HEAR THIS: Discoverer

If you try to dig up information on him, you will not find much to satisfy your covetous needs. Tariq (Ricky) Shihadah describes his creative work as a “music journal” and we’re very much inclined to agree. When you listen to his latest album, I Wonder, it feels as though you’re almost intruding on something that should remain shrouded from the wandering eye. It’s personal, intimate, and altogether deceptively beguiling.

Shihadah describes his music as something which covers the theme of not knowing, always wondering, and always discovering. The constant ambiguity and unpredictability of his music, although a self-described jumbled mess of confusion and incoherency, is definitely a strength in itself. It’s not anticipatory in its execution, and that is exactly why it works. He seeks not to impress anyone with bells and whistles, but rather with his heart laid bare on the strings of his guitar.