By Caity Cook

Brooklyn, New York

Ala Ghawas is an independent singer/songwriter from Bahrain. His music, at once experimental & acoustic, is an effective melding of east and west as he brings together the sounds and rhythms of the stages and influences of his life. From playing accordion for the Bahraini emir at age 11, to recording his first album years later in his cramped closet in a Boston apartment, the variegated experiences of Ala’s life can be heard in the tenor of his voice, the notes of the oud intermingling with those of his Martin guitar, and the stories of childhood memories in his family home in Bahrain coupled with his yearning for home from Boston’s Harvard Avenue. His musical influences were first the classic folk and rock of the American 1970s – Bob Dylan, The Eagles, and his lifetime idol Jackson Browne – music to which he listened devotedly from the moment he first developed a taste for song. So committed a listener was Ala growing up that it was through such music that he first learned what would be the language of his artistic expression. His English began as the language of poetic verse, his vocabulary born within love gained and lost in between the chords of a guitar and the harmonies of piano keys. His more contemporary musical influences are Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley.

“Hums,” his first serious recording project, was undertaken while studying in Boston as a Fulbright scholar in 2007. This was a time when Ala reflected on his upbringing from across the ocean, in what would be a preparation for the life changes to come. “Whispers,” released in December 2008, comes after intense struggle and reorientation. “Screams,” released in October 2009, continued raising the intensity of the sound and subject of his music, and completed the trilogy of albums that he’s been working on for three years.

On November 19, 2009, Ala recorded his first live album, “Live In Muharraq”. He took the stage of Sheikh Ebrahim Centre, a magical theater that Ghawas carefully chose to portray where he came from, located in the heart of the old city of Muharraq, the city where he was born. “Live in Muharraq” showcased Ala’s ability as a stage performer after obtaining his reputation as a successful studio singer and songwriter in Bahrain. The album featured the most compelling cuts from his trilogy Hums, Whispers & Screams.