Fernando
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Versatile is a word overused, mostly for bands that toe the line between genres. Or it is referring to a multi-instrumentalist. Then there is the rarified occasion where it is applied so adequately to an artist for the sheer bold starkness of his musical range, both in talent and styles.
Fernando Viciconte, or just ‘Fernando’ if you will please, is either a man very hard to please, or who is doing his beat to please everyone. Not pandering, but in the fluidity he ebbs and blows from genre to genre without batting a Latin eyelash of his.
His ‘Old Man Motel’ sounds as if it was lifted directly from the Beatles catalog. The only issue is to figure out if he is more Lennon or McCarthy. In ‘Climb’, he calls up images of Morrisey with his demonstrative monotones and intensity. Then he languishes in his native tongue on songs like ‘Cielo Sin Color’, which is as musically lush as it is sung beautifully.
This is the same singer who once fronted a hard rock band. Also the same guy with music credentials in country, pop, rock, folk and Mexican r&b.
Fernando is the artist that other bands are jealous of. They envy his musical freedoms and seemingly limitless talent. Along with his fans, they are enrapt in his dynamic songwriting. He writes with a voice that represents multiple lifetimes, and not just his young one.
His last release, ‘Enter To Exit’, was wildly applauded by the media and critics. It is so well constructed, so thoughtfully planned out, that you are making plans for a second listen only three songs into it. This album also takes a quite wild ride emotionally as well, spectrum diving from joyful exuberance to introverted depression, only this is a depression you somehow welcome.
The Argentinian-born Fernando has made a name for himself here in Portland as one of its young rising stars, among many other young rising stars. But this star shines a hair brighter than the rest, just enough so that we can collectively reach up, refill the meter, and buff a personal shine on it. His Latin good looks make him even more appealing to the fairer sex, especially when crooning in his Latin tongue I imagine.
