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Thanks for your patience…

ABOVE-
‘Cella (short for Marcella) presenting us with peach cakes from an outdoor oven.

Just a word about after the concert tonight. As we were leaving the cathedral in a tiny village of flat little houses, all covered up with typical Spanish metal window shades, we received an intriguing invitation from two very nice women on the steps of the church: would we like to come to their house for a cup of tea and some cakes? They had just fired up their rather ancient backyard adobe oven and tried it out for baking. One of the women said was from Oxford, England and her friend was an artist from Asturia. They’d bought this little place in the village some years ago, and just this day had fired up a traditional, outdoor oven at their home. Federico, being ever the spontaneous type, accepted, even though we were expected for dinner at friends’ in nearby Moratinos. They were persuasive, in Federico’s defense, and they promised they understood – we could only stay a few minutes.
We did stay just a few minutes and the experience was delightful. What a place this is! You’d never know what’s behind these walls, plain and perfectly effective at shutting you out. Once you’re invited in, you discover a lovely and homey little abode where someone has done something you never thought of…
BELOW- the lovely little backyard of the house in Villalcazar de Sirga.

BELOW- I have an audience.
Really getting into it now, I am playing some Spanish renaissance pieces, originally for the Vihuela da Mano, the instrument of choice for great musicians across Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries, (Pavanas by Luis de Narvaez). I’m glad I took the time and learned them just before we left for Europe.

It’s not exactly pop music but people love it. Classical guitarists hate this repertoire because they think it’s boring. Because I dropped out of the conservatory I was never forced to learn it, and now that I have been playing for thirty years, I find that it is really fun to play. This music requires a dedication to silence that is hard to trust in youth because you want to play as many notes as you can; it’s all about being fast and agile. As I get older, I increasing find that creating a sense of quiet in music is equally artistic. (Think of the famous photo of Miles Davis in a recording session shushing the musicians with his finger to his lips.)
BELOW
Now Maddy is right in with the audience.

It’s very intimate, despite being out in such a public space, and I can play softly and people really listen. I think people perceive this music as spiritual because it is in effect a demonstration of how to be quiet in one’s mind and enjoy such a dramatic, beautiful environment. Personally, I can’t make my own head quiet in any other way either.

BELOW- packing up.

I decide I’m done for the night and startpacking up my little shopping cart full of magic archguitar gizmos. Now I am ready to go with my lovely wife to find something to eat.

BELOW- on the way back to the hotel…

Grateful to be walking past these incredibly good-smelling restaurants, all open and busy on Monday night at 11:30PM. BTW- Did you know that, in the 10th century León was the capitol of an independent empire that stretched all the way to the Rhone river?

BELOW- at one of great outdoor cafés around the corner…
Maddy had a salad presented like a little cake with layers of spinach, manchego, and thinly sliced blackened asparagus, served with a crazy plum-sauce and little blasted onion ringies on top. You could taste each individual item like a perfect chord. I had gorgeous dark noodles in a light, but creamy sauce with perfectly woven in wild mushrooms, nuts and raisins. My reward for all this high-falutin’ artistic johnny-appleseeding? Our hotel and meal more than paid for by my audience. It’s a strong shot in the arm to keep me believing that the music I love is loved by most everyone around the world.

We’ve been in Spain only about 36 hours, and honestly, I already am in love with the place.  Maybe I am a sucker for the combination of inspired architecture, delicious food, and lovely audiences, (some of whom are making out while I play Bach and some weeping- WOW!), all presented by a guide who is a lovable crazy-passionate Quixotic guitar maker from Wisconsin …. And, oh yes, the landscape.

We traveled from the craggy edge-of-Europe sweetness of Santiago de Compostella to the heart of Spain, the trigales of Palencia today, and tonight I am sleeping in an indescribably lovely and homey residence made by a British/American couple who joyfully share their home with pilgrims from all over the world, and by doing so, ironically have found a sensible way to become part of this tiny Spanish community. I really played well tonight, and I mention that because I think it has something to do with travel, being fed great food and wine, seeing stunning new places, meeting lovely people and being treated like treasured guests.

Hey- that’s it.  I bet everyone would perform their jobs better if they got to do it this way. You may think I am kidding about the weeping people and the making out- I am not. Everyone here tells us that the Camino experience, walking these miles and miles, coming face to face with oneself, as it were, loosens people up psychologically- spiritually, they say.  Tonight, a sweet young nun from South America spontaneously agreed to be my translator to the audience when I played in Carrion de los Condes.  It was very moving to play here for this audience of people from different countries, foreigners and natives, pilgrims and folks who live just down the street.

Pictures to follow…