In the last couple of months I have been working with established Bay Area singer Ramana Vieira, who performs a traditional Portuguese genre – fado. Fado songs evoke a feeling of longing and melancholia,  capturing life at sea and the plight of the poor. No sense of triumph here, although there is little glimmer of hope and humor every now  and then. But what really matters is that fado songs offer a way of expressing what often is so hard to capture – their simple stories help to relive, face and ultimately reconcile ourselves to our existential fears and inevitability of loss in many areas of our lives. They teach us how to let go of things we cannot control and hold on to things that are eternal.

Ramana just finished working on  her 3rd album and we will be celebrating that occasion on Friday, 07/10 at 8 pm at the Sound Room in Oakland.  We will be playing the songs from her new CD as well as some old favorites. I’m particularly proud of 2 songs featuring my playing, Ai Mouraria and Lidimo Amor, which you can already listen to on my soundcloud profile: