Fado singer to play another show in Waco amid new album – Times-Herald

Romana Vieira, a Vacaville resident and die-hard fan of fado, a melancholic form of Portuguese folk music, said the record focuses on her recent travels to Hawaii, Portugal and Madeira.

More specifically, she added during a phone interview, the 12-track album, which will be released in early 2023, is about the beauty of the jacaranda, a tree native to Brazil that produces the fragrant purple flowers she saw in the Pacific island chain.

“The beauty of it just haunted me,” said Vieira, who also booked a show called “Journey to the World of Portuguese Fado and Beyond” on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at Journey Downtown in Vacaville. Her backing band is Jeff Furtado, guitar; David Parker, bass; and Earl Jackson, drums.

But like any musical artist working in any genre, Vieira explores the contours of his life, past and present, memories and more modern things, on a new record with songs in Portuguese and English, covers of fado classics and original compositions.

She “immersed herself in my Catholic upbringing on ‘Mother Mary’ and songs, Vieira said, that casts an eye on a ‘divine woman.’

“It’s just a tribute to all the mothers of the world,” she said of the song, adding, “We need to salute the mothers of the world” and noting that her mother’s name is Mary.

Songs from the album will be performed during the show on November 5. Vieira said the new record will also include a tribute to contemporary fado artist Mission, a cover of “Paixones Diagonais” (Diagonal Passions and pronounced “Pie-shines Deog- go close”).

On a recent trip to Portugal, Vieira visited the house—turned into a museum—that once belonged to Amalia Rodríguez, perhaps the most famous fado artist in the world.

“I got to see her wardrobe, her awards, her living room — she was clearly entertaining people — a beautiful guitar (guitar),” she recalled. “She collected Japanese antiques. And her parrot is still alive. It’s in the kitchen, in the cage in the kitchen.’

She also saw Rodriguez’s memoirs, her books, her costumes for performances.

“Everything was so extravagant,” Vieira said, adding, “She was short.”

In her live concerts, such as one earlier this year at the Sevastopol Arts Center in Sevastopol, she sang a Rodriguez tune, so the visit to her idol’s home was part of a personal journey and tribute to the idol.

“It was like going to Elvis’ Graceland,” she said. “It was such a profound experience of being in the house,” describing it as a “three-story Victorian house in San Francisco.”

On her most recent trip to Portugal, Vieira accompanied her 87-year-old father, Abel, to his native Madeira and the Portuguese island in the eastern Atlantic and off the coast of Morocco.

“It was a wonderful meeting,” she said. “We were able to go to the village he was born in (Boa Ventura) and the house he grew up in.”

One night on the island, she dined at a restaurant where, in addition to food, fado was on the menu.’

“The chef would come out and sing,” said Vieira, who has performed in Macau, New York and Hawaii in recent years. “The waiter, the server, sang. I was invited to sing,” and she sang Rodriguez’s song.

“I was horrified,” she recalled. “I was ecstatic, with a hint of ‘Oh shit!’ I received a compliment from the restaurant owner. I was asked to play with real people. You hope that you really match the intensity and the caliber of the musicians they were born into.”

Vieira, whose voice is intimidating with weight and power, believed that she “could. I remember feeling relieved after I finished. This was my vision of fado. There was thunderous applause.”

In a previous interview with The Reporter, Vieira called fado, which roughly translates to fate or destiny, a “window into the soul” of the Portuguese, their roots music, comparing it to American blues or what tango is to Argentina, flamenco is to Spain.

The allure of fado — pronounced “FAH-doh” — has mysterious origins, dating back to early 19th-century Portugal and enjoying a growing following in the United States (even Madonna sang fado on her Madame X tour more than two years ago ) , in his tunes, the humiliating part of every song, she said.

The music is seductive, passionate and mournful, but at the same time poetic and dramatic. It’s a love song of tragedy and longing more than anything else, or “saudade” in Portuguese, said Vieira, a San Leandro native and graduate of the theater program at the American Conservatory of San Francisco.

References to fado in Portugal date back to the 1820s, music sung by women to mourn their husbands lost at sea, or about the hardships of rural or urban life, but its roots may also have Moorish influences.

Although the genre has its own traditions, Vieira said in a previous interview that she considers her style of fado to be “modern fado”, where the old world meets the new, very similar to the approach of other famous active fado vocalists. Among them are Ana Moura and Marissa, all of whom owe a debt to Rodríguez, sometimes called the “Queen of Fado,” who died in Lisbon in 1999 at the age of 79. Although some men also sing fado, today it is best known because of the performers. .

Vieira, who also plays the piano during her live performances, has released four albums: “Sem Ti” (Without You), “Despi A Alma” (roughly translated as “Bare Soul”), “Lagrimas De Rainha” (Tears of the Queen) and ” Fado Da Vida” (The Fate of Life). They are proof that Vieira not only pays tribute to Rodríguez, but also shows that she can compose original fado music. It is noteworthy that her original composition “Unido Para Amar” was performed at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Olympics.

Pop, rock and jazz permeate her sound, some of which is available on YouTube, and her influences include U2, the Irish rock superstars, and Kate Bush, the English singer-songwriter. In the end, though, Vieira’s sound is something of a mix of U2, Bush and Rodriguez.

That fado is “theatrical and very expressive” was an emotional and technical connection to her early days “as a theater person,” she said in a previous interview.

Vieira performed in musicals at California State University Hayward and Ohlone Community College in Fremont. She is also a trained dancer.

After performing in the Bay Area a few years ago, she was approached by a producer who had worked with reggae star Bob Marley. She eventually received an offer from a San Francisco record label.

Like the blues, fado is a feeling, a feeling, and more than a set of notes. His strength stems from the human spirit, Vieira said.

WHEN YOU GORomano Vieira and EnsembleA Journey to the World of Portuguese Fado and Beyond When: 7 p.m. Nov. 5 (doors open at 6) Where: Journey Downtown, 308 Main St., Vacaville Tickets: $23 for seniors, military, students; $28 generalevents.journeydowntownvenue.com