Raul Midón Interviewed at "Making Vinyl" Nashville

followed by a performance you're sure to enjoy

The plan was an on-stage interview with Patrick Leonard, whose new double LP album "It's All Comes Down To Mood" is due end of July. Patrick produced all of Madonna's early Warner Brothers Records, Amused to Death for Roger Waters, two of the final three Leonard Cohen records (he wrote or co-wrote songs on all three), as well as Elton John's Songs From the West Coast. There's more but that's enough!

I wrote an essay published in the "Making Vinyl" show guide about Patrick's breaking free on his new album from his usual collaborative role and going "solo" with help from bassist Tony Levin Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Wendy Melvoin and other musical greats/friends. But something came up and Patrick was unable to attend—something I found out about after landing in Nashville— so a last minute substitution was made by the show producers who asked me to interview Raul, who would follow with a performance.

I wasn't acquainted with Raul, so I joined him backstage and we talked for about a half hour before taking the stage. Raul has been blind since spending time without the proper eye protection in an incubator along with his twin brother who is also blind. As with many other blind musicians, Raul didn't let that stop him and he eventually became a session singer for Shakira, Julio Iglesia and José Feliciano. He later "went solo" and was signed by Ari Martin to Manhattan Records.

His debut album State of Mind features guest appearances by Stevie Wonder and Jason Mraz. Since then he's released more than a dozen albums. After the interview we made our way over to where Nashville-based Axiss Audio had set up a room with Gauder Akustiks speakers, Soulution electronics and a Transrotor turntable and we played the Who lacquer from 2006 that I bring to shows and that knocked Raul out and then we played Patrick's record for him and for Discog's founder Kevin Lewandowski who was blown away (as were all the others in the room). Playing it for the artist who filled in for Patrick, kind of closed the circle.