The reign of the player from Spain was definitely not plain.
When finding himself in Hudson on Sunday night, Amir-John Haddad of Spanish and German ancestry put on a show by playing his Oud, an instrument that drew comparsions to a lute and sitar.
He was joined on stage by veritable longtime bassist and singer Tom Davies, a friend who brought Haddad down to Dick’s Bar and Grill to see the Jeff Loven one-man-band. Loven played lead guitar to complete the unlikely trio of instruments, and they ripped through songs by Metallica (For Whom the Bell Tolls) and Aerosmith (Walk This Way), not to mention Dueling Banjos (without the banjo) and a couple of tunes from Carlos Santana (where the Oud was a much more probable fit). Loven is known for often bringing guest musicians on stage, usually those who are prominent in regional bands, and letting them steal the spotlight for a song or two. For Haddad it was more tunes then that, as he brought his fast, power-picking to the Metallica song, and it was often he who let loose a flurry of staccato notes, not Loven, who is known for just that.
That metal cover of a regular Sunday night song drew raves from even longtime concert-goers who have seen everything. “I know Jeff (is great), but this is the most fantastic thing I’ve ever seen,” said regular listener and occasional guest guitarist Dan McVeigh. He said that in the first collaboration of the trio’s series of songs that was a foreign style, it seemed the way the Oud was played, with its different scales and presentation of octaves, took a little getting used to by the other two guitarists.
Unlike those more conservative looking musicians, Haddad had flowing dark hair down his back, and truly looked like a rock star — and in addition to the long locks and olive skin tone, also had the short stature of the late heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio. That’s the same kind of hair Loven had when playing with Davies locally and in the Twin Cities in The Kilowatts in the 1990s. Davies went on to other endeavors, such as playing backup for Motley Crue, McVeigh remembers. That newfound fan began greeting people who were coming in the door to hurry up, because they would not believe what they were about to see and the crowd kept on growing as word spread. Many of the patrons began videotaping so they would have a keepsake.
Haddad’s instrument had a clear, see-through body and its strings were arranged in a cone fashion as they tapered to the top, which flared off at a 45 degree angle. The Oud has no frets and its strings produce a plucky sound, since they are made of nylon, McVeigh said.
Haddad, who often plays with a full band and was in the area because of a pair of Minneapolis appearances, followed by a trip to Costa Rico, plays flamenco, oriental, fusion, rock, funk, metal and world music, according to his web site, which also shows him in various poses that could be right off of a metal CD jacket. It added that there are two types of Ouds, Turkish and Arabic, the latter is the most prevalent and features five doubles strings and bass.