By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
When he returns to Dowagiac Oct. 11, nouveau flamenco guitarist Johannes Linstead will be previewing his next release, which he promises will be "slightly different" in its "Mediterranean flair."
His third release, "Guitarra del Fuego," reached No. 6 on Billboard and was awarded "Best Contemporary World Album" by New Age Voice magazine. His albums, which also include "Sol Luna Tierra" (1999) and "Kiss the Earth (2000), are released worldwide by California-based Real Music.
In addition to his fifth CD, Linstead, who was scheduled over the weekend to sign CDs at a mind, body and spirit exposition in Toronto, has lent his musical gifts to a yoga video.
He worked with R&B singer Felicia Adams to remake her own song with her singing over the top of his Spanish acoustic guitar accompaniment.
He has also been researching mariachi music and "coming up with ideas" for musical accompaniment to a film about an orphan growing up in Mexico in the late 1800s.
He looks forward to the day he can winter in Mexico, performing on the "spa circuit."
As the finale to the 2003 Dogwood Fine Arts Festival May 17 at Southwestern Michigan College, Linstead drew sustained ovations for his virtuoso flamenco stews seasoned with gypsy, salsa and Brazilian music.
Return engagements, such as his concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, at SMC "happen quite a bit," Linstead said.
The first time he often performs for people "who don't know what to expect. Then when they see it, they have such a time" that they buy CDs and familiarize themselves with the music.
Last spring the band was obscured behind the conga line snaking to and fro, cha, cha, cha.
Linstead polled the audience for out-of-town listeners, who came from Niles, White Pigeon, South Bend, Ind., and Chicago in addition to Deborah Harry, a United Airlines flight attendant, and her husband, Jack, a Los Angeles air traffic controller, who flew in from California.
Tickets cost $20, or $15 for seniors over 60 and students through high school. Phone the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival office at 269/782-1115 or visit the Web site www.dogwoodfinearts.org.
Accompanying Linstead were percussionist Anastasios "Tom Juan" Bigas, who was born in Greece and immigrated to Canada at an early age; guitarist Eddie Paton, who earned a university degree scholarship in classical guitar; and Alex Godinez, who began learning congas and bongos listening to his father's salsa records. One of Toronto's top percussionists, he specializes in New York-style Cuban rhythms.
Jim Pickley of Edwardsburg sat in on keyboards with the band.
Linstead said he had some beginning music lessons as a kid, but is primarily self-taught. His father "sang a little bit," his mother played some guitar and his older sister, now a mother of three, played organ, but he was the only member of his family who became "hooked" on music.
In high school he practiced 10 hours a day. The multi-instrumentalist plays guitar, piano, mandolin, bazouki, wood flute and percussion -- but not rock guitar any longer.
Despite major rock groups such as the Rolling Stones and AC/DC converging on Toronto to play a SARS benefit concert, Johannes said he watched it on TV, and that the outbreak was not as bad as the media portrayed it.
After years of fretwork on a classical guitar neck, he said the smaller electric guitar "feels like a toy" and he hasn't touched one in years.
A typical day includes writing and recording. "I try to do that every day," Linstead said. "Every time I pick up the guitar I end up writing," so he has amassed a backlog of unrecorded material.
He finished the summer performing a couple of times a week. He doesn't enjoy spending months at a time on the road because "I like to be able to enjoy my day and not rush."
Touring has taken him to New York City just before the terrorist attacks, as well as Spain, Mexico, Colombia and even Cuba, which "is a little different being Canadian."
In his free time Johannes enjoys reading things which will expand his mind -- not fiction.
A recent book Johannes enjoyed was "Psychic Warrior" by David Morehouse.
Morehouse writes of the world of "remote viewers" and leaving his body in vivid nightmares.
A stray bullet struck him in Jordan in 1987. His 1996 book is billed as the true story of America's foremost psychic spy and the cover-up of the CIA's top-secret Stargate Program.