Experience Rock and Roll Filtered Through Luna Lee’s Korean Sensibilities on Her Gayageum

Korean musician Luna Lee rocking out to Hendrix on her Gayageum

I never really understood all the fuss over the Gangnam Style videos.  Seemed a bit too much like the Lambada craze of the late 90s for my taste, honestly.  I’m more of a rock kind of guy.  (We will diplomatically ignore my love of Tom Lehrer songs, show tunes, and classical and jazz piano music for the purposes of this post.)  And so when a friend of mine on Facebook posted a link to Luna Lee’s, a Korean gayageum player’s, YouTube video I was skeptical.  Until I watched it, anyway:

C’mon, you’ve got to admit it:  Luna Lee totally rocks!  I can’t help but think that Hendrix (or Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Joe Satriani, or Gary Hoey, or Dick Dale, or . . .) would be impressed.  And somehow it seems she’s more than just mimicking classic rock songs on her “traditional” instrument; she’s rocking.  She seems to get it!  Not only did I immediately bug my brother about her, I also tweeted, posted to Facebook, and bugged some of my coworkers through our Hipchat utility.  All of them reacted as I did.  (Like me, my friend Ara immediately started digging to find more of her stuff online.)

I think this woman is nothing short of amazing, and am so glad that I live in an era where I can not only experience it even though I live, literally, halfway around the world from her, but can also share it with y’all!  If you want to experience more of Ms. Lee, check out her YouTube channel. I haven’t found any of her stuff on iTunes or anywhere else, nor have I seen her on Twitter or Facebook, but if she turns up, you can be sure we’ll let you know.

So that’s what I think; you should let us know what you think below!