Fernando Perdomo Records Live Album At Kulak's Woodshed, 8-2-26

As you might be aware, Fernando Perdomo has been releasing an album of new original material on the first of every month this year (he did it last year too), instrumental music that is often soothing. Music for introspection and exploration, music that takes listeners on wonderful journeys. This year's series of albums is titled Clouds, and for the ninth volume in the series, Fernando Perdomo decided to do something different, to make it a live recording. It's an interesting and unexpected decision, particularly considering the type of music involved. But everything Fernando Perdomo does is interesting and unusual, so it should not have come as a surprise. Also, it makes some sense for Clouds 9 (possibly, and understandably, changed to Cloud 9) to be something special. For this recording, Fernando Perdomo returned to one of his favorite haunts, Kulak's Woodshed in North Hollywood. And, interestingly, he had two guests join him at certain points in the show. Those who have been following the Waves and Clouds series know that on those albums Fernando Perdomo has not only composed all the material, but played all the instruments. So having guests at this show also marked an interesting departure from the established pattern.

As he started the show, Fernando Perdomo mentioned the Waves and Clouds series, saying that "this year I decided to take it from the water all the way up to what I consider the other ocean, which is the sky." And he briefly mentioned the idea of Cloud 9, including a nod to George Harrison. And then he got right to the music, the first piece opening in a beautiful space, immediately taking the audience to cloud nine. Together we stepped into a magical and warm land, a welcoming place, Fernando delivering some gorgeous guitar work. With the second piece, he took us into stranger territory. It was fascinating to watch him create these sonic landscapes. Fernando had four guitars to choose from at this show, and he switched to the second guitar for the third piece, and switched to another guitar for the fourth. It was after those first four numbers that he invited his first guest to join him. That was Bradley Bobbs, who did a spoken word performance about clouds, while Fernando accompanied him on guitar, actually at one point playing one guitar against another. Bradley Bobbs began the piece with a reference to Winnie the Pooh, and injected some humor throughout. There was also a Joni Mitchell reference at the end.

Fernando Perdomo went back to performing solo, the next piece taking us to some wild, psychedelic territory, bright explosions in an otherwise dark sky. At one point he unplugged the guitar, and played the cord, getting some interesting sounds from touching the end of it, even putting it in his mouth. That ended up being one of my personal favorites. He then switched guitars again, and this next piece began in a somewhat gentle place, but with hints of something else at work within. And soon there was a great rumbling of the disturbed gods. From there, it became even more interesting, taking us farther out. "What is cloud guitar?" Fernando then asked. "Cloud guitar is guitar not being guitar." He talked about how he was always interested in music that took him to another place, which is interesting, because that was just the sort of thing he was creating right then. He also talked about getting into Tori Amos in the 1990s, and becoming interested in the guitar work of Steve Caton. "I realized that this instrument could sound more like a cloud, or more like water and waves."

He then invited Steve Caton up to play with him, and this was a special treat. Steve began with a short solo that contained a nice nod to "Over The Rainbow," and then Fernando joined him, and the two sounded fantastic together, taking us to some wonderful places almost immediately. They created fascinating realms, building off each other's work. The music at this show, as Fernando mentioned at one point, was largely improvised, though perhaps working off a few earlier ideas. And so there was that sense of excitement to it, not knowing just where the music would take them, not knowing just where they would take us. Fernando and Steve did the rest of the show together, playing several different pieces. There were moments of great beauty, soothing and comforting moments, and also some playful moments, like when Steve did a bit of Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water," and when a little way into a piece, Steve asked Fernando, "Did we bother tuning?" After a lot of wonderful journeys, Fernando told the crowd, "I think we have time for one more, and this one is going to be very special." "I can't wait to hear it," Steve said. They began by drifting into a standard, before Fernando put a stop to it and asked Steve to talk a bit about his background and about his father, Roy Caton, who was part of the Wrecking Crew. They then eased into a song, one that was pretty and soothing, and not a standard. That ended right at 10 p.m., which was the time they'd planned on wrapping things up, but Steve started to play something else and Fernando encouraged him. And so the two did one final, shorter piece before calling it a night. And what a night!

After the show I asked Fernando how much of what was played would end up on Clouds 9, or Cloud 9. He said ninety-five percent of it, so this entry in the series might be different in yet another way and be a double album, because this show was approximately two hours. I'm looking forward to hearing this music again. Look for that album on September 1st. 

Kulak's Woodshed is located at 5230 1/2 Laurel Canyon Blvd. in North Hollywood, California.