His familiar face struck me for a bit. The sound bouncing from his guitar caught him by surprise. After the gig, I confronted him at the bar while the next band stepped up. Do we know each other? He looked confused, which made me ask him another question to make him more comfortable. “Where are you from?” “Italy” cut short. “Where about?” I insisted. “Formia” still short of words. “No way!” I erupted. We clicked. His name was Marco Buono. `Nome omen` used to say Romans – meaning the name reveals peoples’ personalities. And yes, he is good in spirit, indeed.
“The first time I encountered the blues I was camping with friends. This man I didn’t know and I wouldn’t see ever again, said to me: `You would have been good at playing blues`. It was like an inception” he looked at me trying to convince me about the dots it would have eventually connected leading him to the Blues Bar in London.
“I already knew blues. My uncle used to travel for work so I was lucky enough to be given the vinyl of the music worldwide. I discovered blues, rock `n roll, and so on. It was like a call”.
He first used to play between Formia e Gaeta, the two communities where both of us come from, getting more and more interested in blues each day passing even sneaking inside the U.S. leisure camp settled in there for the American families based in Gaeta.
“I come from a family that has gone through a lot. The guitar has always been my safe place and I kept playing with friends in local bars and events”.
But Formia wasn’t offering him the right `stage` to step up, to grow, musically speaking.
“I moved to Rome. I need to pay the bills and I thought I could study music. I was wrong. I barely got by. At that time I was in love with a girl and she quickly became my everything. Playing music became more and more difficult. I wanted to preserve that love and keep fighting for music. That’s why I moved to Germany”.
“I first stopped in Frankfurt then in Nuremberg where I was offered the top floor of the cafeteria where I worked. I was desperate and I really needed the money. At first, I felt sad, but slowly things got better when I started saving money. I wanted the relationship with my girlfriend to work” he recalled before sliding into a sad memory.
“I would have returned to Rome very soon when I received her call telling me she couldn’t make it”.
For him, for them; it was over. “That’s blues” he erupted. “Blues is living the feelings. It doesn’t matter if good or bad. Just feel it, live it”.
“At that point in my life, the guitar was the only thing left. My only company. The music helped me take the sadness away. Moreover, I met, for the first time, a harmonica player. That was a milestone encounter that shaped my later style. I always would have had such a partnership and I would have had even later on”.
But after a useful collaboration, the liaison faded away. Time for Marco to move on. Next stop Berlin. There Marco met the one who pushed his aspirations to another level. “Willy was a kind of mentor to me. He always encouraged me. ‘Play this, listen to that`. He often ended up telling me ‘Go to London, go to London, listen to me. You belong in London`”.
But there wasn’t enough money for this. Besides, in London, he had spent all the money he had on getting a guitar.
“I have never thought of moving to London, but you never know in life”. That’s true. You never know. Things in Berlin for Marco started to go not that well. A sort of spiritual crisis caught him by surprise.
Only one place started to feel right for him again: Formia. He went back to his birthplace to recover, make things better and find himself at ease with life.
“I didn’t expect what came next. When I was home a friend called me asking me `Would you like to join my band in London`. I didn’t hesitate. I said yes”.
“I can tell you that was a kind of turning point. In London, I could completely focus on music. There was just blues. I got used to long hours of performing, busking, practising. Up to nine hours per day” he recalled. “In or out, under the sun or the heavy rain”.
It was this very moment that he realised his dream was coming true: make a living with music.
“London changed my life forever. I still clearly remember everything I went through but eventually, I got what I really wanted”.
Then staring proudly at me he said “Don’t worry about your future, you will find your way likewise. This is just the start for me, I know, but look at you, you may find in your career or doing what you dream for one year or another. It`s just about you, your strength, luck and coincidence”.
