Mercedes Lujan or better – Mercedes Sanguiao Hornerosis is coming from a musician’s family. Her mom was a singer of the “copla” (a Spanish music genre), and she was born in the city of Lorca, which is in Murcia province. Her father was a TV presenter, Luis Terry, mother was Rosa María Luján, but besides that she took her mom’s last name as an artistic name – a very important musical figure in her background was probably her grandfather “Maestro Palmita”, the teacher and a guitarist from Gerez, Andalusia… Apart from physical beauty, she is also bursting with internal beauty. To play like this, you need to have quite a bit more than just practice hours put into it. Her technique is flawless, her feeling is “like an old woman’s dance”, (once I heard this metaphor) that I believe, says it all…
Mercedes Lujan name appeared to me on the internet, unfortunately. I heard of her on the internet, and I apologize for that to the readers, All the rest of my comments on other musicians are written after knowing them either firsthand or maximum – second-hand, and knowing all about their art. That is the reason I am really proud of this guitar blog I wrote… But nevertheless – this woman deserves this post of mine – absolutely. As you can see (just search her name on YouTube) – she collaborated with many different flamenco and non/flamenco artists recently. Her talent and virtuosity can allow it – definitely… Here are a few examples:
Mercedes Lujan in this Bulerias Jam with Kamal Musallam plays nothing short of amazing..! They have just played back the most simple buleria audio loop in the background and started playing over it. I really enjoy this mix of OUD and Flamenco Guitar…
Mercedes Lujan also plays this tangos with Cristina Regajo unbelievably. Mercedes has that feeling to follow the singers – absolutely innate. That is something that you get born with, or you don’t. I for example – just don’t have it… And no matter how much I try and I keep drawing conclusions from someone’s else experiences – I can never reach their ability to follow the singers in the way that they themselves are satisfied… They always say – “you play great”, or “it is absolutely great what you have just played”, and for the outside listener, it might even sound the same, sometimes even better than “the proper” version. But, (I am being 100 % honest on this) – I just feel that the singers are NOT 100% satisfied with how I follow them, I can just feel it…!