Kin to the Wind

Book excerpt: Kin to the Wind is the memoir of Moro, a gifted virtuoso guitarist and composer, who first played (and wrote his first composition) when he was six and performed his first of many concerts when he was twelve. The book recounts his journeys as he traveled the world as a troubadour, using only his guitar performances as currency. This talented former member of the world-famous New Christy Minstrels played in over 50 countries—in royal palaces, African casbahs, and even on a British warship in trade for his passage across the Indian Ocean. Bedouin smugglers took him across the Arabian Desert in their camel caravan, listening to his music beneath desert stars. While he was in Bangkok giving a command performance for Their Majesties King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand, the U.S. military invited him to play for the troops at their jungle camps. And he became the first entertainer to perform for American forces in the Vietnam conflict. He was also the first entertainer to appear at Paul Newman's famous 1960s exclusive Hollywood discotheque, THE FACTORY, where he played nightly. He followed that with an engagement at Howard Hughes' CABARET ROOM in Las Vegas where Mr. Hughes personally came to hear him. An Italian duchess who found him performing with a street-dancing flamenco troupe of gypsies in 1961 assisted him in obtaining a visa for Algeria where he then toured—during the violent Seven Years' War—and S.A.O. terrorists captured and held him. He played for them, literally for his life, whereupon they gave him money and let him go. Moro's memoir is an account of life's magic, suffused with an almost childlike innocence in his pursuit of dreams and his belief in the goodness of people the world over.