Raul Midón Channels Bob Dylan and Songs of Self Discovery on ‘Lost & Found’

Raul Midón remembers when he first heard a cassette recording of Bob Dylan reciting “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie.” He was captivated by Dylan’s ode to his idol, Woody Guthrie, who was nearly at the end of his life, after a long battle with Huntington’s Disease (Guthrie died in 1967). The poem followed Dylan’s first tribute, “Song to Woody,” released on his debut a year earlier.

Dylan read the stream-of-consciousness piece at the close of his first major concert at Town Hall in New York City on April 12, 1963. In it, Dylan examined hopefulness and finding meaning in life in the face of many adversities, something Midón explores in his new album Lost & Found.

Initially sparked by Dylan, Lost & Found unraveled with a collection of songs examining struggles, triumphs, and a pilgrimage of self-discovery—something Midón, who is blind, has always drawn from in his writing.

‘”Lost & Found” ignited the album and was a song Midón had written many years earlier when he first heard the Guthrie poem. “It was one of the first songs I ever wrote, but it never got on a record,” Midón tells American Songwriter. “Back when I had the song [‘Lost & Found’] it just didn’t make the cut. It’s a good song, but for some reason, it didn’t fit what the [label] wanted.”

After the launch of Midón’s label ReKondite ReKords in 2002, he released Eclectic Adventurist in 2022, followed by Lost & Found, which allowed him to revisit the old song.

A master of crisscrossing genres since his 2001 debut Blind to Reality, Lost & Found, which Midón likens to “smooth folk, alt-pop, and jazz,” is an assemblage of most of his musical corners, tracing more folkier tones on “Going Away,” the rousing “Next Time”—Lying awake, waiting for one good day to break / Secretly ill, dreaming of spaces left to fill / Come with me, there may not be a next time—and more notes on perseverance with “Keep on Keeping On.”

“Ocean of Doubt” is a track Midón says transformed the most from its original state. “It was a very heavy song in a way, and it had this weighed-down feeling,” says Midón. “I had to lift it somehow so it wasn’t so dour, so I put this section in—’I’m free, I don’t believe anymore’—and it goes to a major key and works beautifully from that minor and into ‘I can’t remember the last time I was close enough to feel your light. Why should distance be the reason that I strayed so far away from right? Maybe I don’t see the differences you say exist between black and white. Or maybe I just drifted away with the tide on an ocean of doubt, so deep and wide.’”

Latin vibes slip around “Anything at All” before curving toward country-Americana on “When We Remember,” with Midón on banjo. “Written with Ethiopian R&B artist Wayna, “A Condition of Love” simmers over the outcomes of love, while the penultimate “The Ganja Song,” offers a ska-bent ode to cannabis before closing on a more jazzed up “Wall of Indifference.”

Midón produced and engineered Lost & Found with the assistance of recording engineer, Michael O’Reilly, and rounded out his band with drummer Andrés Forero (Hamilton, Phish, U2), bassist Richard Hammond Hamilton, and keyboardist Federico Peña.

For Midón, who picked up two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal for his albums Bad Ass and Blind and If You Really Want in 2017 and 2018, respectively, songwriting is less “autobiographical,” now, and more character-driven. “I’m also trying to write more or less, more from a perspective of being blind,” adds Midón, who has been blind since birth. When he recently started writing a song for the non-profit ZBS Foundation, which produces radio dramas, he pulled from a more personal perspective.

“I wrote this bridge—’ They say a picture’s worth 1000 words. But I know for me that isn’t so pictures come to me in a woven tapestry of audio—because that’s how it is for me,” he says. “I’ve never seen so this picture is worth 1000 words crap doesn’t doesn’t work for me.”

Great songs also come when there’s enough space in between, adds Midón, referencing the Beatles’ 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band track “Fixing a Hole” and how distraction can wreck the prospect of creativity.

“The creative process is about constantly giving it space,” says Midón. “You can’t turn it off and on when you want. Some days you get nothing, and most days, you get something, but you have to give it space. It’s almost like it’s another being or energy that you have to tune into. You have to sit and be quiet to do it—especially in these days of constant stimulation.”

He adds, “In some ways, maybe it’s a blessing not to have eyes as a portal for data, because of the amount coming in at all times. You have to consciously shut off sometimes, otherwise it’s too overwhelming.”

Midón admits that lyrics are still harder to generate than music, but sonically, he’s never followed any individual path. “I’ve always been a believer in the non-genre and it’s probably hurt me, business-wise,” he says. “I’ve done albums that are more jazz-weighted where the palette is acoustic piano, upright bass, trumpet, saxophone. This album leans a little more on the singer-songwriter with its acoustic instruments and harmony. It’s not quite as dense.”

He remembers chatting with the late jazz pianist George Duke about working with Frank Zappa, who said “Sometimes a triad is all that’s needed.’” Musicians, says Midón, often get too caught up in the complexities of the music. “I love complex music,” he says. “I love classical music, but besides words, I need music that is interesting, and a lot of times, singer-songwriters tend to be too concerned with the lyrics.”

Now, Midón is content with making music for himself and is exploring an Argentine-leaning album—a music he fell in love with as a child—with songs in English.

“In a way, I’m liberated with the fact that I’m not chasing commercial success anymore,” says Midón. “I don’t give a f–k about it anymore. If I get more commercial success, it’s going to come by accident. It’s not going to come because I’m chasing it.”

Photo: Embudo G. Kujackn / Courtesy of Bloome Effect PR