And it was just one of those proverbial kids’ dreams come true, ’cause I’d seen him when I was 14 and loved it, and then I saw myself standing at the bottom of the stairs about to go on with him every night. I would stand backstage after our gig and he would play with his band for about half an hour, and then he’d get my whole band on-stage as well and we would play four or five songs, all together. Then a few years ago he asked me and my band to open for him on a U.S. “At the time, I was starting classical music,” relates Liebert, “and he sort of inspired me to try something else. It turns out that the first concert Liebert ever went to, when he was 14, was a Santana gig. “I said, ‘You know, flamenco’s really just the blues of the Gypsies,’ and then I thought, ‘Well, what’s the most bluesy instrument for me? Definitely Dobro, slide guitar.’ So I invited Eric to come down for a couple of days and just put a bunch of slide guitar on the album.”Īs if Schermerhorn’s tasty slide bits and his own vibrant flamenco stylings weren’t enough to satiate six-string fanatics, Liebert comes through with “Ballad 4 Santana”, a Latin-tinged tribute to guitar legend Carlos Santana. “The idea with the slide guitar just came from a conversation one evening with a friend of mine,” says Liebert. While Liebert’s flamenco guitar is always front and centre on Innamorare, bottleneck aficionados will appreciate the subtle slide shadings of Eric Schermerhorn, who also contributes some flattop picking to the disc. So it has a bigger sound, also because of the horns.” There’s quite a few instruments on there that I’ve never used before, muted trumpet being one, slide guitar another, a drum kit being a third-I’ve never used a complete drum kit. “There’s been a lot of albums in between where I was on a musical journey, but I’m sort of returning, at least feelwise, to 10 years ago-although the sound is quite different. “I’ve been a happy camper,” admits Liebert, who found inspiration for his current CD during a seven-week stay in Tuscany with family and friends. Accompanied by his eight-piece band, Luna Negra XL-which he brings to the Vogue Theatre for a “huge rhythm fest” next Thursday (June 17)-Liebert is making blissful music that brings to mind the joyous vibe of his 1990 debut, Nouveau Flamenco. At least, that’s what you’d guess after hearing the guitarist’s new CD, Innamorare-Summer Flamenco. Liebert’s feathered friend probably has a more nurturing environment to learn in. Maybe my budgie was a tad on the deaf side, though, since it used to share the living room with my 100-watt stereo and heavy doses of Thin Lizzy, Blue Oyster Cult, and Montrose. I had a chirpin’ bird once myself, but it was no African grey, just a plain old Chilliwackian blue, and it couldn’t mimic any scary voices-even with a steady stream of horror flicks to cull from. Suddenly, she heard this voice, ‘Redrum, redrum,’ and he mimicked the movie perfectly.” to play on a Mexican pop song, and when I came back, it was 1 o’clock in the morning and my wife was on the phone with her sister ’cause the bird was freakin’ her out. And a friend of mine was here from London for just a coupla days, and in those two days he somehow managed to teach him ‘Redrum’ from The Shining. He does telephones very well, too, which is annoying. “It’s just one bird,” explains Liebert with a chuckle. There’s a constant chirping in the background, the likes of which I haven’t heard since Tippi Hedren got pecked in that old Alfred Hitchcock flick. When Ottmar Liebert calls the Georgia Straight from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, it sounds as if the popular flamenco guitarist is living in a bird sanctuary. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 10, 1999
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