POSTCARD ELBA

Dave Harding of Richmond Fontaine: “First time I saw Fernando perform was in the spring of 1995 at Satyricon in Portland. He was on a bill with Richmond Fontaine, Jim Boyer & Bingo, and Palace Brothers. He was playing acoustic guitar, singing dark expressionist folk songs full of death and foreboding and had a huge stage presence. He was accompanied by a long-haired hippy-looking guy shredding it on a Telecaster. That amazing guitar player was Dan Eccles and he would eventually join Richmond Fontaine as our lead guitarist. Richmond Fontaine and Fernando ended up being label mates on Cravedog so we played a lot of shows together and had many great adventures. Fernando sings like a man possessed, throwing himself into every lyric and note played by his band. I always remember thinking they were like Dylan & The Band circa 65-66 when they performed live. They had that much power, and were so in sync with each other. I have moved to Copenhagen and have seen my friend Fernando play a few solo shows here since then. It’s amazing what he can do with just his guitar and voice. He is fearless, sometimes bringing the songs down to a whisper, holding the audience in his palm. This song, “Beautiful,” has such a gorgeous melody and the lyrics just hit home. Richmond Fontaine sometimes covered it and I sang lead on it. The song is basically two chords repeated over and over, which is a good trick if you can pull it off and hard to do. But Fernando did it, of course.”