Eduardo Canelon is a virtuoso guitarist and Latin musician whose been part of the Radio Free Charleston family since he first appeared on the third episode of Radio Free Charleston back in the summer of 2006. He has since been on the show as part of Duo Divertido and ¡Comparsa! His apperance on this week’s RFC MINI SHOW is his first solo turn since his debut over nine years ago in the memorable “heatwave” video, shot on the fifth-floor fire escape at LiveMix Studio. We caught up to him at Third Eye Cabaret, at Fireside Bar & Lounge, a couple of weeks ago.

Eduardo is a first generation Venezuelan who moved to the USA when he was 10 years old and was raised in Elkins, WV.  In 2004 he formed ¡Comparsa! which is still a musical powerhouse in the Mountain State.  He has worked with Betty King and Maestro Grant Cooper of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and has presented his program “Latin America: Music, Culture, and Dance” in Randolph, Cabell and Kanawha Counties.  Eduardo Canelón and ¡Comparsa! was featured on the Mountain Stage radio show in February of 2008.

Eduardo’s performance has had some computerized dancers edited into it. His music cries out for dancers, and my brother, Frank Panucci, had just given me a batch of glitched footage that he created on an open-source videogame graphics generator, so I decided to mix those with Eduardo’s music for just a hint of surreal dance-party fun.

Our host segment this week was shot in front of the newly-installed Streetworks Art Garden on Morris Street in Charleston, across from the ballpark. Host, Rudy Panucci, is standing in front of his contribution to this project. Panucci is also wearing the same shirt that he wore in the last full-length Radio Free Charleston, to promote Austin Susman’s film, “Killer Catfish of the Kanawha,” which is set to debut on YouTube September 1.