Bryan,

Skill coupled with emotion is what all musicians are striving for.
If you listen to and watch Alex Meixner play the piano accordion,
you gotta say, "Man, that Dude has soul!"
He puts so much of himself into his music, plus he knows What he is doing.
It don't matter if you're playing the sax, the piano, the harmonica, or whatever.
you gotta put the human experiences of love, sorrow, hate, fear and joy into that music.
But, as you know, you still gotta practice and listen, practice and listen, practice and listen.
And let's face it. Some of us will never really get there, Yours Truly included. But it sure is fun to keep trying.
By the way, Jacinto is looking for a buy on a Cajun accordion. Aren't we all.
JB

Bryan, as for emotion expressed and received; i've been playing with and listening to musicians a lot, mainly in the folk domain. Now and then you'll meet one of those magical entertaining performers who can really connect with your soul when they do their thing. It can be that they are real virtuosos, but also quite simple down to earth players, or even a story teller like a farmer i met in a rural Irish village pub years ago. But on all counts they draw you in to their magic like honey draws a bear, even when you know you'll get stinged sometimes. A mechanism Mao and Hitler too used for their nasty goals?

Even after their passing their soul's imprint on us all seems to linger on like the stickiest glue residue ever. Recordings, reputation, magic? Had an old aunt who told me she saw auras; from a great stage performer she mentioned she could see them mingle with those of an audience, uniting in colors. PS call me crazy if you like, but you'll not be the first, hehe. - nout

Music is like beer and dogs.

One person may think it is the best ever produced while another my find it just so-so.

Rarely do we droll over every cut on a given CD; though some tracks may jump out at us, others may be just okay.