Music For The Blind

Second session of a music presentation for the blind and visually handicapped took place again in the presentation room of Czech agency SONS (Czech Blind United). I was really honored people were giving very positive feedback after the first session to managers of SONS and therefore, I prepared a playlist based on their preferences. You can find the background of this story in an article about the first session here.

List of songs and their final scores:

Congratulations to Markéta Irglová, Steve Hackett and Royal Thunder

Songs	Scores
01 – Anathema – The Beginning And The End (Live)	5,1
02 – Jeff Buckley – Forget Her	3,15
03 – God Is an Astronaut – Suicide by Star	1,5
04 – Markéta Irglová – Without a Map	14,8
05 – If These Trees Could Talk – Barren Lands Of The Modern Dinosaur	2,8
06 – Lenka Dusilová – Mrazy (Live)	6,9
07 – Andrea Bocelli – When I Fall In Love (feat Chris Botti)	3
08 – Steve Hackett – Behind The Smoke	12,05
09 – Royal Thunder – One Day	7,2
10 – Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa – I’d Rather Go Blind	5,1
11 – Loreena Mckennitt – Marco Polo	4,1
12 – Jolly – As Heard On Tape	4,7
13 – Bonus	2,1

For the playlist, I have chosen songs, which I love, but I was also doing my best to satisfy each interest group within listeners. First of all, at the first session, there were really high scores for the artists within intelligent pop scene as Beck and Agnes Obel. Therefore I have included this time Jeff Buckley and two Czech female singers Markéta Irglová and Lenka Dusilová. Not only because this session is done in the Czech Republic, but to show them the best local quality. Eventually it turned out great, because each guest knew these two ladies, but as they told me afterwards, not enough. You might have heard about Markéta Irglová through soundtrack for movie Once. However, her solo work, being done few years now in Iceland, where she moved, is breathtaking.

Secondly, coming mainly from the gentlemen, there was a big interest for prog rock. So, I didn’t need much picking to choose Steve Hackett. He was one of the most interesting and friendliest people I ever interviewed and I find his twenty-fifth! album The Night Siren, my absolute from his discography.

And finally, I was trying to satisfy random individual tastes. Let say, there was one gentleman who was really into world music, so I have chosen one legendary piece from Canadian artist Loreena Mckennitt. At this session, I wanted to give the biggest credit to a SONS manager Věra Macháčková, who was taking care of all organizational tasks. As she wrote me, which artists she likes, I have picked Andrea Bocelli’s song When I Fall In Love (feat Chris Botti). Before the song started, I also thanked her personally and I have given her a CD with Andrea Bocelli’s live album Love in Portofino, to enhance the music environment in SONS’s offices and not just rely on local radio stations.

Mentioning Andrea Bocelli and Chris Botti, it was also great moment to include some interesting facts. Well, I did my best to include personal experiences or interesting facts before each song. But in the case of these two gentlemen, I had honor to conduct interviews with both of them. In general, I interviewed number of artists, whose music was presented that session and there were number of nice stories including one with Loreena McKennitt. I remember few years ago, her manager offered me to pay for my taxi, while I went to interview Loreena in a hotel, before her performance in Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. Her hotel was on the other side of the city, but as I knew city well, I rather offered them to keep the money and rather give me a voucher for merchandising. Before the show I picked a DVD Nights from the Alhambra for my dad, who is a big fan and took my seat afterwards with a friend, in the first balcony line, right next to the stage.

However, I also wanted to include realistic, yet sometimes sad stories. In July 1998, Loreena’s fiancé Ronald Rees, his brother Richard and their close friend Gregory Cook drowned in a boating accident on Georgian Bay. Similar story was also related with Jeff Buckley, who’s song Forget Her came second. This inspirational singer, who was listed in 2004 by Rolling Stone as a number 39 on their list of greatest singers of all time, drowned during a spontaneous evening swim, fully clothed, in the Mississippi River. Loreena’s sad experience led her to get involved into charity activities and she founded the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety.

For the bonus track, I was waiting for a special guest, who was supposed to come, but he didn’t manage. So I have decided to keep that track for a third session and I have picked from reserves a magnificent track Playing Love from a movie soundtrack for The Legend of 1900. I did my best to explain the storyline to the guests, but video speaks for itself.

I am really humbled each participant enjoyed our session and I am very happy many also enjoyed one of my most favorite songs One Day from American band Royal Thunder and eventually made it number three of the evening. Everybody I was constantly doubting and saying to myself: “Is this session really that good, as I believe it is? Are they just sitting here, because they are just trying to be polite and will not come next time?” Well, after the last song one man came, (only one having a beer btw) and said: “Dude, it was fucking awesome. Everything! But my most favorite song was from Royal Thunder!”

So, no worries! See you on the third session on 26^th of September