Diego Garcia's Latin Sound to Heat Up the Bluegrass
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Diego Garcia video for "Sunnier Days" from his latest album, "Paradise."A transcript of this video can be seen here.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 12, 2014) — The Latin sound of Diego Garcia will heat up the Bluegrass this weekend as he takes the University of Kentucky Singletary Center for the Arts stage. Born in the U.S. to Argentine parents, Garcia explores his Latin heritage with a sound that conjures the spirit of 1970s troubadours like Sandro de América and Antônio Carlos Jobim, as well as singer-songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Harry Nilsson. The all-ages concert begins with Lexington locals Bear Medicine at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15.
A breakout star with the release of his solo album "Laura," NPR named Diego Garcia’s debut “one of the top 25 Albums of the Year.” His poignant first single “You Were Never There” (co-written by George Harrison's son Dhani Harrison) is a perfect example with its lush string arrangements, delicate Spanish guitars and distinctly Latin flavor.
Garcia knows how to mine romantic yearning in his work. His acclaimed 2011 solo debut "Laura" was the ultimate bedroom recording, an intensely focused and utterly entrancing chamber-pop song cycle about unrequited love, his own. The titular Laura was a woman he fell for in college but lost during a hectic period a decade ago when he was fronting Elefant, a New York City-based rock band that toured the world with artists like Interpol, The National and Morrissey. By the time "Laura" was finished, Garcia accepted the fact that she might only exist in his life as the subject of these songs. Then he miraculously won her back (and later married her). But those years of estrangement left an indelible mark and continue to inform his work.
"When I was in the studio making the 'Laura' album, I was digging through my parents’ record collections and really taking a deeper look at Latin troubadours. There was one singer named Piero; I heard his song 'Mi Viejo' and it changed my life. I spent a whole session listening to that song, to all the details. When you listen to those singers, the drama in their delivery was so powerful, the way they would capture 'the malady of love.' Then I had this sort of eureka moment. It sparked an idea that felt very natural to me, reaching into that lost world, that golden age of Latin music," Garcia said.
"Paradise," Garcia's new album, continues to expand upon the romantic sound he had begun to shape throughout his work on "Laura." The album’s hybrid of influences, from the late-'60s “Anglo” crooners like Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard Cohen and Scott Walker to the early-'70s passionate balladry of Latin American artists like Roberto Carlos, Jose Feliciano and Piero, and Spaniard Julio Iglesias, is a musical reflection of who he is: a U.S.-bred son of Latin American parents who thinks in English, but can speak fluently in Spanish.
Opening the evening will be Lexington folk-rock group Bear Medicine. A quartet featuring cello, flute, percussion and acoustic guitar, Bear Medicine succeed in balancing contemporary indie rock influences with a Kentucky tradition of folk and Appalachian music. They have recently self-released their debut album, "The Moon Has Been All My Life," to critical acclaim.
Tickets for this event are $26 for general admission and $13 for students with a valid UK ID. Service fee will be added upon completion of transaction. The tickets can be purchased via phone at the Singletary Center Ticket Office at 859-257-4929, online at www.SCFATickets.com, or in person at the ticket office.
A part of the UK College of Fine Arts, the Singletary Center for the Arts presents and hosts around 400 artistic, cultural and educational events annually for the university community, Lexington community, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu
