"nicolascage09": Calming & Magnetic

When I got back to my hotel room this afternoon I picked up my acoustic guitar and started playing the very recognisable riff from Orla Gartland's masterpiece "The Ground". I've been tempted to cover the song since I like it so much and decided to look up "The Ground Covers" on youtube. I was happy to find a good of covers. For anyone who doesn't know who Orla Gartland is, you'd better read the post I put up on February 1st. She's a brilliant singer/songwriter. Well, amongst the covers I found a really great cover by a German girl's whose youtube channel is named "nicolascage09", which seemed interesting. I checked out her Facebook page and found out that her name is Nicki and that she loves music. It seems to me that music loves her too, as it takes her over when she has a guitar in her hands. Check out her very respectful, brilliant cover of Orla Gartland's song now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuIvUCtnToE

She does the song justice and Orla herself commented on the cover, to Nicki's overwhelming pleasure. What I love about her cover is that she has got the guitar parts down perfectly, has obviously rehearsed the vocals tremendously and even mimics Orla's manner of accenting certain words. May I just pay respect to Orla once more by saying that she is probably the most talented singer/songwriter I've ever seen on youtube. Some artists take years to find their sound but Orla's got a firm hold on her base, and she's only eighteen. And what that does is inspire so many other singer/songwriters around the world, including the very talented Nicki to get out there and work on their own originals. So, thank you Orla Gartland for opening the hearts of many other singer/songwriters on youtube.

I went through a bunch of Nicki's covers and can safely say that I like all of them. One that stood out to me was "Pumped Up Kicks" (Foster The People). It's a really great sounding cover, where Nicki gives the song her own personal twist. She has distinctive style of slapping the guitar strings as she finger picks, that gives her covers a great rhythmical section. She also keeps the song simple, vocally, which a lot of singers don't do these days. Instead of succumbing to vocal acrobatics and "showing off", Nicki's tone is subtle and magnetic. I don't want to sound too technical, considering I'm just another person who loves music but I guess that comes with being a singer/songwriter myself. When you listen to a song, you just tear the pieces apart to figure out how it comes together. Anyways, enjoy her beautiful and smooth cover of "Pumped Up Kicks"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUddKUxBxUc

Like most artists I write about, Nicki has a bunch of originals that I think you'll like. You'd better go through all of them to find which you like most but a song of hers that caught my attention is called "Stronger". It was uploaded some time in early 2010 but it's just as good as any of her more recent tracks and I urge you to give it a listen. For once, I'm not going to write all about it and let you form your own opinion! Don't forget to look Nicki up on Facebook (nicolascage09) and also keep in touch with "Youtube's Underground Music Scene" on Facebook. Check back tomorrow for another fantastic artist!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMGIwpG_hD4

Alex Hamel