Reggie Sunset @ Stargazer Cafe 09/06/22
What does music mean to you? Some call it a universal language, while others call it the window to the soul. It is a form of expression, the telling of a story that binds us in a way that language alone rarely does. It can make us happy, it can make us sad but above all it can make us FEEL and that's what Reggie Sunset did for me when he played at Stargazer Café tonight.
As soon as Reggie started playing an original tune "Just do what you do", my smile was wide for it was such happy, feel-good bluesy tune.
"Its just one of those days where you just feel happy,
No matter what you do you feel so happy
its the kinda day you just do what you do"
From that moment I knew that I was listening to someone very unique, unlike anyone else that I have heard in SL. I felt that I was in the presence of a master, and as he continued on with originals and covers I found Reggie to be a man who indeed is a master. A master of gentility and tranquillity. A masterful storyteller, a weaver of words which was so clearly evident in the fun original "That's Some Bathing Suit", a song about a man's reaction to ladies on the beach and a heart-string tugging song that I don't know the name of, but one that Reggie wrote for his now departed mum after he left the East coast and moved to the West coast, which he says devastated her.
Throughout the hour I continued to be mesmerised, as like the pied piper Reggie had me transfixed, following him down the path on a journey of musical discovery. After requesting "Peaceful Easy Feeling" by my favourite band The Eagles I was in no way prepared for the delicate guitar work and beautiful, sweet, mellow voice that Reggie brought to a song that I have heard hundreds of times, but never ever like this. As I listened I recalled being told that Beethoven described the acoustic guitar as an orchestra in miniature and this was evident time and time again as the intricate fingerpicking style of Reggie Sunset continued to shine.
His approach is integrating walking/talking blues, Travis picking, classical technique, and James Taylor Americana. In fact it is whispered in the wind that Reggie does James Taylor better than James Taylor himself and as he covered "Copperline" and "Song For You Far Away " I must say that I can see why this is.
All too soon the hour was over and I was left lost for words at the beauty I had just experienced, which is why it has taken me a week to write this blog.
I cannot beg, plead and scream from the rooftops enough for everyone to keep an eye out for Reggie as he plays around the grid for you will be left in no doubt about the magic of this man.
Side note - Best set at midnight, Stargazer Cafe owned by Thunderfoot Lorefield and Tay Beningborough is an observatory high in the sky, complete with a telescope so that you can look out to the heavens and experience your own peaceful easy feeling
