If you need any proof the music we call Americana casts its seeds across many bodies of water, then witness Stormy Mondays.
Based in Spain, the influences that shape the music of Stormy Mondays are as broad as the distance that seperates Memphis from Madrid. From the classic catalog, they point to the Beatles and the Stones, to Bob and Bruce and Neil.
From the more recent archive of Americana, they send shout outs to Counting Crows, REM, the Jayhawks and Tom Petty.
“There are a lot of stories I could tell about places I played and people I played with,” says Jorge Otero, the leader founder of Stormy Mondays. One of those places was Woodstock ’99, a gig they scored through the sponsor of the festival’s Emerging Artists Stage.
“An indie band with a record released on a tiny label was the first Spanish band to ever play Woodstock festival,” said Otero. “We went on right before John Entwistle and we killed. We had the time of our lives!”
As time has passed since the band’s first gig and players have come and go — Otero stopped counting at 43 the number of players who had joined-in for a Stormy Mondays gig — the band name has become Otero’s stage name. But the sound remains the same, a mix of influences that says Americana is alive and well…and living in Spain, among other places.
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