semi-finals to the Finals and ended up 5th out of 65 bands. With all of this recognition things started going our way with town halls all over the Baleares offering us air fare, hotel stay and decent pay for concerts. In the Summer of 1989 we were curtain callers for the number one band in Spain "Los Ronaldos" at the annual Estiu Jove Concert. That same Summer we were invited to record our best song "Dejame Estar" on an LP at Joan Bibiloni's Swing Studios in Mallorca. By that time "Dejame Estar" was actually number 15 on the local Balearic charts. We were then offered to go to Barcelona, all expenses paid, tour the city doing concerts --unfortunately, due to circumstances -military service,marriage, separations and egos- we split up right at that moment.
Limites is a legendary name in Ibiza-well remembered by all it's diehard fans and musicians of the islands. Not only were we the first band from Ibiza to get national recognition for original rock, we set the path for the rest of the struggling and younger musicians in Ibiza to play original music and not give in to covers and hotels.
In 1991 I moved back to the States; Atlanta. In 1993 I hooked up with my old partner from college and formed a more mature and serious version of our duo with management. In less than two months Bellows and Stone were playing concerts at all of the most important venues of Atlanta including Eddies attic, Red light café,Dark horse tavern,neighbor's Pub...In '94 we recorded a demo in Dede Vogt's Sound and Fury studios. We started traveling regularly to Asheville where we filled coffee houses, played at the famous "Be Here Now" several times opening up for Acoustic Alchemy and Aztec 2step. We also had an interview on NPR radio. We were gigging regularly all over Atlanta, Asheville and Athens and our venue list was growing to include NYC,ChapelHill-Durham, Athens, and more.
In 1996 I started writing and recording on my own. The CD Western Age is a collection of instrumentals written from 1996 to the present. Purely instrumental, it is a blend of my own original feel and reflections of my main influences-- JJ Cale and Micheal Hedges-
My 2nd CD "Island Lost" is a collaboration with Barcelona based musician/engineer/producer Antoni Colomar. This collaboration started during the Fall of 2006.
Our CD "Island Lost" is a collection of acoustic guitar instrumentals composed by Max Goldston with production and arrangements by Toni Colomar.Fingerstyle picking instrumentals with an ambient,chill sound. This cd is also for sale here at cdbaby: wwww.cdbaby.com/cd/aurum
I just finished recording my 3rd cd at 2004 grammy award winning and Wyndham Hill creator producer Will Ackerman's Imaginary Road Studios.The cd should be out shortly.


REVIEWS
July 2005 edition 20th Century Guitar Magazine:

- "Growing up in Ibiza and Spain, Max Goldston has enjoyed a colorful life and in 2005 the U.S.-based guitarist puts his talents to good use on his latest CD project called Western Age. Citing influences like Michael Hedges, J.J. Cale and Acoustic Alchemy, Goldston masterfully sets the sound stage with nine evocative acoustic guitar instrumentals that crisscross jazzy folk sounds with a New Age vibe. Overall, Western Age reveals a unique depth of appealing musical ideas that translates quite well to the acoustic guitar medium." Robert Silverstein

REVIEWS by musicians at Tascam forums

"The clever tunings,the hidden counter melodies,subtle rhythmic sonorities...all hidden under a very sneaky disguise of a laid back performance."

"There's some mighty fine acoustic guitar work to be heard here!"

"Completely dig your stuff man...keep it coming."

"Beautiful work.I love that harpsichord sounding low end on the guitar.Very sweet chord work and changes.What a mood."

"Superb!As usual.Very original.Very musical,creative,extremely well played!"

"I've also become a big fan,Max.You've got one of the best acoustic guitar recorded sounds I've heard in a long time."

"Hey,awesome man,really warm sound very cool atmosphere again!Keep up the good work."

"Very cool vibe,and your playing is very cool.I like the harmonics and the way they fit in."

"Love this tune.Wonderful acoustic guitar sound.How did you get this?"

"All I can say is Wow!Very impressive compositional and performance skills to say the very least!"

"Very tasteful guitar playing here!"

"I really like your chord voicings.A very Southwestern vibe to it."

What the judges at Tascam forums song contest had to say:

EERIE STREET
Entry # 257 "Eerie Street Good instrumental. Liked the song. Well arranged and performed."
"Great twangy guitar sound. Great harmonica playing.
WATERS
Entry # 306 "I thought this an extremely well done tune all around.Well executed,mixed and original.
I thought a great composition."
"Good instrumental. Good three dimensional placement of the instruments. Well
performed and arranged. The mix translated well from stereo to monophonic."
WRANGLED
Entry # 537 "Very well executed composition. Very good mix for balance,clarity."
"Nice...a song in 3/4 finally! Nice sounds from the guitar, and nice work on them too."

For more info on the contest and news about Western Age
please go to www.maxgoldston.com

People who are interested in Acoustic Alchemy J.J. Cale Peter White should consider this download.