Hello again, Pop Rock Nation readers! I’m posting to let you all know I’m back from vacation!

My husband Bill and I just got back from about two weeks in Portugal and Spain. We took this trip courtesy of military Space A privileges, so it was a bit of a “seat of your pants” experience. I am delighted we got to take this trip, since Bill will soon retire from the Army and will hopefully move on to a civilian job. As we all know, civilian jobs are often not so liberal with vacation time.

Anyway, I am excited about a band I discovered in Lisbon, Portugal. Whenever I take trips, I pay specific attention to musicians playing in the street. If they impress me, I can easily be tempted to buy a CD. Bill and I ran across a band in Lisbon called Guents Dy Rincon. This band, from Cabo Verde, describes their sound as “spiritual, traditional, acoustic music”.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to the CD I purchased while enjoying their music live, right next to the waterfront in old town Lisbon. I really enjoyed the CD. It was produced with quality equipment and the band has sort of a sultry, sensual, sexy sound (how’s that for alliteration?). I checked YouTube and sure enough, others liked their music as much as I did.

Here’s a clip from 2009…

Another, more polished looking clip from 2009…

Unfortunately, we happened to catch these guys as they were finishing up their show and packing up. But I got to see and hear enough to know I liked their sound. If there’s one lesson I can pass along from being a traveler, it’s that music by street vendors can often make great mementos of a fun trip. Bill and I had a fabulous time in Europe. Hopefully we’ll get back there sooner rather than later, but if we don’t, at least I can remember our late afternoon jaunt in Lisbon when I play Guents Dy Rincon’s awesome self-titled album.

I will write a longer post later in the week. Just wanted to share this while it was on the brain!