Mostly sound waves, but anything that gives me goose bumps, like, Etta James, or Frank Sinatra, Benny More, Cash, Joplin, Celia Cruz, Fania All Stars, Pearl Jam, JIMI, The Boss, My brother, Miles Davis, Billie, Stevie, Fela, Outkast, CLINTON, Harry Belafonte, the ocean and beyond...
The blue beat-up Subaru swings a hard left onto NE 2 Ave. Little Haiti’s main vein throbs to the beat of overcrowded Jitneys and King Creole during the day, but the night is dark and quiet until I approach the dilapidated double-decker bus parked out front of Churchill’s Pub.
A mass of unwashed bodies blocks the entrance to the lot where I pay Cisco the baser $2 to ‘watch’ my car. The gravel reeks of booze and piss. Girls cackle as boys jockey for attention. Everyone is performing tonight, but the headliner, Sol Ruiz, is by the main door perched high in a female’s lap. She greets folks as they walk in with a “Heeeey maaaaaan” and everyone smiles. Her character is as infectious as her music. In some marvelously inexplicable way, she connects the mixed bag of hippies and harlots and all types of drunks; elements that would probably clash if not for that disarming greeting they receive as they first enter the bar.
Sol and her suitor, a goateed French keyboardist, play in a style of their own, meandering somewhere between son, folk, and eclectic psychedelic strangeness. She wails songs of love and love lost and all the partying that led up to it. It sounds like Janis Joplin raised on rice and beans.
“I’m a pirate,” she tells me, “a free spirit” as her fingers tatted with FREE LOVE strum her guitar.
Sol’s sounds reverberate with this philosophy of no boundaries or limits to experimentation and experience. Her latest release, Outlander, is firmly rooted in the lyricism of American folk music, yet the syncopation and downbeat pulse with the spirit of a guarachera.
In a town saturated with cultures from lower latitudes, American folk music is as foreign as you can get. There are few people in Miami who have roots that go two or three generations deep in this country. Yet Sol–a first generation American–has a voice that shines with a classic riverboat-outlaw-cowboy luster.
And they dig it. There’s no bass, no auto-tune, no PULL UP—just keys, strings and good vibes. During the 20 minutes she plays, she calls a spirit out of people. Folks sing along and jump on stage. The crowd gets denser and three 280lb guys in hoodies lock arms and do-si-do each other full steam, gold-tooth encrusted smiles twinkling as they twirl.
Now that’s a “good” show.
-ADAM GANUZA
thanks sol i apriciate that and i really o love your record ! ! its gr8 i love the knda reall roots of music vibe goin on in the production of it souns so natural but yet amzing !
Muy chulo tu nuevo vídeo en la radio! Qué alegría verte tan bien. Un besote! P.S. El finde pasando estuve tocando en Madrid. También queremos tocar por Barcelona; si puedes pasarme contactos...Un abrazo fuerte! María José
Dropping some love from up north. I hope to come down to Florida again and see your whole band next time. Alligator Alley was a good time and a pleasure.
Pequeña! Cómo va esa gira? Cómo te han tratado los franceses? Espero que bien que me los como si no...:P Cuenta! Cuenta! Dónde vas ahora? Besitos desde una Córdoba muy calurosa...
No words to define how much you made us enjoy yesterday...but now I see that u are leaving for Paris so soon...ooh! Bueno, te espero por Sevilla, tenemos que repetir esa gran fiesta de la música que montamos ayer! MUAAK! artistaza, guapa! MJ
Será especial, será diferente, siempre lo es para nosotros, de regalo tenéis una nueva canción en www.myspace.com/davidllosa y esperamos seguir colgando una semanalmente (o así), porque músicos somos y música tenemos que hacer, no? y muchos mas conciertos en la plaza y en los bares, y muchas gracias a todos por ese chorro de visitas virtuales y cariño puro, duro y tangible.
![Cole Will [Recordings]](http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/30/s_1832a0bb256941b3a0da79d1c133734c.jpg)
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