REVIEWS

"...impeccable technique, a wonderful sense of melody, a warm tone..."
April 2008


"...Eltjo is a monster player from the Netherlands. Nobody makes Taylor guitars sound better."


"Haselhoff’s formidable technique is abundantly on display..."
Dan Forte
July 2006


"Every tune on 'Fingerstyle Guitar Solos' is a joy to the listener."
Patric Ragains
July 2006


"...a bright and ringing tone, an exceptionally good sense of timing and tasteful melodies..."
James Jensen
March 2006


"...a brilliant, percussive and highly fluent style...
Akustik Gitarre, Oct 2005


"A rare treat from Holland, filled with groove, melody and technique..."
20th Century Guitar, Sep 2005


"...killer chops, great feel, and wonderful sense of melody."


"Haselhoff’s fine fretboard skills are well complimented by his noteworthy compositions"


"Eltjo Haselhoff 's impressive
skills put him certainly among the best players in the fingerstyle circuit. "


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In stores now:
GUITAR MAGIC
the new & spectacular solo album by Eltjo!
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    "From the blistering opening of White Lightning to the Celtic grace of Planxty Irwin guitarist and composer extraordinaire Eltjo Haselhoff takes the listener on a journey that touches influences from Chet Atkins (Lenentine) to James Taylor (Song For JT). An exciting follow up to his extremely popular and well reviewed first project Fingerstyle Guitar Solos, Guitar Magic displays an artist growing by frets and bounds!"

James Jensen
Executive Producer
Solid Air Records
    When I started to play guitar, around the age of 8, I was on my own. I had no teacher, no idols, not even a record player. But the occasional guitar players I saw on TV made one thing very clear to me: there were several ways to play with your right hand, but what I wanted to do was that thing-with-all-your-fingers! Those Spanish guitar players, who moved their fingers so fast that you could only see a fuzzy blur impressed the heck out of me!

    Today, many years later, I still have not had a teacher, but I can do that thing-with-all-my fingers now. I also know it has a name: Fingerstyle Guitar. And it still is my favorite way to play: rather than make a choice between bass, rhythm- or lead guitar, you just do it all, without any tricks, without overdubs, and without computers (so often used in today’s popular music). Yes, playing fingerstyle is hard work, and no, learning it is not easy. But the good thing is, that once you master this craft, you can play everything, be it Mozart, bluegrass, jazz, hardrock or whatever, all by yourself.

    Guitar Magic is my second album with Solid Air Records. If you don’t know what Fingerstyle Guitar is, you may want to have a listen. It will surprise you! And if you already know what it is, well, in that case I think you should definitely have a listen!

Eltjo Haselhoff
Composer & Fingerstyle Guitarist


            

Click on the titles below for a sample

Cornerstone "...is a pleasant song to play (and actually quite easy). It’s rather different from all of my other songs, almost as if it’s an instrumental version of a song with lyrics. Well, there are no lyrics, although it’s easy to hear from the melody where the word Cornerstone would go."
Gutar: Ovation Custom Legend 30CM
Strings: Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Phosphor Bronze 012-054

Googol  "A Googol is the mathematical name for the number 10-to-the-power-100, or a one with 100 zeroes. It’s quite a silly number, because that’s much more than the number of atoms in the entire universe. So there is no practical use for this number at all. When I started composing Googol, I thought it was the most silly melody I had ever heard. One of these irritating little melodies that, once they are in your head, stay there for an entire day. In fact, it was so silly that I decided it had potential for a real song (provided it came with a silly title)."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Model
Strings: Elixir Polyweb Light (0.012- 0.054)

The Graft  "I was waiting, most impatiently, for a custom ordered guitar made from grafted walnut (two species of walnut, morphed together). The guitar, built by Taylor in El Cajon, became one of the most beautiful instruments on earth, both soundwise as well as for its looks. The day it finally arrived, the first song I played on it was this one, which I wrote during the wait."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Model
Strings: Elixir Nano Extra Light (0.011- 0.052)

Jantine  "...is a short and simple love song from forgotten times. When love comes to an end, music somehow seems to preserve it."
Guitar: Taylor 712ce
Strings: Elixir Nanoweb Extra Light (0.011- 0.052)

Joe Nagle  "...was a friend of mine, who died in 2005 - way too young - of a form of blood cancer. Many songs have been written for people who have passed away, and most of them are slow ballads, in minor keys, which make you feel even worse than you already do. Well, Joe was not a sad person at all. In fact, it was impossible not to start smiling whenever Joe walked in. So that's why Joe Nagle is not a sad ballad, but an upbeat song that reflects charisma, determination and fun, all characteristics that describe Joe the way I knew him. I hope one day Joe Nagle will be as well known as songs like John Henry, Jesse James and John Hardy."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Order
Strings: Elixir Polyweb Light (0.012- 0.054)
Lenentine  "I learned about Chet Atkins’ music only recently (surprisingly, Chet is hardly known where I grew up). But now that I know who Chet Atkins was, the more I listen to him, the more I appreciate his music. It is said that some of his pupils - who all grew up with Chet’s music - have become better players than Chet himself. In my opinion, Chet’s performances had a unique elegance and (apparent) simplicity, and in particular a great kindness that all remain unsurpassed. I think no guitarist has yet been able to come close in those respects. Lenentine is my humble attempt to express what I like about Chet Atkins’ music."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Order
Strings: Elixir Polyweb Extra Light (0.011- 0.052)

Little Mill  "An odd cafe in Berlin was where I wrote Little Mill. The place had leather couches placed on the pavement and I spent a free afternoon there, drinking Campari Orange and playing guitar. The title comes from the drink list in the bar, where my eyes fell on a single malt whisky named Littlemill."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Order
Strings: Elixir Nanoweb, 0.012-0.054

Lovers in Las Cruces "The title of this song goes back a long time, to the days I lived in New Mexico. Just like New Mexico, Lovers in Las Cruces somehow has a Mexican flavor to it. It also has a strong sense of lightheartedness and a ‘falling-in-love’ feeling. Just one of those songs to make you feel better."
Guitar: Taylor XXX-BE
Strings: d'Addario EJ16, 0.012-0.054

Lowlands of Holland  "This song brings up the fascinating thought that many people still play and enjoy music that was created by anonymous composers hundreds of years ago. I think Lowlands of Holland is a beautiful and inspiring song, which - from the lyrics - I assume was written during the first war between England and Holland, in the seventeenth century. As I grew up (and still live) in the Lowlands of Holland, I thought this song deserved a place on one of my CDs."
Guitar: Taylor 712ce
Strings: Martin 80/20 Bronze 0.013-0.056

Morgan Magan "... is one of the classics of master composer Turlough O’Carolan, an Irish harper who lived from 1670 to 1738. O’Carolan’s compositions are very original and have influenced countless musicians all over the world (perhaps with many of them not even realizing it). Morgan Magan is one of my favorites."
Guitar: Ovation Custom Legend 30CM
Strings: Martin 80/20, 0.013-0.056

Mugle  "...is built on a basic A-minor fingerpicking pattern, with some less trivial additions, such as the interlude high up the neck and some ‘medieval’ twists in the melody. It’s one of those songs that were effortlessly composed overnight, and which I think is self-contained, balanced and smooth. This one is one of my personal favorites."
Guitar: Ovation Custom Legend 30CM
Strings: Ernie Ball Slinky 012-054

Myosotis  "...is the second name of my grandmother. She is Indonesian and came to Holland with my grandfather and the rest of the family shortly after the Second World War. She just turned 103 years old (August 2007), and has become a great-great-grandmother a few years ago. Reasons enough to dedicate this song to her."
Guitar: Ovation Custom Legend 30CM
Strings: d'Addario Phosphor Bronze EJ-16, 0.012-0.053

Never Time To Say Goodbye "This is about having to leave a place when you’d rather stay, or having to leave people you love. It happens to me all the time, and it’s an emotion we all know. It makes you feel sad and it makes you think: I wish it were Never Time to Say Goodbye. The right way of looking at it, of course, is to realize that it would be worse if you never had that feeling, because it would mean you never had a good time, and you never enjoyed the company of others."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Order
Strings: Elixir Nanoweb, 0.012-0.054

O'Carolan Medley  "Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738) was one of the most talented composers in our history, and Fanny Power and Planxty Irwin I believe are amongst his most beautiful songs. On the CD Guitar Magic I combine both in a single performance. My rendition stays close to most traditional arrangements (countless artists have recorded these songs), but I tried to make the harmonics and bass lines follow a more natural flow than is usually done. The songs are played on my Koa-topped Taylor K22, which in DADGAD tuning gets a beautiful, sweet shimmer in its sound."
Guitar: Taylor K22ce
Strings: Elixir Nanoweb, 0.012-0.054

Phoelix & Grimm  "...is a complex song, and I think a very mature composition, particularly when I consider I wrote the essentials of the song when I was only 21. The intro and the ending, however, are more recent, and I polished off some of the weak bits before I recorded the tune for CD."
Guitar: Taylor 712ce
Strings: Ernie Ball Medium Light 80/20 Bronze, 0.012-0.054

Pingu  "... is dedicated to the television animation with the little clay penguin and his friends. I hardly ever watch TV, as generally one show is even worse than the other, but sometimes little marvels can still be found."
Guitar: Taylor 712ce
Strings: Elixir Nanoweb Extra Light (0.047, 0.039, 0.030, 0.023, 0.014, 0.010)

The Promised Land  "... is a song inspired by a collection of old photographs that hang on the wall of an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. The pictures showed ships, packed with immigrants, who had left their home and family in Europe in the early 20th century to find their fortune in America. They all looked into the camera, and when I looked at the pictures, into the eyes of all these men, women and children, it was almost as if I were looking into a time machine. I could hear them tell their stories and feel their emotions. And I realized how brave these people were. Today, you hop all over the world in no time, but in those days, the immigrants knew they would probably never see their homes and their beloved ones again. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear melancholy, but also a hope for a better future captured in this song."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Order
Strings: M140 Martin Original Full Set light tension: .012 to .054

Roundback Rag  "... is an ode to my first Ovation guitar (with a bowl back). When I was a teenager, these guitars were my holy grail and completely out of my reach because of their price. I sometimes still play these instruments today."
Guitar: Ovation Custom Legend 30CM
Strings: GHS Custom Shop Rollerwound Bright Bronze #RB30, 0.012 - 0.054

Snow in London  "I do not really like the city of London. Too many people, too much stress. Still, the concept ‘London’ has always fascinated me, maybe because I lived there when I was as a little boy. Snow in London is a serene composition in the Celtic style. It makes me think of mysterious places, and times long past. Not really like today’s London, but more like Harry Potter Land, or perhaps a bit like the London of my youth?"
Guitar: Taylor 712ce
Strings: d'Addario Custom Set: 0.013 - 0.060

Song for JT  "James Taylor has influenced me a lot in my musical development. When I was a teenager, nobody knew James Taylor where I grew up, but I used to sit for hours in my room with my guitar and my record player, learning James Taylor licks. Song for JT is a peculiar song. One day I thought it would be interesting to compose a song based on James Taylor’s kind of melody lines, chords and bass patterns, and throw in all the typical James Taylor licks I knew. The song was composed on demand, engineered as it were. I honestly believe that is not the way to write music, and I don’t think I will ever do it again, but in this case it seems like the experiment was successful. It’s for James; he’s one of the greatest."
Guitar: Taylor K14ce
Strings: Elixir Nanoweb, 0.011-0.052

Summerfield  "The title of this song has a curious (and true!) story. The song was written in Italy, where I always spend my summers playing guitar. I had just composed the main theme when a few friends came to pick me up for lunch. Afraid that I would forget the brand new song, I asked my friends to wait so I could put the tablature in the computer. A few minutes later, when I was done, the computer asked for a filename to save my work. Being in a hurry, I used the first word that came into my mind: Summerfield. So Summerfield it was. Just before I shut down the computer, I heard an e-mail come in. I didn’t bother to check it at the time; after all, what’s more important: e-mail or an Italian lunch? Only that evening did I discover that the e-mail was from a lady in Australia who hosted a radio show and wanted to play my music. Her name: Laura Summerfield. Hmmm."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Order
Strings: Elixir Poly Light 012-054

Tap Your Foot!  "...is dedicated to the Australian guitar genius Tommy Emmanuel, cgp. Most of Tap Your Foot! was written when I first met Tommy, in the summer of 2004, and spent three days in his presence. “I’ll show you everything, and you may steal anything from me, if it makes you a better player,” Tommy said to me. So I stole from him! The interludes were played on a different guitar, the same one Tommy always uses."
Guitars: Taylor 712ce, Maton EBG808 Artist (only for the "Luttrell" sections)
Strings (on both guitars): Ernie Ball Medium Light 80/20 Bronze, 0.012-0.054

Tap Your Other Foot!  "...is a modified version of the original Tap Your Foot! The Tommy Emmanuel sections were replaced by original work, in order to reduce the paperwork (copyrights etc.) for the American version of my debut CD. The rest of the song is unaltered. That's why the other version of Tap Your Foot! is called Tap Your Other Foot! Of course I tried to keep the new parts in "Tommy-style", and I believe they fit in quite well."
Guitars: Taylor 712ce, Maton EBG808 Artist (for the interludes)
Strings (on both guitars): Ernie Ball Medium Light 80/20 Bronze, 0.012-0.054
Tumbo  "...was written after a visit to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. During the famous Light Parade a happy Disney melody is played all around. The middle section of Tumbo (the G major part) would fit right in there. The rest of the song was kept in the same style, and it concludes with a fingerstyle arrangement of the traditional bluegrass fiddle tune Jaybird, a song that I learned in the time I lived in Los Alamos, New Mexico."
Guitar: Taylor 712ce
Strings: d'Addario Custom Set: 0.013 - 0.060

Turkey In The Straw (Holdee-Yoldee-Yoldee-Yol)  "I can’t think of this traditional folksong without thinking of my grandpa, “Opa Mar”. He passed away in 1977, when I was still a kid, but I remember him very well, and every time I think of him I still get a smile on my face. He used to sing this song with his own, self-invented lyrics: “Holdee-yoldee-yoldee-yol...”, every time he threw me or his other grandchildren up in the air when we were babies. It was a highly amusing vocal rendition, and I can still hear his voice echo in my head. And it still brings tears to my eyes, both from laughter and plain emotions. Thirty years after his passing I came up with my own version: a guitar instrumental of Holdee-Yoldee-Yoldee-Yol, which is dedicated, with love, to the memory of my great grandpa."
Guitar: Taylor W12e Custom Model
Strings: Elixir Polyweb Light (0.012- 0.054)

White Lightning  "...was composed and recorded just hours before I had to submit the material for my CD Guitar Magic (I guess that’s why I play it so fast). We almost delayed the project in finding an appropriate title, which cost me and producer James Jensen a few restless nights. But since White Lightning made it to the first track on this album, it all worked out in the end."
Gutar: Taylor W12e Custom Model
Strings: Elixir Polyweb Light (0.012- 0.054)

You'd be So Nice To Come Home To "...was written by the late Cole Porter, in times long past. But Porter's music is still very much alive today, and it is my great honor to appear on Grammy Award winning producer James Jensen's latest work, Cole Porter: Delovely Guitar, a fantastic acoustic guitar tribute to this great composer. It was an interesting and educational experience for me. After the invitation to participate in this project, I started by listening to other arrangements of the song (there are thousands!). Most are up-speed, jazz/swing renditions, but the one I liked best was Dinah Shore's original recording, made in the early forties. However, I found that a Chet-style version worked out pretty well too. At the end, I decided to be ambitious and just do it all: a slow and melodic start in the mood of the 1940's, followed by a Chet Atkins, thumb-style bridge, topped off by a jazzy, swinging end with a walking bass line that took me three months of hard work to learn. That was the educational part!"
Guitar: Taylor K22ce
Strings:Elixir Nanoweb, 0.012-0.054, tuned one step down
All songs written by Eltjo Haselhoff, except:

Fanny Power, Planxty Irwin,  Morgan Magan (T. O'Carolan)
Lowlands of Holland (trad.)
Tap Your Foot! (E.Haselhoff, T. Emmanuel)
Turkey in the Straw (trad.)
You'd be So Nice To Come Home To (C. Porter)