The guys who make up the country group the Mavericks began their professional music career performing together at rock clubs in Florida. Now you might think that’s a long ride from Nashville, but they found their way easy enough. Once they did, they didn’t leave everything they learned in those rock clubs behind though, and listeners won’t miss the rock & roll flavor that the Mavericks stir into a number of the songs on this 1998 album, It’s Now! It’s Live!
As the title foretells, this is a live album. It was made during a couple of shows the group did in Canada. This is great country-rock music done the way the Mavericks do it best, but the album is a little short with only seven tracks. The songs are fan favorites though, like…
Category: tex-mex
It’s safe to say that back in 2009 when punk rockers The Bronx released their self-titled debut by their mariachi alter-egos, no-one would have thought this enterprise would still be going 17 years later. What started as a playful experiment in paying tribute to the thriving mariachi tradition that has suffused their native Los Angeles, has become an identity all its own – vibrant and intoxicating.
And while this fourth Mariachi El Bronx record isn’t a huge leap from its predecessors, musically speaking, that’s not the point of this. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the music being celebrated here, it’s impossible not to be swept up in the sheer exuberance of ‘Forgive Or Forget’ and ‘El Borracho’, songs that take you somewhere else entirely, emotionally and geographically.
Peter Rowan was americana before it was even a thing. Around 1970, he played with jazz-influenced roots rock band Seatrain, followed that with Old and in the Way with Jerry Garcia and Dave Grisman and has subsequently released albums that circled around bluegrass, adding elements of other roots music as the mood and the collaborators demanded. Tales of the Free Mexican Air Force pulls on many of the strings of his career but focuses on his musical relationship with Flaco Jimenez and Max Baca. The liner notes talk about how Rowan came to know them and their influence on his music.
The accordion played by Josh Baca is the dominant instrumental voice on the first song, ‘Mississippi California,’ a tale of the hope that…