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:) LISTEN TO MORE songs at www.yocahuna.com !!
Winner: Nashville Song Service Lyrics Competition. First Prize (R&B Category).
Winner: Song Of They Year Competition, Houston. Runner Up (R&B Category), Honorable Mention (Rock Category) plus Staff Pick Suggested Artist (Rock Category).
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Yocahuna spent his youth growing up in Jamaica where his father first bought him a traditional Spanish guitar when he was 12 years old. After experimenting with other guitars he returned to the preferred sound of a nylon-strung acoustic, in particular a very deep-bodied Brazilian style instrument.
He has since spent time living on 4 continents and visited and worked in many countries. As a result his musical style is influenced by genres as varied as Reggae, African folk, Flamenco and Bossa Nova. He finds it hard to pigeonhole his music but says the songs are best described as "soft rock folk ballads." But when you listen you will find distinct flavors of R&B and Soul as well as Rap and Hip-Hop beats added to the stew of exotic world spices already mentioned.
He considers himself first and foremost a songwriter and rarely plays live, but any track should reveal the fact that he has quite a few unusual and interesting fingering techniques at his disposal. The notes included with each song on his official website reveal a wide variety of musicians or guitarists that have contributed to the unique way his hands now do their own thing.
He loves the studio, where there are virtually no limits in recording, quilting and mixing the music you will find on his CDs or may hear on the radio; songs that he would be just as happy to hear others play.
Yocahuna is self-taught and plays by ear and what he calls "shapes" (chords) that are often unconventional. Until 2003, when his friend Carol encouraged him to put some of her poems to music, he had not written his own songs or tunes. Since then he has played only his own material.
Sound effects have become somewhat of a trademark in YoCaHuNa MuSiC.
A British and Canadian citizen, Yocahuna divides his time between Florida and Vancouver Island.
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