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on August 16, 1976 I went into ZAZ studio in San Antonio
an made my first recording performing Tell Me,
which is on the latest Texas Tornado CD, and Tex-Mex
polka classic, Mezcal Road, with the El Molino
band consisting of Richard Elizondo, Ike Ritter, David
Mercer, Rocky Morales, Ernie Durawa and Speedy Sparks.
At this time
I was heavily influenced by the San Antonio Mexican
lounge band sound. Richard Elizondo really got
me into Louie Prima, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Clanton and
San Antonios' own Sunny Ozuna, who sang Talk To Me.
Shadowing above all this was Doug Sahm, to whom some
members of El Molino had played on and off with through
the years continuing on to present day.
I had absolutely
no idea of what I was getting into, as I had never been
into a recording studio before, but for $250. you could
get one night plus 250 45 singles. So we
went for it, and what a party it was-about 10 cases
of Schlitz beer combined with bennies and Oaxaxcan and
out comes my first single.
We really did'nt
finish it up till about 1978. It was mixed by
Roger Harris who is famous for his work on Freddy Fenders'
Before the Next Teardrop Falls. A lot of
my closest friends consider this to be my best effort
to date! It was definitely pure and innocent.
Later on I heard that Elvis Costello used to play Jalepeno
Con Big Red on his London radio show.
When El Molino
performed live you never really knew which members were
going to show up. So some club owners would try
to get out of paying full price. So I figured
as long as this guy Carrasco showed up, there wouldn't
be any problem with dinero, and I don't mean Robert!
So I needed a title. I wanted a name that had
royalty tied in like-Sir Douglass Quintet, Lord August
or Prince Rockin Sydney. I decided on Count Carrasco
and El Molino, but my future manager, Joe Nick Patoski
said Joe King Carrasco sounded cooler.
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