Jose D. Medina


Meet Jose D. Medina from Concord, California.

I was living in El Salvador, where I was born, it was somewhere around 1973 or 1974 and I was deeply in love with the girl of my dreams, who of course married a rich guy, and one morning as I woke up to get ready to go to work and I turn on the radio, I am addicted to music, "Tin Man" started playing and I became bewitched with such a beautiful melody. Of course since I did not speak English too well by then I could not understrand all the lyrics but it did not matter because from that point on I and a lot of my buddies became avid listeners of America. We all bought their tapes and gathered around the beach just to listen to music and America was perhaps together with Bread one of my favorites. I still whistle those songs in the shower or while I am working. The songs that created the bigest impression were: Tin Man, Ventura Highway and A Horse With No Name. Of course I am fan of this wonderful band and I will be forever.

I have played guitar and written poetry for a great deal of my life, just for fun, and I have been looking all over for the chords of my favorite America songs and I've finally found them. Playing "Ventura Highway" and "Tin Man" on my accoustic guitar, and being able to sing the lyrics, had always been an enormous thrill for me. I arrange my own music sometimes but when I try to play this music, I can see how much I still need to learn.

The other day I went to a park to practice for a while and I played a little bit of my version of "Ventura Highway" without realizing that there was a lady listening from a short distance behind me and when I had finished what I thought was a decent imitation of the song, suddenly, I heard the lady clapping with so much joy. I realized then that this music is greatly appreciated all over California's magic land.

Feel free to send your comments or questions to Jose.



Written: 11 November 2002