Montaner convinced true love will reign forever

Venezuelan-bred Latin pop artist takes familiar route in Viajero Frecuente”

By Fernando Ruano Jr.

If love were measured by the number of times he tugs at his collar in conversation, champagne and flowers would reign forever in our hearts. Ricardo Montaner, freshly ironed in white dress shirt and jeans, and bronzed as if he didn’t waste a single summer’s day on Miami Beach, is here today as the voice of romance and oddly enough to talk up “Convenceme”(Convince Me), another of his picturesque tale ballads and the first single off his upcoming album,“Viajero Frecuente” (Frequent Traveler).

He’s come to roll out the red carpet too, welcoming you with a beaming smile and handshake – amid laughter and banter– before kindly refuting your suggestion of romanticism being dead. No way, no how is it dead and he’s going to great lengths – albeit in a friendly tone – to convince you there’s still somebody out there, perhaps maybe even the beautiful blonde girl you’ve been dying to see again, ready to walk through the park and cuddle under the tree.

“Man, don’t look at it like that, romance will always exist” the Venezuelan-bred Montaner, 54, says during a sit-down interview inside a Coconut Grove-based record label. “Look, everything evolves as we travel (through) life, and the same has happened with the way most people fall (in love) these days, but that doesn’t mean it has died. It’s always going to be there, believe me.”

With a slight tap on your wrist, the Venezuelan-bred crooner with the 25 million records sold and effortless ability to lyrically paint pictures reassures you, no matter your depth of disillusion, there’s still plenty love in the air, so dust off those Jose Jose and Nino Bravo classics mami has buried in her closet – you know the songs you never hear on the radio anymore– and give it another try. “A lot of us have fallen in love with music, and a lot of us will continue to fall in love with music.”

Whether blinded or truly head over heels about a genre that flourished in the 1970’s and into the mid-90’s on the strength of Latin pop icons such as Julio Iglesias and Roberto Carlos but has been silenced in recent years by a younger generation’s thirst for synchronized beats and raps, Montaner, who turned his childish poetry scribing as a teenager in Argentina into a 30-year career of singing about love worldwide and the release of 15 albums, isn’t done making his pitch, even after coyly acknowledging a changing of the guard.

He might be willing to move a bit more on stage, but forget about rapping. “There were a lot of different musicians that influenced me, Beatles, (The Rolling) Stones, but this is what I knew I was and what defines me to this day.. It’s who I am.”

But the heartfelt lyrics and interpretations of Bravo and Carlos would have a lasting impact. He would spend hours sitting by the window or near any quiet space he could find writing about trying to hold on to time because he was a man, or a kid, falling hard, and even after all these years Montaner is still holding on no matter how long it takes as evidenced in “Convenceme”, a journey through a love-stricken man’s calendar unwilling to move on and desperately holding on to time in search of happiness.

Over a soft layer of percussion and piano, Montaner tenderly explores with her to convince him “the week with her has two Sundays” and that “the night is young although it’s early morning.” He wants certainty “all this will conclude in true love (story).” “A man that still sees an opening in the window, no matter how small,” says Montaner about the song. “Obviously, here’s a man that clearly hasn’t thrown in the towel.”

And Montaner is clearly a man still in love with his craft, eagerly selling his 12-track, yet-t0-be-released CD and telling you he has little use for writing songs that aren’t going to make the final cut. “I wrote 12 songs and 12 (songs) made it,” says Montaner, imploring anybody in love to take a trip through “Viajero Frecuente”. “I don’t believe in stocking hundreds of songs, they all have to clearly mean something and convince me.”