"One Man Band, Margaritas, and Besame Mucho!"

A Closeup of the Guitarist sketched in ball point pen!

I was really digging the light of the evening that came streaming through the window. It created a lot of editing for me by reducing the unimportant and highlighting just enough to tell a story. This sketch captures him doing an instrumental version of "Besame Mucho" and every time I hear this song I think of Peggy Lee's soft, oozing sensual, "femme fatale" version as well as Paul McCartney's spoof of the song with the Beatles. But this musician was as good a vocalist as he was a guitarist and played just about everything including his own version of the Beatles', "All You Need Is Love."

Although I sketched him looking rather youthful, he actually was about forty-five or fifty years old. One of the things I enjoyed about him was that he didn't always rely on his "backup band" to fill in the rough spots. He seemed confident enough with his guitar to solo with or without the drum machine. I would not have been surprised had he performed that famed guitar medley of, "Pipeline, "Walk Don't Run," "Raunchy."

As the restaurant filled up with patrons and birthday partiers, his guitaring became background muzak, but by then, after finishing my third happy hour libation, I became his favorite and most attentive audience. I applauded after every song forcing others to applaud with a casual indifference to his talents.

Dinner finally arrived and I thoroughly enjoyed it, Enchiladas Especial! The meal also helped me walk out of the cantina without stumbling over myself. But before I left, I dropped a five spot in his tips glass, smiled and said, one guitarist to another, "Gracias!"

Copyright 2011/Ben Bensen III