Flaco Jimenez and Ry Cooder - The Girls From Texas

Cover of Squeeze Box King

Well, I met a girl from Texas 'bout a year ago
Hadn't known her for too long when I had to let her go
You see, she had a razor, was ten inches or so
And every night you'd hear her knocking at my door
She said, "Baby, I'll give you the clothes on my back
You can have everything that I've got in my shack
But if you ever try to leave they'll take you out in sack
'Cause me and my razor will see to that”

That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas

I thought about my situation, decided not to tarry
For my own self preservation, I decided we should marry
When the preacher started reading 'bout 'till death do us part
I told him, "Skip it, she had that understanding right from the start”
She said, "Baby, I'll give you the clothes on my back
You can have everything that I've got in my shack
But if you ever try to leave they'll take you out in sack
'Cause me and my razor will see to that”

That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas

Well we settled down, got me a little old job, '65 Fair lane Ford
Every Friday night I would stop in and cash my pay check
Down at the grocery store
They had a little girl worked in there, must have been about seventeen
She was the cutest thing I had ever seen
It's the same old story and I'm afraid it wasn't too very long
Before we had fallen deeply in love and I knew it was wrong
I said baby, we got to stop this thing right here.
In tearful supplication, she looked up in my face
I could feel her heart was breaking as these sad words she did say
"You should have told me you was married, baby”
She pulled out a forty-Eve and let me have it
Right smack between the eyes

That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
She was guilty, I was dead
(That's the way the girls are from Texas)
Now, what'd you think that the old judge said?
(That's the way the girls are from Texas)
"Ah, that's just the way the girls are down here in Texas
Case dismissed!"
That's the way the girls are from Texas
(Houston to San Antone)
That's the way the _girls are from Texas _
(Houston to San Antone)
That's the way the girls are from Texas
(Got to love 'em right or leave 'em alone, boy)
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas

Credits:
Lewis, James [Songwriter]
Holiday, Jimmy [Songwriter]
Chambers, Cliff [Songwriter]
EMI UNART CATALOG INC [Publisher]


Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez (born March 11, 1939) is a Tejano music accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jimenez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He began performing with his father at age seven and recording at age fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales. He played in the San Antonio area for several years, and then began working with Douglas Sahm in the 1960s. Sahm, better known as the founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet, played with Jimenez for some time. Flaco then went on to New York City and worked with Dr. John, David Lindley, Peter Rowan, Ry Cooder and Bob Dylan. He appeared on Cooder's world music album Chicken Skin Music. This led to greater awareness of his music outside America and after touring Europe with Ry Cooder he returned to tour with his own band, and on a joint bill with Peter Rowan.


Jimenez won a Grammy Award in 1986 for "Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio", a song of his father's. He was also a member of the supergroup Texas Tornados, with Augie Meyers, Doug Sahm and Freddy Fender. The Texas Tornados earned a Grammy Award in 1990, and Jimenez earned one on his own in 1996, when his Flaco Jimenez won the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 1999, Flaco earned another Grammy Award for Best Tejano Performance (Said and Done, Barb Wire Records), and one for Best Mexican-American Performance as a part of supergroup Los Super Seven. Jimenez has also won a Best Video award at the Tejano Music Awards and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from Billboard Latin Magazine for "Streets of Bakersfield" with Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens.


Jimenez has appeared in the film Picking up the Pieces, with Woody Allen and Sharon Stone. He also appears on the soundtrack to that movie, and in many others, such as Y Tu Mamá También, The Border, Tin Cup, and Striptease. The Hohner company collaborated with Jimenez to create the Flaco Jimenez Signature Series of accordions.


Jimenez's latest CD is Squeeze Box King (2003, Compadre Records).


Ryland "Ry" Peter Cooder (born 15 March 1947, in Los Angeles, California)is an American guitarist, singer and composer.


He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in blues-rock, roots music from his native North America, and, more recently, for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.


Cooder's solo work has been an eclectic mix, taking in dust bowl folk, blues, Tex-Mex, soul, gospel, rock, and much else. He has collaborated with many important musicians, including The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Earl Hines, Little Feat, Captain Beefheart, The Chieftains, John Lee Hooker, Pops, Mavis Staples, Gabby Pahinui, Flaco Jimenez and Ali Farka Touré. He formed the Little Village supergroup with Nick Lowe, John Hiatt, and Jim Keltner.


Cooder was ranked 8th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

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• New Texas Tornados! (twangville.com)

The Texas Tornados

Texas Tornados via last.fm

Texas Tornados


Texas Tornados was a Tejano band and its music was a fusion of rock, country and various Mexican styles. The initial combination of these musicians happened almost by chance at a concert performance of a mutual acquaintance. After Freddy Fender, Flaco Jiménez, Kevin West, Augie Meyers, Jorge "Pac-MAN" Diaz, and Doug Sahm performed in front of a San Francisco audience, they all knew the genuine bond they felt in their music could probably be taken to another level. After they initially performed as the Tex-Mex Revue, they took the title Texas Tornados, after Sahm's song and album of that name.


Another account of the group's birth says they formed when record company executives looking to cash in on regional music sales approached Sahm and Meyers around 1990, and they brought in longtime friends and collaborators Fender and Jiménez. Sahm had released albums under the name Texas Tornados as early as the 1970s, some featuring Fender or Meyers. Jiménez and Meyers played on Sahm's Atlantic Records debut in 1971. As Fender once said "You've heard of New Kids on the Block?, we're the Old Guys in the Street".


Individually, this quartet has had major success. San Benito-native Freddy Fender was a cross-over success story around the world with hits like "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights".


Flaco Jiménez has played with acts ranging from the Rolling Stones to Dwight Yoakam. He also is known as the "Father of Conjunto Music" (Flaco plays the Conjunto accordion).


Augie Meyers has shared the stage with the likes of The Allman Brothers Band and Bob Dylan. He's also a member of the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers were both members of the 1960s pop-rock band the Sir Douglas Quintet, with hits such as "She's About a Mover" and "Mendocino" to their credit. Sahm, Meyers and Jiménez are from the San Antonio area.


The band's 1990 debut was recorded in both English and Spanish versions. The Texas Tornados were asked to perform all over the world at places like the Presidential Inauguration of Bill Clinton, the Montreaux Jazz Festival, as well as regular appearances at Farm Aid and the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show.


Among their other albums is Live From The Limo, this was the last album to be recorded that featured the complete lineup, as Sahm died in 1999, the year of its release. Fender, who had health problems in later years, died in 2006. Their 2005 Live from Austin album was a recording of a 1990 performance on the TV series Austin City Limits.


People sometimes refer to their lyrics as Spanglish because of the mixture of English and Spanish in the same song, in addition to pronouncing the Spanish lyrics in an American accent, which is evident in their hit, "(Hey Baby) Que Paso". An example is the lyric: "Don't you know I love you / and my corazón is real?", where the word corazón (Spanish for "heart") is improperly pronounced /ˌkɔrəˈsoʊn/, with an obvious American accent, instead of [koɾaˈson]. The band's self-titled debut album was offered in Spanish and English-language versions.


R.I.P. Doug Sahm and Freddy Fender