Lauris Vidal and I spent an afternoon together talking music, bikes and the roots of his spiritual, bluesy get up and ride music. This is the result. 

I found a cool bike on craigslist, described as a unique vintage Dutch bike “you probably won’t ever see another like here in the States”, and it had “new tires with a reflective strip so cars can see ya better”. It was right around the corner from my house, so I had to take a look.

Craigslist being what it is and me being who I am, I googled Lauris after he replied to my email and discovered he was a musician. I found this video called “She’s Movin In” he did and just loved it. I mean loved it. Promise me you’ll click on this link and watch it before you read any more!

So, I threw my guitar into the old car and headed over. I started recording this Swampcast (a podcast I do) only minutes after meeting Lauris. Obviously, we had some good chemistry from the start. You’ll hear a new song Lauris just wrote called “Shipbuilders” all about following your dreams. It’s a special preview because the song isn’t even finished yet, but the essence is there. I have listened to it a bunch of times now and I am inspired every time I hear it.

You may notice in the Swampcast interview, Lauris mentions a Paul Simon video called Duncan where Paul Simon gives a gal a chance to play a song of his she’s been practicing.  I later found it and it’s just electric and exciting. It gave me goosebumps to watch it and how excited the gal was to be invited onstage by Paul Simon. Here it is for you so you don’t have to look for it.

I wound up getting the bike and making a friend. That afternoon, along with making a cool video Swampcast, his girlfriend’s cat ran away and we hopped on bikes looking all over for the cat. We met neighbors, had a good ride, found the cat and came back to his house.

The bike in question…Union Holland (pretty unique, huh?)

Hilariously, or however you’d describe it, the cat we took home turned out to be suspiciously perhaps not his girlfriend’s cat. We suspected it was an impostor because his girlfriend’s *other* cat was going nuts, being very territorial. That turned out to have a happy ending, because the cat in fact was the right cat…

Here’s another video Lauris is in…well, it’s unique because it’s a video a guy recorded with a video cam strapped on while riding a bike through the streets of Osaka, Japan and Lauris’s music is superimposed. Lauris’s dad’s a preacher and you’ll hear the spiritual influences in his music. I love the strong way Lauris plays guitar and sings, and I especially feel inspired by the lyrics. The song he performs in the video is called “I’ll Fly Away”, an old gospel tune (I believe) and it’s fantastic. It’s why I called this article “I’ll Fly Away”. Listen to the lyrics. They’ll move you.

So Lauris and I are buds now and I’m just stoked to find all this new music by a guy who lives just down the street. Check out Lauris’s website here at www.laurisvidal.com and his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LaurisVidal If you want more, there are lots of videos he’s done on YouTube, and an interesting interview done with him at University Of Central Florida’s Acoustic Spotlight show. Just do a google like I did. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think!