| mystery guitarist from Spain
Not my story, but one that sticks out clearly in my head was a story told to me by a studio owner from Pompano Florida in the 80's. He recieved a call from a gentleman from Spain who booked a session and asked him to please pick him up at the airport. The Spanish man barely spoke during the time and had the engineer (owner) take him around the entire studio to unplug any AC power, signal cables and remove any tape from any machine that was not directly part of the recording. The Spanish man took out his guitar, asked for one mic to a single tape recorder and performed a guitar piece that the engineer described as the most poingnant, beautiful emotional performance that he had ever heard. After the performance, the guitarist asked to sit in the control room to hear back the entire performance. As they both listened back, the Spanish man wept deeply throughout the entire performance. The engineer claimed the room seemed to be charged with emotion that he never new. They wrapped up the session and without barley a word, the engineer drove the man back to the airport to wait for his plane going back to Spain. That was it. The engineer never heard anything back from the man, and never had a clue to the reasons why he and his studio were chosen, nor the source of inspiration of the guitar piece. So, another mysterious bewildering experience for an unsuspecting engineer. I had asked him what was the most memorable session he had ever done and I truly appreciate him telling me this one.
Phil Donovan |