Charlie Robison (born Charles Fitzgerald Robison on September 1, 1964 in Houston, Texas) is an American singer/songwriter, who was raised in Bandera, Texas. His brother is singer/songwriter Bruce Robison.
Hector Saldana: Lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica. David Saldana: Vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards. Van Baines: Harmony vocals, lead guitar, pedal steel guitar. Abraham Humphrey: Harmony vocals, bass. Louie Bustos: Saxophone Al Gomez: Trumpet
The "K" in Krayolas comes from Hector's favorite group, The Kinks.
"Non-ironic use of Vox organ ... the writing is crisp, and the sound is powerful and locked-in, effortlessly mixing Tex-Mex, Motown and British Invasion sounds into a winning concoction." -- Jeff McCord, KUT/NPR "Best Music of 2009"
From the Krayola's web-page bio: "The Krayolas are back among the living. It's like something out of a Stephen King novel or Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" -- it's alive. Thirty years ago, the Krayolas walked out of their daddy's garage and into the legendary West Side studio, Zaz, to make their first 45 r.p.m. vinyl record, "All I Do Is Try" b/w "Sometime." They were just teenagers, but soon they would be making many more singles with the help of great musicians like the West Side Horns, Ezra Charles and Rene & Rene. The Krayolas were hailed Tex-Mex Beatles, just as the Sir Douglas Quintet had been a decade earlier -- connected in spirit, their love of rock 'n' roll and their hometown roots. The Krayolas always championed their San Antonio connection. "Best Riffs Only: The Krayolas 1977-1988" compiles long-unavailable, out-of-print indie vinyl singles and rare album tracks for the first time. Some of it dates back 30 years, most of it is a quarter century old. The title of the new, 16-song collection comes from a bit of advice that Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds gave the band when they played together at the historic Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa in the late '70s. Taking a step back and listening to the disparate collection that only hints at the Krayolas onstage power, their essence is irresistible. It's direct-to-the-brain power pop and garage band rock -- young, raw, energetic, upbeat, charming, campy and fun. Always melodic, the Krayolas easy-to-hum sound puts a smile on your face. It's timeless. The Krayolas are timeless. And if they're alive, maybe you are, too."
In a November post, we featured Tish Hinojosa's song The Westside of Town, about growing up Latina in San Antonio. Today let's hear Hinojosa's beautiful Spanish language ballad Donde Voy.
DONDE VOY (Where I go) By Tish Hinojosa
Madrugada me ve corriendo (Daybreak finds me running) Bajo cielo que empieza color (Under a sky that's beginning to color) No me salgas sol a nombrarme (Sun please don't expose me) A la fuerza de "la migración" (To the force of the INS) Un dolor que siento en el pecho (The pain that I feel in my chest) Es mi alma que llore de amor (Is my heart that hurts for love) Pienso en ti y tus brazos que esperan (I think of you and your arms that wait) Tus besos y tu passión (Your kisses and your passion) (Chorus) Donde voy, donde voy (Where I go, where I go) Esperanza es mi destinación (Hope is my destination) Solo estoy, solo estoy (I'm alone, I'm alone) Por el monte profugo me voy (Through the desert, a fugitive, I go) Dias semanas y meces (Days, weeks and months) Pasa muy lejos de ti (Pass far away from you) Muy pronto tu llega dinero (Soon you'll receive some money) Yo te quiero tener junto a mi (I want to have you near me) El trabajo me llena las horas (Work fills my hours) Tu risa no puedo olividar (Your laughter I can't forget) Vivir sin tu amor no es vida (To live with out your love isn't living) Vivir de prófugo es igual (To live as a fugitive is the same)
Esteban "Steve" Jordan (born February 23, 1939) is a conjunto (norteño) and Tejano musician from the United States. He is also known as "El Parche", "The Jimi Hendrix of the accordion", and "the accordion wizard". An accomplished musician, he plays 35 different instruments.
Born in Texas to migrant farm workers and partially blinded as an infant, Jordan was unable to work in the fields. Left at home, he found friendship and guidance among the elderly. At a very young age he was introduced to music, especially the accordion. At the time, the musician Valerio Longoria followed the community of migrant farm workers and played for them in the labor camps. These circumstances brought the two together and the young Esteban mastered the instrument quickly. While he has remained close to his traditional conjunto roots, he has never limited himself musically. More than any other accordionist, Jordan pushes the diatonic accordion to its limits, both musically and physically, playing traditional conjunto, rock, jazz, salsa, zydeco and more.
Unlike many conjunto musicians, he has kept abreast of technological developments, using devices such as phase shifters, fuzzboxes, and synthesizers, and was one of the few conjunto musicians to weave styles such as fusion jazz and rock into his music. He has also recorded country, western and mambo numbers. Members of his family frequently back him up, including his sons Steve Jr., Steve III, Richard, his eldest daughter Anita, and youngest daughter Estela. Currently, Steve III (guitar) and Richard (bass) accompany Esteban on-stage and in recording.
New wave polka bands such as Brave Combo have cited Jordan's influence. In 1986 he was nominated for a Grammy, but lost out to his old friend Flaco Jiménez. His bid for mainstream presence continued in 1986 when he was asked to do the soundtrack for the Cheech Marin film Born in East L.A.
He has appeared in the film Texas Conjunto: Música de la gente, a documentary about Texas conjunto music. He has also appeared in True Stories, an American musical film directed by and starring musician David Byrne. He did the music and appeared as an accordion street player in the film Born in East L.A. starring Cheech Marin.
From the NPR report The Corrido of Esteban 'Steve' Jordan:
"...Jordan's liver is diseased with cirrhosis and cancer. He underwent chemotherapy last year. But Jordan says he feels good these days. And he's finally begun granting interviews — he used to be notoriously elusive. Though he's ailing, he's still got the old attitude.
"Right now, I'm so far advanced that nobody can catch up to me," Jordan says. "Nobody, I mean, that includes nobody. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Esteban Jordan grew up the youngest of 15 siblings in a family of southern Texas farmworkers. They picked sugar beets in Colorado, cotton in Arizona, figs in California. But Jordan couldn't work in the fields.
"I couldn't see a damn thing," he says. "I was a young kiddie. And I was turned loose at that age: Go ahead on, find yourself something to do."
Jordan says he started making a living as a musician when he was 7. By the late 1980s, it looked like his career was finally taking off. He played the Berlin Jazz Festival, had a Grammy-nominated album and played the soundtrack for Cheech Marin's Born in East L.A. Hohner even produced the "Steve Jordan Tex-Mex Rockordion."
Back then, some even started calling him "the world's best accordionist."
Jordan should have ridden that wave 20 years ago. He should be set now, sitting back, enjoying the fruits of his international renown. (He has rabid fans in Germany and Japan.) But he says he isn't seeing any royalty payments.
"Nada," he says. "Not a half a penny. They've been taking advantage of the handicapped."
He isn't too happy about it, either.
"Of course I'm bitter," Jordan says. "Everybody's living in Oceanside, and here I am living over here, a poor little dude."
He speaks from the living room of his rundown rental house. The linoleum is cracked, and two dogs mill about a bare front yard.
But Jordan has a plan to finally take charge of his music. He says he has nine CDs' worth of unreleased material in which he plays and overdubs every instrument. He's mixing it at his house, which he shares with his two sons, Esteban III and Richard..."
Jon Dee Graham is a musician, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas. He was born February 28, 1959. Graham was named the Austin Musician of the Year during theSouth by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in 2006. He was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2000, again in 2008 as a member of The Skunks, and again in 2009 as a member of the True Believers.
The Skunks' lineup featured Jesse Sublett on bass and vocals and Bill Blackmon on drums. Founded in 1978, the band invited Graham to be their new guitarist (replacing Eddie Munoz, who departed to join The Plimsouls) in 1979. Graham's guitar can be heard on the band's live CD, “Live: Earthquake Shake, released in 2000. [1]
The True Believers, which included Alejandro Escovedo and his brother, Javier Escovedo, are widely considered by critics to be seminal figures in the fusion of literary songwriting and punk rock, a sound often referred to as alt.country.
Jon Dee Graham went on to play with John Doe, Exene Cervenka, James McMurtry, Eliza Gilkyson, Kelly Willis, John Hiatt, Michelle Shocked, Patty Griffin, Calvin Russell, andLone Justice.
His music has been featured in soundtracks such as Ladder 49 and Veronica Mars. In 1992, Patty Smyth covered Graham's song, "One Moment to Another" on her album, Patty Smyth.
To date, Graham has released six studio albums: Escape from Monster Island (1997, Freedom Records); Summerland (1999, New West Records); Hooray for the Moon (2002, New West Records); The Great Battle (2004, New West Records) and Full (2006, Freedom Records). His record, "The Great Battle," was produced by Charlie Sexton.
His sixth studio album, "It's Not As Bad As It Looks" was released October, 2009 on Freedom Records.
Graham's music generally explores the struggles with being a grown up and the battles that adults fight as they try and raise their children, maintain marriages and jobs, and grapple with the quick passage of time. Despite the heaviness of such themes, Graham's music is also infused with a strong sense of the joys of life and the need to remain optimistic.
Graham's second child, Willie, suffers from a chronic, rare childhood disease called Legg-Perthes. In 2005, the Austin music community banded together in an effort to raise money for Willie's treatment. The resulting benefit concert at Austin's Continental Club became a CD/DVD release called "Big Sweet Life: The Songs of Jon Dee Graham." Musicians like Alejandro Escovedo, Bob Schneider, David Garza, Ray Wylie Hubbard,Ian McLagan, and Steve Poltz all contributed by covering Graham's tunes. An additional benefit concert, held the same night at the Saxon Pub, featured performances by Roky Erickson and the Skunks. Graham commuted the short distance between clubs to participate in both shows.
Over the years, Graham has been backed by Jim Keltner, Rafael Gayol, Mark Andes, Michael Hardwick, and Andrew Duplantis, who went on to play in Son Volt with Jay Farrar.
In early 2006, production began on a feature-length documentary on Graham and his music. Entitled, Jon Dee Graham: Swept Away, it was released on DVD on May 20, 2008. The film was directed by a fan of Graham's, Mark Finkelpearl, who happens to be a documentary television professional with a background on the staffs of the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Television.
In August 2008, Graham underwent emergency surgery after being injured in a one-car accident.[2]
Almost every Wednesday night, fans can see Graham live at the Continental Club on Austin's South Congress Avenue where he traditionally plays a set at 10pm, just before James McMurtry goes on at midnight.
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