AG Weinberger

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Bigfoot Records: Universal Music

AG Weinberger is Romania’s most respected blues and jazz guitarist, composer, and author, with a career spanning more than four decades. Nicknamed “Romania’s Mr. Blues,” he has transformed the country’s music scene into a space of artistic freedom and expressive creativity, delivering landmark performances in which virtuosity and improvisation become unique acts of creation.

AG blends the heritage of American blues with European artistic sensibility, creating a distinctive and deeply recognizable musical identity. These artistic expressions incorporate electronic instruments and textures without abandoning the musician’s blues and jazz roots. Instead, both coexist harmoniously as two complementary facets of the same artistic identity. AG Weinberger himself embodies the spirit of a “gringo,” a Romanian with a triple minority heritage — Jewish, Hungarian, and Roma — a diversity that is reflected in the stylistic fusion of his music.

As vice president of the Romanian Cultural Institute and founder of the BlueSylvania Foundation, AG Weinberger is also an author, a composer of contemporary and theater music, and an active contributor to numerous cultural and educational initiatives. With thousands of performances in Romania and abroad, and seven years spent in renowned clubs across the United States, AG’s music remains a living, ever-evolving artistic force.

The album features ten original compositions and two re-arranged covers. AG plays acoustic and electric guitars and lap steel, and sings both lead and backing vocals; Kovacs Norbert plays baritone and acoustic guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums; Szasz Csaba plays mandolin and percussion; and the backing vocalists are Farkas Kovacs Timea and Gaspar Zsanett.

On “Real Love Is Hard to Find,” AG sings, “You came in like thunder, sweet in disguise. Painted promises in beautiful lies. I held on too tightly to smoke and to flame, nothing that burns me can ever remain. You said forever but meant just tonight. Now I’m here alone turning wrong into right. Your touch was rehearsed like a scene you had played. I was the fool who believed every phrase. Shadows that linger when morning arrives. Faded with silence you left in my life. You said forever but meant just for tonight. Now I’m here alone turning wrong into right. Listen, real love is hard to find.”

“The Place to Be” features AG as he chimes, “Every face is a mystery, no one remembers me I used to own the streets and run, with every heartbeat into the sun. Childhood sweethearts, early love affairs, whispers linger in those empty chairs. Laughter fades like smoke into the sky, memories drift and never say goodbye. I keep wondering wherever I go, am I the river, am I the flow? You say I’m scary, I feel misunderstood. Where is the place to be?”

On “Riders of Fire,” AG chants, “Leaving the sunrise in Tokyo. Catching the sunset in LA. Cheating time, the world is mine, and I’ll never be the same again. My phone keeps on ringing but you already know. This is why I join, the riders of fire, the squares of Ohio. Do it. We ride the edge where the stars don’t sleep. Trading secrets in the shadow scheme. No map, no mercy, just a silver flame. And nothing will ever, ever feel the same. Burning the night like a neon choir. This is why I join the riders of fire, the squares of Ohio.”

“Every Kind of Pain” features AG as he groans, “Running…I’m running into nowhere. Searching…I’m searching in the dark. Seven angels leading me home…no more starngers, on my way back to you. Awaking…awaking in my mind, the horizon, blinking stars and shines. Seven angels leading me home…No more strangers, on my way back to you. Oh, I’ll always be your friend. Until time will reach the end. Even if we break, I will hold your hand, through every kind of pain.”

On “Blues Is Dead,” AG moans, “Lots of hypocrisy and fake smile on their faces, there’s some money to make, political correctness, it’s a cosmic nonsense, they taking away freedom, pretending innocense. They’re selling my soul on the trading floor, and they calling it the blues. They say be careful, watch your tongue. Polite in the music, don’t play too strong. Blues ain’t about manners, blues ain’t neat, it’s dirt on those hands and blood on your feet. Play it ragged, play it raw, play it true against the law. Blues ain’t polite and blues ain’t clean, it’s the voice of the soul, not a festival machine. Freedom’s out of fashion, honesty’s a crime, they trade raw soul for a hashtag rhyme. Blues don’t tweet, it testifies. In smoke, sweat and blood, dignity won’t die. Festivals are shining, money on parade. They say blues is dead, but it just got laid. Blues ain’t poilite, it ain’t your friend. They say blues is dead, but it just won’t end. No need to worry, the blues is kicking and alive.”

On Randy Newman’s “Short People,” written in 1977 and the first of two covers, AG states that short people have followed him since his teenage years — at 6’5″, you can imagine the jokes he got in school — as he belts out, “Short people got no reason, short people got no reason, short people got no reason to live. They got little hands, little eyes. They walk around tellin’ great big lies. They got little noses and tiny little teeth. They wear platform shoes on their nasty little feet. Well I don’t want no short people ’round here.”

On “Calling Shadows,” AG cries, “There is a line for every heartbreak, it’s a song for every pain, turning silence into screaming, give my shadow every name. Every promise, every lie left a note in my alibi. Tried to drown into the noise, built a wall with shattered toys. Kissed the flame that burned my tongue, tested rage and stayed young. Every promise, every lie left a note in my alibi…No regret, just gasoline, fuel the fire of what I mean, raise the chord, let it break, every howl is mine to take. It’s a line for every pain, let it pour like acid rain. Let it bleed and let it shine, give my shadow every name.”

“Free Forever” features AG as he wails, “I don’t pray, got no religion, walking free with no permission, I am alone through fire and rain. Made my peace with all the pain. No confession, no disguise. Truth don’t need no alibis. I’ve been kicked, I’ve been denied, but my soul keeps running wild. You can break my bones, you can steal my name, I’ll ride again, I will be the same, forever free, I will bear no shame. But I won’t kneel, I won’t play your game. Standing tall, I set the sail, I don’t run, will never fail. Every scar I wear is mine, shadows fade, but I still shine.”

On “Money People,” AG howls, “Money, people, come here quick. No place for you playing hide and seek. Shiny shoes but your soul are weak. You buy the truths but you can’t speak. Hi-de-ho-de-hey. The streets are burning, the clocks run fast. Your paper kingdom will never last. Hi-de-ho-de-hey (Hi-de-ho-de-hey) Money people, clap your hands. Build your castles right out of the sand. Money people, sing along. You bought the rights to the same old song. Ho-de-hey-de-hi. The drums are pounding, the lights turn red. You count your fortune while the rest drop dead. Ho de-hey-de-hi (Ho-de-hey-de-hi). Golden chains won’t make you free. Your kingdom fails for all to see. Empty crowns of vanity. You sell the song but lose the key. Broken mirror, you face the end, no gold can buy you a single friend, Echoes fade where the liars bend. The truths you bury will not pretend Hey-de-hi-de-ho. The mask is broken, the stage is done, you cannot hide what you’ve become.”

“Waste Your Love” features AG as he bursts, “I can’t be your lover, in the way you might wanna be satisfied, I ain’t built for comfort, I’m the storm that never learned to hide. You need someone steady, not a soul that won’t abide, don’t waste your love forever on a restless kind of guy. You want some quiet mornings, only kisses under coffee steam, but I used to wake up haunted by some half-remembered dream. Your heart beats in rhythm, mine just beats to say goodbye. Don’t trade your tender longing for a fading lullaby…some souls ain’t made for stayin’, no matter how they try.”

On “Soul Rolling Slow,” AG declares, “I did a lot of traveling across the land. Money runs fast out of my hand. Walking the storms, never showed up late. Chasing my ghosts from a long gone past. Playing cards with the devil, rolling dice with angels. Drinking wine with the supreme divine. Getting in bed with strangers. Dust on my boots and smoke in my lungs. Talk to the stars while I’m loading my gun. Ain’t chasing heaven, just staying free. Running with the shadows that run like me. Spinning wheels in the dead of night, Chasing ghosts ’til the morning light. Tired hands and a worn out soul. Found my place in a story untold. I walk the line where the wild things cry.”

The closer, “Crazy,” written by Willie Nelson in 1961, features AG as he croons, “Crazy, I’m crazy for feelin’ so lonely, I’m crazy for feelin’ so blue. I knew you’d love me as long as you wanted, and then you’d leave me for somebody new. Worry, why do I let myself worry, wonderin’ what in the world did I do, I’m crazy for thinkin’ that my love would hold you, I’m crazy for tryin’ and crazy for cryin’, and I’m crazy for lovin’ you.”

AG states, “Regarding the track order, the musicality and rhythmic variations were the governing principles. The record is not meant to be a concert album, just songs composed over the last year. Honestly, I did not want to make another record. I thought I had reached that emotional and musical saturation last year, when I celebrated my 49 years of career and sixty years of my life. But my wife encouraged me to create an anniversary record. So here it is. Then, surprisingly enough, after all the years as an independent artist, a major label got interested, and this is how Universal Music signed me.” And we’re glad they did.

Richard Ludmerer

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