Fernando - Old Man Motel Domingo and True Instigator album reviews

Icing On The Gig-Cake

As I wrote in my recent review of The Delines in Bristol, it was a genuine pleasure to meet and hear their support act Fernando. It was evident then and since in my research that there is considerable love for Fernando from the band and the Portland music community: not surprising as he is such a friendly and enthusiastic person [I have mentioned his genuine joy at performing here in the UK, and this has been articulated further on his Facebook page, apart from a fight he had and lost with an English breakfast fry-up].

On the strength of his actual performance on the night, but also that warm Portland musical camaraderie, I searched out and bought a couple of his cds, Old Man Motel Domingo and True Instigator. The two immediate qualities that make one wonder how and why he isn’t better known are his songwriting and beautiful vocal. I heard a harsher voice live, but one which has that pleasing grit ground out from experience and emotion, yet on these two albums – certainly TI - there is also a sweetness and gentle strength that resounds from the many slower, balladic folk numbers – I mean ‘folk’ in that Americana tradition. The more recent True Instigator has Fernando to the fore but with subtle and/or atmospheric instrumental and vocal support, as with the screeching guitar that adds a haunting tone to the cover of Hank Williams’ Angel of Death. The title track is an actual rock number, and this is interesting when one has only heard Fernando as a live acoustic performer – there is a Steve Earle feel to the driving beat, but Fernando’s vocal is by contrast a much clearer though nonetheless powerful part. Third It’s A Shame is by another contrast a softer, pop-rock track that reminds a little of the Everlys, probably in its early 60s rhythm and lilt. 

There is a danger in always citing reference points, but as ever I do so as compliment and defining. The rock’n’roll nod of fourth Tribulation Waltz perhaps tells us a little more of where the influences come from, but by now the vocal is established as distinct. It is a wonderful instrument. And it is a wonderful set of songs. I will just also mention tenth Selos which is sung in Fernando’s native Argentinian/Spanish, and it begins a cappella before the guitar twang and organ accompaniment add that atmospheric layer to the beauty of the song and the singing. The vocal harmonies here and elsewhere – not sure by whom – are sweetly tight.

Old Man Motel Domingo is overall a rockier affair, and perhaps this itself reflects Fernando’s earlier role in ‘hard rock’ band Monkey Paw which I haven’t been able to track down for a listen. But there are classic folk numbers here too as with fourth So. California with plucked acoustic guitar and an echo of The Byrds a la Ballad of Easy Rider era. I do like the simple sweetness of this. That rockier edge, and grit-in-the-vocal can be heard on seventh track Swing Low which is a prison dirge in both its storyline and grinding rhythm – a potent song [and followed by a somewhat poppy Old Man Motel that evokes the Beatles and one of their many whimsies]. Eleventh and penultimate Angeline is a Country folk delight that rounds up the eclecticism of this earlier work, but it also therefore embraces and exemplifies that breadth of Fernando’s musical history and experience, one that, as I have said, deserves more recognition.

In the glorious way a support act can be the icing on the gig-cake when going to see a favourite act, I am pleased to have met and heard Fernando, and to now recognise him as a memorable artist and perhaps pass this on to others. As any genuine good reference will conclude, I commend him to you without reservation. We should all look forward to his new album out in early 2015.

Richmond Fontaine, with support from Fernando - The Tunnels, Bristol, 18th April, 2016

The End

Willy Vlautin with The Delines, and Fernando in support, last played The Tunnels in November 2014 and that was a brilliant gig.

Last night's return had Fernando playing a sweet set with long time recording and performing partner guitarist Dan Eccles [also from RF]. So much of the material Fernando played consisted of gentle ballads so this highlights his wonderful vocal but also quality as a performer because it is hard, it seems to me, to engage an audience - as he did fully - with that kind of thoughtful, meditative pace, as you might expect in a totally acoustic folk setting. It has to be said that Eccles' amped-up guitar work adds phenomenal depth to the live presentation of Fernando's great songs, including covers, and the reverb/tremolo he gets from vibrating the neck is amazing 

This return also had Willy now with long-time band Richmond Fontaine playing on their farewell tour, and songs from their final album You Can't Go Back If There's Nothing To Go Back To featured throughout: those familiar plaintive Vlautin narratives in Wake Up Ray, I Can't Black It Out If I Can't Wake Up, I Got Off The Bus and A Night In The City. These are so moving in their storytelling core, but the band playing live fill this out with other emotional depths, with Freddy Trujillo on thumping bass and some lovely harmony vocals, and the great Sean Oldham on backbone drums and also vocal duties. Eccles is again so influential in this, the haunting resonance of his guitar work on A Night in the City a fine example. And as a whole tight band! In addition to these musical vignettes, the band rocked in older, earlier RF numbers [and hard-core fans from that past clearly enjoyed this selection from the archives] as well as from a Ventures-esque instrumental to a psychedelic jam like The Door's The End in Apocalypse Now.

But I hope they all return again in whatever formation brings them back to the UK.

My reviews of both Fernando's latest here and Richmond Fontaine's here.

Fernando - Leave The Radio On, album review

Enthusing on the Effusing

Since seeing Fernando in November 2014 – supporting the Delines – and in listening to two of his solo records, reviewed here, I consider myself a fan of this musical journeyman whose heart and soul is clearly in performing. I have had this album since its recent release [disc and vinyl, numbered, and child’s art from the sender!], listening often, and this review is mainly to enthuse about more excellent songwriting and playing.

The opening three tracks are most interesting for their clear late 60s psychedelic leanings: mainly the echo, distortion and some fuzz, much on the vocal – Save Me with its acoustic guitar opening and immediate resonance in the vocal, the organ swirl in the background, and then the light fuzz on the singing when the band kicks in; The Dogs with its finger-plucked acoustic start, the descending vocal line bathed in reverb, organ again, fuzz guitar as the instrumentation increases, a sitar-sound, distortion like a wind storm in the background, and an ending that rails out with fuzz and pedal-steel aching underneath, pounding like a train rolling on tracks [there is a lot going on in this one], and El Interior with its brooding start, psych-mysterious lyrics and overdubbed vocal setting a melancholic tone, pedal steel again – until the ‘Mexican’ horns interrupt and change the mood.

Things change after this, although also remain the same. So Loud is swathed in sweet harmonies, increasingly complex and Beatles-esque at times; sixth The Freak is even more an echo of that Beatles [ELO, you get what I mean] sound – not pastiche, and similar I’d heard in those earlier solo albums, so consistent as influence; ninth White Trees is a beautiful and gentle folk song, Fernando’s voice pleasingly unadorned though harmonised at times; tenth In Their Heads again a gentler number, echo returning with mandolin and pedal steel adding atmospherics, and closer and title track a return to the opening psych sound, here a wonderful evocation of the late 60s with a pop-effused, melodic celebration.

The Delines - The Tunnels, Bristol, 4th November, 2014 gig review

Consummate

Enjoyed a great gig by The Delines at The Tunnels in Bristol as the band began their UK tour having just returned from New Zealand and Australia. The show was supported by the band’s, and Willy Vlautin’s, Portland-based good friend Fernando Viciconte who played a fine acoustic set having returned to performing after a longish spell of being ill. Fernando was clearly very pleased to be playing, and he was a warm and enthusiastic person to talk with. His songs are largely intense personal stories sung with a powerful, emotive vocal that reminded me of Jimmy LaFave. You can hear one of his latest songs The Dogs here, and there are further downloads available here.

Fernando at The Tunnels

The Delines played a wonderfully engaging set including key tracks from their album Colfax, including Calling In, Colfax Avenue, The Oil Rigs at Night, State Line, Flight 31, and in the encore, I Won’t Slip Up [all reviewed here]. I don’t need to say much more really on how highly I rate these, but as with Vlautin’s other band Richmond Fontaine and their last album The High Country, on which Amy Boone also took the storytelling vocal - here - the despondency and [if it isn’t an exaggeration] everyday nihilism of the narratives are less foreboding when performed within the high spirits and band repartee of a live gig. This doesn’t in any way diminish the emotive impact when being sung live by Amy where they are in fact even more poignant. But as a live experience it is as uplifting as it is a touchstone to the power of consummate storytelling about the often harsh realities of our lives.