Cuban Guitarist hears SRV for the first time

[rcarlson]

While traveling in Cuba, American Anton Sterlin met a musician named Rafael living in Guantanamo. Rafael has limited internet access and never heard the famous guitarist before.

True bliss.

 

 

[HiPower]

That was great! Thanks for posting this up.

[Piligrim]

great sharing!

[ritter6788]

I make the same faces when I listen to that song. 

[Philc2001]

SRV!! What can you say, the ultimate guitar virtuoso. It's awesome to see this man's reactions to the way SRV transitions and unloads in such rhythmic style, he's mesmerized.  

[TidalWave]

Austinite here, guitarist, saw him more times than I can count. I still wear black on Aug 27.

Great video.

[rcarlson]

7 hours ago, TidalWave said:

Austinite here, guitarist, saw him more times than I can count. I still wear black on Aug 27.

Great video.

I was in high school in Boston when he started to grab national attention. Couldn't Stand the Weather played damn near non-stop on the radio.  Then, I was spending a lot of time around Berklee before going to music school in the midwest.  Except for his dark, unproductive cocaine period, everything he put out at the time was just incredible.  Bootlegs were everywhere. Our reaction was always the same as this Cuban guitarist's.  We all tried to copy the technique but could never duplicate the feel (obviously)  I swear we wore some the vinyl so thin, sometimes you could hear both sides playing at the same time.

One of my dorm mates was at the last show.  He learned of the crash from a radio announcement on the drive back.  Hard to believe it was so long ago. Watching this makes me feel like it all happened yesterday. 

Would've loved to have been hanging around Austin back then.  Must've been great.            

[Colt45]

Mr. Rafael listened to the lines, then sang the notes - quite a musician.

I saw SRV and Double Trouble with The Fabulous Thunderbirds at The Orpheum in Boston eons ago - Great show......

[rcarlson]

1 hour ago, Colt45 said:

Mr. Rafael listened to the lines, then sang the notes - quite a musician.

I saw SRV and Double Trouble with The Fabulous Thunderbirds at The Orpheum in Boston eons ago - Great show......

I saw a lot of shows at the Orpheum.  Most memorable was Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays.  Mesmerizing.     

[Colt45]

2 hours ago, rcarlson said:

I saw a lot of shows at the Orpheum.

Angel at the Orpheum 

[Ryan]

Great Stuff. 

My Stevie Ray Vaughan story. I spent the summer of 1990 in Chicago on a Summer work visa before I moved there for a longer stint in 1993.

I can remember in early August going out my apartment door to buy a ticket for Stevie Ray Vaughan in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin, about 100 miles from Chicago, I had no car and no idea how I was getting there, but I was going. On my way out, I met my upstairs neighbour who had won 2 tickets to see Santana on the same night August 26th, in Tinley Park, Il, much nearer Chicago. Plus she had a car for getting there, free tickets and a nice figure.

The Santana gig was great, a great version of Soul Sacrifice in the encore. But because of that, I missed my only chance to see Stevie Ray Vaughan live, on the night before he died.

In a similar vein to the video above, Punch Joe, John deCosta and I were hanging out on our back porch near the end of my trip to Havana in February, Punch Joe started playing this song on his phone. He had no idea that the version of it was filmed and is on Youtube, we had wifi in the house and I showed it to him. He was blown away when he saw it, as I always am. This song is the reason I bought a 12-string.

 

[Vortigan]

Absolutely magical! He's not just listening to that, he's breathing every note. I love how he's following the changes and writing/singing melodies on the fly, that was a real pleasure to watch. Thanks for sharing.