Playing heart strings

Singer/guitarist Jose Gonzalez’s independent EPs and debut CD Veneer have generated media buzz like that of another young Latino cover musician who hit the scene in the Sixties, Jose Feliciano. Like Feliciano, Gonzalez taps his Latino roots while living in a country amid another dominant culture.

Gonzalez is the son of Argentine parents who immigrated to Sweden. His latest release is the EP, Stay in the Shade. His first CD, Veneer, signaled Gonzalez’s talent for covering Swedish and British musicians’ songs using an innovative personal style of acoustic guitar play influenced by bossa nova, classical, flamenco, folk and blues.

Heartbeats, on the Veneer CD, is a cover of Swedish duo The Knife’s song that displays Gonzalez’s sensual, sensitive vocals and simple, hypnotic fingerings. Like many of his recordings, this song traces the stains of joy and pain that broken love leaves on a caring heart.

Veneer

and his other EPs can be purchased through Amazon.com. Parasol Records is streaming the EP Shade on its Web site, www.parasol.com. Click on it, and enter Gonzalez’s quiet zone of contemplation of life’s losses and lessons.