FELICIANO’S VERSATILITY SHOWCASED

Jose Feliciano has spent most of the ‘80s focusing on the Spanish-language half of his bilingual career and has received several Grammy nominations for his Spanish albums.

But now, the veteran guitarist and singer is anxious to reintroduce himself to an English-speaking pop audience, which he frequently emphasized in his two-hour performance Friday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

In returning to the pop war zone, however, Feliciano appeared a little too anxious to show off all of his skills, often at the expense of a focused, cohesive concert. As the set unfolded, he moved from the soft rock ballads at which he excels to electric workouts designed to prove that guitar heroes such as Eddie Van Halen have nothing on his own nimble fingers. (Would you believe Feliciano doing Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”? He did.)

He also threw in bluegrass, classical and R&B; numbers as well as several rock oldies, although his jazz-tinged, improvisational vocal style is best suited to songs that give him melodic space to explore. Consequently, many of his song choices--and ultimately the show itself--served to showcase his versatility rather than his expressiveness.