Oct. 96

Fan Club

October 1996

Hola Amigos,

This Royal communique from the crown head of Tex-Mex is coming to you from Rancho No Tengo. This is my little adobe hacienda where I live with my dog Peso, It’s about 120 kilometers north west of Austin on the road to San Angelo.

First of all I must say that my lack of frequent communication is not because I’ve been off fighting revolutions in Latin America or languishing in some jail in Mexico. I’ve just mainly been doing my manana thing, which means my element of time is different. As a rule things happen late, but once in a while, if you don’t get complacent it will happen early. This is just how I am “yo soy como soy” (you are who you are). I’m almost always chasing the inspiration for what I think is my Tex-Mex vision in all kinds of ways, usually with a guitar and a Mexican bag at my side. In almost all the songs I have written, I can pretty much tell you when, where and what my mind was doing when they were created. Kind of a wierd diary for my brain that nobody else could ever understand.

I guess this is why I like Mexico so much, my best music comes from there, wherever you go there you are. There are a million and one reasons for hanging out in Mexico, mysticism, romance, art, mountains, beaches, ancients, musica, food, buses, tequila, jungles, the reasons are endless. Just being in Mexico surrounded by Spanish language and Latin culture. No need to explain it or justify it. Everywhere you go it seems art is completely integrated into life. Mexicans are closer to the source, closer to the magic of living.

Outside of just being in Mexico these last few years, I also played a few places around Mexico. Kind of like Warren Oats in the movie Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. At one point we were the house band at The Hard Rock Cafe in Puerto Vallarte Jalisco, playing for the Chilangos (people from Mexico City). On the way there we crashed the JKC royal tour bus at a railroad crossing in a village called Tequila. No one was hurt but our knowledge of the famous aguave drink was greatly increased. We even still made it to the show with the whole band traveling seven hours through the jungles of Jalisco in the back of a truck!

Recently I’ve been playing a lot at Pancho Y Lefty’s in San Miguel de Allende. It’s is sort of a cool colonial art colony north of Mexico City, I like to call it Mexico's Hollywood. My latest CD, Dia de Los Muertos, came as a direct result of playing there. In Mexico Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is an annual remembrance of the souls of the dead in a festival atmosphere, to put it mildly. This outpouring of love is a celebration of life, it’s probably one of my most favorite things about Mexico. The people in the U.S. tend to confuse the skeletons with the negative. If one was to take the time to investigate a little further into this experience, they would discover it to be positive and uplifting, a little tequila also helps. This tradition helps one to understand and feel better with the rest of the world. This is what my music is all about, I kind of call it tequila reggae. Sort of like Sam the Sham hits Kingston.

Last summer I found myself surfing in Hawaii, where I got tossed by a wave into the boneyard (coral reef), but I lived to tell the tale. One of my goals in life is to surf the Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore. Last January, my brother married a girl from Cuba named Anna. I was the wedding entertainment at the Hotel New York, Habana. I formed a duo with a great Cuban guitarist named Gabriel, who played circles around me. Cuba reminds me a lot of the movie Escape from New York. It’s been cut off from the world since the 1950’s, one of the last amazing places. I rented a little apartment on the Malecon which is on the seawall in Havana. I proceeded to set up shop trading Joe King stuff for antiques, baseball cards and old movie photos. I learned the ways of the mercado negro (black market) on all the back streets of old Havana, body surfed and played guitar. I even found Jesus!! and brought him back with me, a 14" statue anyway.

This year the Tex-Mex supergroup The Texas Tornadoes released the CD Four Aces which I’m playing some guitar on. They also did my old El Molino song Tell Me. I’m working on some future projects with The Sir Douglas Quintet. I’ve been playing in Austin with a reggae band called The Urban Roots and with a band outside of San Antonio called The Tamalia Warlords, named after the country of Tamalia. My first ever band that I had in Austin was called El Molino. This past year two members, Richard Elizondo and Ike Ritter, passed away. Both of them definitely inspired my life in a very positive way and I will miss them forever. Speedy Sparks had played bass in this group and he’s playing with me again when he’s not working with The Texas Tornadoes or Doug Sahm.

Upcoming projects include shooting videos in San Miquel for the songs Arroyo and Break Down The Border, from the Dia de los Muertos CD. Mexico Mike Nelson, the Central American travel editor for Sanborn Travel Agency, and I are preparing a book about traveling Mexico. I’m also getting ready to release a CD that I recorded back in 1993 which was never released. Several possible titles for this project are: (and if you have any preferences let me know) Vamos a Get Down - Rancho No Tango - Imperial Mex - Tattoo Laredo - Flying Killer Cowheads - Watchale (whatch it) - Fin de Ciglo (end of century) - Veinte - Con Gusano (withworm) - Nunca Separado (never seperated) - Coolisimo. Playing with the band is Robert Ramos (bass - when Speedy is not available) John DiGrazia (lead guitar), Ian Brooks (drums), Tony Puenta (percussion) and of course my ever loyal stage tech Steve Rutledge.

Hasta Manana Iguanas

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