Vol. 43 - No. 1 • OCTOBER 2023 • www.houstonmusicnews.

net • FREE

Also In This Issue

Foo Fighters
Chris Alan
Shakey Graves
Beach Fossils
Marcia Ball
Luger & MIjares
La Mafia
Ne Obliviscaris
and More! Coco Montoya
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2 Music News • October 2023
 October 2023
Hi Folks,
Hello Music News readers. I hope you had a great September. I’m proud to announce that with this issue we
now start our 43rd year in business. It’s been a long haul, but we made it. Over the years we’ve covered a lot
of great artists in these pages and we will continue to do so in the future. I would like to thank all of you out
there reading this for being our supporters in our quest to bring awareness to the music scene in Houston.
Thank you so much for all your help.

Our cover story for this month is Sting. Sting is bringing his My Songs Concert Tour to Houston this month at
The Cynthia Woods Pavilion On October 15th. This concert is scheduled to feature almost all of his major hits,
both solo and with The Police. It will be definitely one concert you won’t want to miss.

We also feature a fine interview with the Legendary Coco Montoya. Coco will be appearing At Dosey Doe this
month in support of his new Alligator Records Release, “Writing On The Wall.” Be sure to check out both the
album and his concert appearance here in the Houston Area.

Now, on to the new issue. In this issue, as usual, we have some great stories and information to pass on to you.
Check out stories in this month’s issue on Foo Fighters, Chris Alan, Shakey Graves, Beach Fossils, Marcia
Ball, Ne Obliviscaris and more, as well as another installment of the original story, THE BIKER! Also in this
issue are a ton of great pictures of bands performing around the Houston area. I’m sure you’re going to be
familiar with a lot of these bands. Those bands include 6th Sense, Bardo, Cooper Mohrmann, Felix The Cats,
Hammerlock, Henry Lee, The HipWaders Flying Circus, Jidora, Judas X, Killing Daylight, Mandi Powell,
Mark May, Murali Coryell, Sparky Parker, The Octanes, Throat Locust, and Witness To The Fallen.

We’d also like to invite you to check out our Spanish music section. This month we feature stories on Lucero
Y Mijares, La Mafia, and Ivan Cornejo Check these stories out in English and Spanish.

I sincerely hope that everybody reading this new publication finds something here that they like and I would
like to encourage you to let your friends and colleagues know about us. Just look for us every month at
http://www.houstonmusicnews.net. I would also like to encourage you to email us for a free subscription to
Rock And Blues International as well. Just email us at musicnew@airmail.net and in the subject line simply
put “Sign Me Up” and we’ll email you a copy each month when it is published. Remember, for your conve-
nience, Music News is also now downloadable. You can download the issue into your computer or storage
device and save it and read it at your convenience without having to get logged on to the internet every time.
Try it now and save every issue. It will make things a lot easier for you.

Kevin Wildman
Kevin Wildman
Editor and Publisher

Kevin Wildman
Editor and Publisher
Web Address For Advertising
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October 2023 • Music News 3
 Contents
VOL. 43 NO. 1
Page 6
Sting
Sting Brings His “My
Songs” Concert Tour To
The Cynthia Woods
Mitchell Pavilion
October 15
Page 12
Coco Montoya
Coco Montoya Releases
His New Alligator
Records Album Writing
On The Wall. Watch
Coco Montoya In Talkin’ T-Shirts, Houston
Concert This Month at
Dosey Doe Big Barn On
October 28th
4 Music News • October 2023
OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE NO. 528
Page 24 Page 38
Foo Fighters Cuco
The Foo Fighters Cuco Performs At White
Perform At 713 Music Oak Music Hall On The
Hall On October 10 Lawn October 29
Page 40
Shakey Graves
Shakey Graves Performs
At White Oak Music Hall
On The Lawn October 27
Page 46
Page 30 Beach Fossils
Chris Ållen Pegstar Presents Beach
Fossils: The Bunny Tour
Radio, & Moby With DJ Live at Warehouse Live
& Entrepreneur Chris October 27 In The
Alan Ballroom
 Contents
VOL. 43 NO. 1 OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE NO. 528

Page 48
Ne Obliviscaris Page 58 Page 64
Ne Obliviscaris Perform Parker McCollum La Mafia
At Warehouse Live Parker McCollum La Mafia Brings Their
October 13 In The Performs At The Cynthia Celebrating Life Tour To
Ballroom Woods Mitchell Pavilion The Arena Theater
October 28 October 21

Page 66
Page 52 The Biker
Nick Landis Page 60 The Continuing Saga Of
It’s The Sound Baby! Lucero Y Mijares A Lone Biker On The
A conversation With Top Lucero Y Mijares Bring Road To Explore The
Rated Track Mastering Their “Hasta Que Se Nos Freedoms Of America.
Pro Nick Landis Hizo” USA Tour 2023 To
Smart Financial Centre Also In This Issue
October 13
Page 70
Lucero Y Mijares
(En Espanol)
Page 74
La Mafia
Page 56 (En Espanol)
Marcia Ball Page 76
Marcia Ball Performs at Page 63 Ivan Cornemo
Bayou Theater At The Ivan Cornejo (En Espanol)
University Of Houston Ivan Cornejo Performs
Campus Clear Lake On At The 713 Music Hall Page 78 and On
October 18 On October 21 and 22 Random Shots
October 2023 • Music News 5
 Sting Brings His “My Songs”
Concert Tour To The Cynthia
Woods Mitchell Pavilion October 15
6 Music News • April
October
2023
2023
 Sting will be bringing his My Songs
Concert Tour to The Cynthia Woods
Mitchell Pavilion this October 15th. Sting’s
My Songs concert is an exuberant and
dynamic show featuring his most beloved
songs, written throughout the 17-time
Grammy Award winner’s illustrious career
both with The Police and as a solo artist.
Fans can expect to be taken on a musical
journey with timeless hits like ‘Fields of
Gold’, ‘Shape of my Heart’, ‘Roxanne’,
‘Englishman In New York,’ ‘Every Breath
You Take,’ ‘Roxanne,’ ‘Message In A
Bottle’, ‘Demolition Man’ and many
more. The tour has already made stops in
the United Arab Emirates, South Africa,
Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the
Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore
earlier this year.
Composer, singer-songwriter, actor,
author, and activist Sting was born in
Newcastle, England before moving to
London in 1977 to form The Police with
Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. The
band released five studio albums, earned
six GRAMMY Awards® and two Brits,
and was inducted into The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 2003.
One of the world’s most distinctive
solo artists, Sting has received an addi-
tional 11 GRAMMY Awards®, two Brits, a
Golden Globe, an Emmy, four Oscar
nominations, a TONY nomination,
Billboard Magazine’s Century Award, and
MusiCares 2004 Person of the Year. In
2003, he was made a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (CBE) by
Queen Elizabeth II for his myriad of
contributions to music. Also a member of
the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he has
received the Kennedy Center Honors, The
American Music Award of Merit and The
Polar Music Prize. Sting has been awarded
Honorary Doctorates of Music by the
University of Northumbria (1992), Berklee
College of Music (1994), University of
Newcastle upon Tyne (2006) and Brown
University at its 250th Commencement
ceremony (2018).
Throughout his illustrious career,
Sting has sold 100 million albums from his
combined work with The Police and as a
solo artist.
Following his critically acclaimed
album, 57th & 9th, his first rock/pop
collection in over a decade, Sting and
reggae icon, Shaggy, both managed by
Martin Kierszenbaum/ Cherrytree Music
Company, released a collaborative, island-
influenced album, entitled 44/876, drawing
from the many surprising connections at
the heart of their music. With its title
referencing their home country codes, 44/
876 first and foremost honors the duo’s
mutual love for Jamaica: Shaggy’s
homeland, and the place where Sting
penned such classics as The Police’s
“Every Breath You Take.” Their release
spent over 20 weeks atop Billboard’s
Reggae Album chart in the US, earned legendary Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC
Gold certifications in Poland and France where Shaggy performed the album in full.
and received the GRAMMY Award® for
Best Reggae Album. Sting recently became a Fellow of
the Ivors Academy – the highest honor
In 2019, Sting was honoured at the reserved for those who have reshaped and
BMI Pop Awards for his enduring hit redefined the art and craft of music
single “Every Breath You Take,” which has creation. The event, presented by Amazon
become the Most Performed Song, with 15 Music, celebrates songwriters and took
million radio plays, from BMI’s catalog of place on May 18 in London. To commemo-
over 14 million musical works. The song rate Sting’s honor, an unheard demo of “If
was also added to Spotify’s ‘Billions Club,’ It’s Love,” is available here.
having amassed over 1 billion streams on
the platform. As recently announced,
Sting and Shaggy have curated and will co-
Also in 2019, an album entitled My headline the One Fine Day Festival, a full
Songs, featuring contemporary interpreta- day of eclectic music featuring
tions of his most celebrated hits, was a diverse artist lineup -Thundercat,
released and followed by a world tour of Koffee, T ank and the Bangas, Philly’s
the same name. Sting’s ‘My Songs’ concert own G. Love & Special
is a dynamic and exuberant show featuring Sauce, Kes, Flor deToloache, and French/
his most beloved songs spanning the 17- Italian sensation, Giordana Angi - across
time GRAMMY Award® winner’s prolific two stages coming exclusively to The
career with The Police and as a solo artist. Mann in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia,
North American dates were recently PA, on Saturday , September 9, 2023. Sting
announced with the full tour itinerary here. & Shaggy will perform their biggest hits
together, trading off
Always known as a musical and collaborating on ‘Every Breath You
explorer, pioneering genre-bending sounds Take,’ ‘Englishman In New York,’
and collaborations, Sting’s next release ‘Message In A Bottle,’ ‘It Wasn’t Me,’
Duets, compiles some of his most cel- ‘Boombastic’ and ‘Angel’ and more.
ebrated collaborations, including those
with Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Eric Sting has appeared in more than 15
Clapton, Annie Lennox, Charles Aznavour, films, executive produced the critically
Mylène Farmer, Shaggy, acclaimed A Guide to Recognizing Your
Melody Gardot, Gashi and more. Saints, and in 1989 starred in The
Threepenny Opera on Broadway . His most
Sting’s latest album, The Bridge, recent theatre project is the Tony®-
showcases his prolific and diverse nominated musical The Last Ship, inspired
songwriting prowess. Representing various by his memories of the shipbuilding
stages and styles from throughout his community of Wallsend in the northeast of
unrivaled career and drawing inspiration England where he was born and raised. The
from genres including rock n’ roll, jazz, show, with music and lyrics by Sting, ran
classical music and folk, the eclectic album on Broadway in 2014/2015 and completed
features Sting’ s quintessential sound a UK regional theatre tour which ran from
on pop-rock tracks such as the album’ s March-July 2018. Thereafter, Sting starred
opening rock salvo “Rushing as shipyard foreman Jackie White in the
Water” and new indie-pop sounding “Ifs It’ Toronto-based production of The Last
Love.” Ship at the Princess ofWales Theatre. In
2020, he reprised the role for productions
Sting kicked off his Las Vegas in Los Angeles at theAhmanson Theatre
residency, “My Songs,” at The Colosseum and San Francisco at the Golden Gate
at Caesars Palace to rave reviews. The Theatre.
show presented a compendium of his most
beloved songs with dynamic, visual Sting’s support for human rights
references to some of his most iconic organizations such as the Rainforest Fund,
videos and inspirations with Sting treating Amnesty International, and Live Aid
fans to an array of greatest hits spanning mirrors his art in its universal outreach.
his illustrious career, including “Roxanne,” Along with wife Trudie Styler, Sting
“Message In A Bottle,” “Every Little Thing founded the Rainforest Fund in 1989 to
She Does Is Magic,” “Every Breath You protect both the world’s rainforests and the
Take” and several other fan favorites, plus indigenous people living there. Together
brand new songs from his latest album, The they have held 19 benefit concerts to raise
Bridge. funds and awareness for our planet’s
endangered resources. Since its inception,
Sting produced Shaggy’s latest the Rainforest Fund has expanded to a
album, Com Fly Wid Mi which finds the network of interconnected organizations
dancehall/reggae icon performing the working in more than 20 countries over
Sinatra songbook in a reggae style. The three continents.
album received a Grammy Award nomina-
tion for Best Reggae Album. To celebrate
its release, Sting hosted a party at the
October 2023 • Music News 7
 The
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10/12 - Sonny Boy Terry 10/20 - Kory Quinn 10/29 - Paul Ramirez
10/13 - 35 Drive 10/21 - Jacob Ryan Marshall
October 2023 • Music News 11
 Coco Montoya Releases His
New Alligator Records Album
Writing On The Wall
Watch Coco Montoya In Concert
This Month at
Dosey Doe Big Barn
On October 28th
12 Music News • October 2023
 Coco
Montoya
(continued from
previous page)
By Kevin Wildman
Legendary guitarist Coco Montoya has
just released his new album, Writing On The
Wall on his longtime label, Alligator Records.
To call Coco legendary is almost an under-
statement. This man’s legacy goes back over
50 years. His introduction into the music
business was pretty standard at a young age.
He started out on drums performing at local
venues around Santa Monica, California,
playing in several rock bands, however a
Creedence Clearwater Revival concert in
1969 at which bluesman Albert King was the
opening act changed his direction on where
he wanted to go with his music. It was going
to be the Blues for Coco.

“After King got done playing,” says

Montoya, “my life was changed. When he
played, the music went right into my soul. It
grabbed me so emotionally that I had tears
welling up in my eyes. Nothing had ever
affected me to this level. He showed me what
music and playing the blues were all about. I
knew that was what I wanted to do.”

A chance encounter in the mid-70s

with another legendary guitarist, Albert
Collins really changed his destiny for the
better. He wound up playing drums for the
great bluesman. Albert started mentoring
Coco on guitar and it wasn’t long before
Coco switched from drums to guitar
performing as Albert Collins’ second
guitarist.
“We’d sit in hotel rooms for hours and
play guitar,” remembers Montoya. “He’d play
that beautiful rhythm of his and just have me
play along. He was always saying, ‘Don’t
think about it, just feel it.’ He was like a
father to me,” says Coco. There was many a
night that Coco found himself staying over at
Collins’ house. Albert proudly proclaimed
that Coco was like a “son” to him.
But things didn’t stop there. After
leaving Collins band, Coco caught the eye of
another Blues legend, Mr. John Mayall. John
Mayall had caught a performance of Coco
playing Otis Rush’s All Your Love (I Miss
Loving) and it soon led to a phone call from
John to Coco with an invitation to join the
world famous John Mayall and The
Bluesbreakers. These were going to be pretty
hard shoes to fill as previous guitars for John
Mayall included Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton,
Peter Green and more, but Coco was up for
the challenge. He spent the next 10 years on
the road with Mayall and recorded seven
albums with him.
The next step came in 1995 when
Coco stepped out on his own to lead his own
Blues band and issued his first solo album,
1995’s Gotta Mind To Travel (originally on
Silvertone Records in England and later
issued in the USA on Blind Pig Records). It
quickly became a Blues favorite and his fans
and new fans just loved it and it cemented
Coco into becoming a full-fledged solo artist
recording albums for Blind Pig Records, as
well as two stints with Alligator Records with
whom he records with today.
Well, Coco is back with his new
Alligator Records release, Writing On The
Wall, and without a doubt, this is his best
album yet. With 13 great songs on this
album, five of which Coco wrote or Co-
wrote, this is definitely a tour-de-force for the
legendary guitarist. Other writers or co-
writers on the album include: Jeff Paris, Dave
Steen and Drew Steen. He even includes
three cover songs written by Don Robey,
Andy Fraser, and Lonnie Mack respectively.
Performing on the album is Coco’s fantastic
band which consists of Jeff Paris (Key-
boards, Piano, Hammond Organ, Wurlitzer,
Background Vocals, Electric and Acoustic
Guitars and guitar solo on Writing On The
Wall, Rhythm Guitar on What Did I Say?),
Nathan Brown (Bass)’and Drew Steen and
Rena Beavers (Drums and Background
Vocals). This is the first time that Coco has
brought his touring band into the studio for an
Alligator Records release and it really
enhanced the production and spontaneity of
the album making it one of the most
enjoyable recording sessions for Coco. As
you listen to the songs on this album, you’ll
see how tight this band is together.
Guest musicians on the album include:
Ronnie Baker Brooks (Guitar on You Got
Me (Where You Want Me), Guitar and Vocals
on Baby, You’re A Drag), Lee Roy Parnell
(Slide Guitar on A Chip And A Chair), Dave
Steen (Rhythm Guitar on A Chip And A
Chair, The Three Kings And Me), and
Tony Braunagel (Drums on Save It
For The Next Fool, (I’d Rather Feel) Bad
About Doin’ It, Be GoodTo Yourself, Natural
Born Love Machine).
Writing On The Wall was Produced by
Tony Braunagel and Co-Produced by Jeff
Paris. It was recorded at Jeff’s Garage,
Studio City, CA.
Songs on the new album include: “I
Was Wrong,” “Save It For The Next Fool,”
“You Got Me (Where You Want Me),” “(I’d
Rather Feel) Bad About Doin’ It,” “Be Good
To Yourself,” “Stop,” “Writing On the Wall,”
“Late Last Night,” “What Did I Say?,”, “A
Chip And A Chair,” “Baby, You’re A Dray,”
The Three Kings And Me,” and “Natural
Born Love Machine.”
We sat down with Coco Montoya
recently to discuss the new album and the
songs on it as well as reminisce somewhat
continued on next page
October 2023 • Music News 13

Coco Montoya
(continued from previous page)
about the past and had quite an interesting
conversation which we’d like to share with
you right now.
Coco Montoya: Hello.
Music News: Hello Coco.
Coco Montoya: Yes.
Music News: This is Kevin with
Music News. I think I’m supposed to be
talking to you about now.
Coco Montoya: You’re the next one
up, Kevin.
Music News: All right. How long do
we have?
Coco Montoya: Your the last one, so I
have to stop now. I’m just kidding. (laughs)
Music News: Okay, well, I’ve been
listening to the album. I really enjoy it. It’s
really nice.
Coco Montoya: Oh thanks.
Music News: I found a couple of the
songs selections a little unusual, but they
sound great.
Coco Montoya: Well thank you.
Music News: You don’t hear too many
people doing a Don Robey song, “You Got
Me (Where You Want me)”.
Coco Montoya: It happens every once
in a while. You know, it’s amazing. We took
from a lot of different areas on this. That’s
probably the biggest enjoyment for me as an
artist and the players on the album and the
14 Music News • October 2023
producers had a lot of freedom. And there’s
so many places I wanted to explore there. You
know that I have these influences that are
inside me. There’s not just straight-ahead
blues.
Music News: What made you pick that
song?
Coco Montoya: Where am I at? I’m
gonna get a look on the list?
Music News: “You Got Me”.
Coco Montoya: “You Got Me”. Bobby
Bland. I got that from Bobby Bland. Alligator
records sent that to me. Bruce Iglauer sent it
to me and I liked it right away. It was a song
he wanted done. He thought it would be a
good one for me to do and of course we
picked upon it and I rather enjoyed it and
thought it was a good vehicle to bring in
Ronnie Baker Brooks as well.
Music News: Right.
Coco Montoya: I thought right away
Ronnie would be great on that. Let’s see if
he’ll do it. Of course, he was up for it.
Music News: You use several guest
artists on this too. I think the big change for
you must have been when you switched from
studio musicians and brought in your band.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, I have done that
in the past over the years, on occasion,
especially during the early Flying Pig things
on some of the tracks. But this was a situation
where I been playing with these guys for a
long time and we were so connected and they
had so many hours of playing together. That
to me, it was a no brainer to just go this route
this time, because we had a little more
freedom, and a little more time to do as we
wanted to do. So nobody could use the
excuse that the studio musicians were getting
quicker. We weren’t worried about that. We
were not worried. So we decided to go ahead
with it and it turned out to be a really great
thing, a lot of enthusiasm and the comfort in
playing in the studio with each other knowing
each other as well as we did was a real asset.
Music News: How much did they
contribute to.... you know, when you hire
studio musicians to work for you they tend to
follow what you tell them to do. But when
you’re working with your own band in there,
there’s probably a little personality that
creeps in on songs and would you say their
personalities influenced the songs that they
played on there?
Coco Montoya: Yeah, just because I
gave them the freedom to select. To start, we
made demos to give ourselves an idea how
would we play this song. I said we do the
demos, guys. Throw out the Bobby Bland
version. Don’t think about Bobby Bland. Just
think about the song and let’s just see where
we come from, whether in tempo or we come
from simple things and just see where it fits. I
think we even had a different key for that,
that didn’t fit really well until we actually
played it and realized we had to move the key
around and put it in “G”. I think I had it a
little higher than that and it was still too high
for me. That was the beauty of the whole deal
is just having their ability to do this the way
we play it and that was the most important
thing. This is going to be the way we play it.
We do not want to imitate the track, the
original. We didn’t want to totally imitate that
which is great. It made them think, made
them feel, made them just play, just play it
like themselves, because that was what we
wanted. Great, great experience.
Music News: Well, you recorded this
over Jeff Paris’s studio, right?
Coco Montoya: I sure did, yes.
Music News: Was that the first time
you were there recording with him or had this
been happening before?
Coco Montoya: Well, a long, long time
ago, we did an album called I Want It All
Back. That’s where I met Jeff. And we were
back and forth between his studio and Keb’
Mo’s studio that he had. They both had them
in their backyards. So we used Jeff, because
he did all the pre production there. And we
worked out the songs, worked out the
grooves, how are we going to present them
and the vocals later where we did them at
Jeff’s house, so I had some experience and
felt comfortable in that room. And then we
would cut over at Kevin’s (Keb’ Mo’) house.
So that’s happened before. So yeah, coming
in here to me felt at home and I felt very
comfortable. We’d rehearsed there several
times since Jeff has been in the band. So
we’re all comfortable. And once again, you
continued on next page
 Coco
Montoya
(continued from
previous page)
got guys that had been on the road together,
played every night for several years. We
know each other. We know how each other
works, and we know the moods. And it all
worked out to our benefit. It was a really
comfortable situation and enjoyable.

Music News: Well, do you find that a

lot easier? Did you find making this album a
lot easier than say when you went to other
studios and then worked with studio
musicians?

Coco Montoya: I found it to be easier,

within also saying that recording is not easy.
how would I interpret that? I hear that a little
Recording is very tedious. And in my Coco Montoya: The version we got to
more slimmed down, you know, a cut down
opinion, and it can be, it’s challenging and listen to was Bobby Bland’s version.
version. And that’s how it worked out with
definitely you have to keep your emotions
that. I mean, he brought it to me and I said, I
together. And you gotta remember you’re Music News: Okay, and what was it
could use that one if you don’t mind.
going to be under the microscope. Everything about that song?
that you do is going to be criticized, plus or
Music News: It’s a very, it’s very slow
minus. So, yes, just the idea of being in a Coco Montoya: Well, right away, as
and very soulful.
studio for me is a little bit daunting, but this soon as I heard it, I’ve been looking for
experience that even no matter the hardest something because I wanted to bring Ronnie
Coco Montoya: Yeah, well, that’s the
times of doing anything, we all stayed Baker Brooks in. And I said, well, this is
thing I liked about it and the approach of the
enthusiastic and we all made things work and definitely me and him to trade some guitar
guitar is kind of like the opposite of all that
we all figured out problems. That was the licks in this. We could definitely do that and
because I was thinking more. I’d say I was
beauty of it all. So this is a very great that was attracted to me too, right there. So
thinking more Clapton during his era with
experience in my book. that was the vehicle there for Ronnie... me
John Mayall when I was playing the guitar
solo stuff. So my approach is a little more and Ronnie Baker Brooks to get together on
Music News: All right. A lot of this this because I’ve always wanted to do
aggressive, more British, trying to be a little
stuff was well... I think five of the songs you something with Ronnie. We’ve known each
more... The fella’s upset. He was wrong. He
wrote or co-wrote and the others were songs other for a long, long time. I was really close
realizes he was upset, he was wrong. And I
that were written by someone else, or for the to his dad and his brother Wayne for many
thought the guitar had to really show that he’s
sake of any other word, a cover song of years. We first met during the Bluesbreakers
distressful, what he was feeling trying to say.
somebody’s that you put your own style and days and so this a good opportunity to bring
Okay, you’re right. I really did it. I don’t
feel into it. So let’s start off with the first him in. And once again, a good experience
know how I did this, but I did it. So the guitar
song, “I Was Wrong”. Dave Steen wrote this for me and Ronnie, but a great experience for
to me, lends itself to that emotion of how the
thing and you’ve worked with Dave before. the people to hear Ronnie, and hear us work
person in the story is feeling. I was trying to
look as, maybe I would be in a different together.
Coco Montoya: Many, many times, he
situation.
was my go to co-writer for many, many Music News: I love the version. It
years... still is. He’s still one of the guys that I sounds really great. That brings us to “(I’d
Music News: Right. And what about
work with and now I’ve got Jeff Paris as well. Rather Feel) Bad About Doing It”, which was
the second song, “Save It For The Next
We all... the three of us have written together. written by Jeff Paris. Had you been doing
Fool?” That’s, that’s a bit more upbeat on
As you can see on the album, we’ve actually many of Jeff’s songs before this, or is this
there.
wrote together with the three of us doing like one of the first?
zoom sessions. I wrote with Jeff, me and Jeff
Coco Montoya: Yeah, that’s just a
Rowan, and me and Dave, of course, over all Coco Montoya: No, no, I definitely
wonderful.... One of those Dave Steen things
these years, a lot of Dave Steen co-writes and have done some. With I Want It All Back
that I love. I said this is really cool. I just
singles. He writes his own and all over my (2010) we did some Jeff Paris stuff. And I
gravitated towards it and just said, Yeah, this
material, on a lot of my albums. think on Hard Truth, I did a Jeff Paris song if
is something I want to do, because there’s
that side of me to me where that song is kind I’m not mistaken. I don’t have it in front of
Music News: Okay, well, let’s talk me, so my brain isn’t as great as it used to be.
of pushing a little, a little more modern area,
about the first song “I was wrong”. Tell me But um, yeah. That was the tune that Jeff
a little more groove, a little more tough story.
about that song. What was it about that, that started because of the line. I told him a story
In a nutshell. I liked it. I like the groove on it.
made you pick that, to pick that song by that I heard from Paul Barrere. It was a joke.
The background vocals were really attracted
Dave. It was just a joke and it was funny. I don’t
to me.
know if I should be telling the press, but we
Coco Montoya: I heard his version of were all laughing about something that Paul
Music News: Okay. And we already
it, that’s the thing. He’ll send me some stuff. remembered a buddy of his coming up to St.
talked a little bit about “You Got Me (Where
And then he recorded that one for his own Paul feeling guilty and bad. I go why’s he
You Want Me)” which was originally written
reasons. I mean, he recorded me a great,
by Don Robey, but whose version is that that continued on next page
beautiful recording of it and I said, Well, now
you’re doing?
October 2023 • Music News 15

Coco Montoya
(continued from previous page)
feeling bad? Why, what did he do and he’s
kind of had this little affair thing. And Paul
looked at me as well, I forgive you. And he
goes, ‘Look, I’d rather feel bad that I did it.
I’d rather feel bad that I did it than feel bad
that I didn’t, which is pretty funny to me. And
I just remember that and I told Jeff about it.
And he goes, ‘that’s it, there’s a song in there,
just that... I’d rather feel bad about doing it.
That’s what he came up with and he came up
with these great lines in there and turned it
into this thing, this multi, multi structured
story. There’s multi stories going on within
this song.
Music News: Right.
Coco Montoya: Just kind of great. I
really loved what he did with this.
Music News: The next song that you
did that I found really kind of surprising,
because you don’t see too many people doing
Andy Fraser songs, was “Be Good To
Yourself”. I thought that was kind of unusual.
He was a great songwriter. His work with
Free was unbelievable.
Coco Montoya: Right! Right! So
incredible. I got it from the Frankie Miller
version.
Music News: Really!
Coco Montoya: Yeah, I’ve been a big
Frankie Miller fan for years. I got to jam with
him at the Central Club back in the early 80s.
Nice guy, great guy. He’s funny as hell. And
everybody knows the story that Frankie had a
massive stroke and can no longer perform.
16 Music News • October 2023
Tony Braunagel is really close to him. He
knows Frankie really well. So we were just
kind of looking around and he says you’ve
done a couple Frankie Miller songs and I say
‘Yeah, I have’. A “Beginner At The Blues”
was one of his tunes. It was on one of my
albums. I know there was another one I did
by him and I can’t remember the title off the
top of my head, but yeah this one came up
and I said ‘I’ll just do this. Check this out,’
and Uh, so this is really good. I saw the video
on YouTube myself, Frankie sounds great’.
As soon as Jeff Paris heard it, he goes, ‘we
got to cut this’ so it was kind of like,
everybody was for it immediately.
Music News: All right, and that brings
us to a Lonnie Mack song, “Stop.” That one
really sings.
Coco Montoya: Now see, that was a
song that was brought to me a long time ago
by Bruce Iglauer, the president of Alligator
Records. He’s been bugging me to do that
song for quite a few years now. He’s actually
brought it up enough to want you to think
about doing this. Why don’t you think about
doing this. And I wasn’t disagreeing with
him. I just wasn’t sure I could pull that off
because I guess I’ve been too affected by
seeing him do this so many times on gigs.
Lonnie was incredible. I mean, his vocals are
intense. I guess I didn’t feel very confident
that I was up for that. Eventually, we said
let’s give it a shot and Jeff Paris helped me
once again, Mr. Incredible Talent helped me
find a key that would be comfortable enough
to be able to pull off the vocal. So yeah, I’m
glad we did that. I’m glad we worked at it
maybe for a few hours and it made the
biggest difference in the world. So I’m very
proud of that song.
Music News: The leads on it are so
emotional. I mean unbelievable. So tell me
about when you went to write the leads on
that, were they written out ahead of time or
did they just come to you on the spot?
Coco Montoya: Oh, that’s more on the
spot things. I mean, I did stop and fix a few
little places and stuff like that. I had to do
that. But mostly just whatever comes out of
my mind. There’s no way you can interpret
stuff like that without just feeling it. That’s
just my approach to most everything I do. I
just got to feel it. If I can’t feel it, then I can’t
do it. So that to me is the prime necessary
element in anything I do play. I got to be able
to feel something. And that song makes you
feel something. I mean, this guy is just
begging her to stop mistreating him. He’s
trying so hard to hang on to what he’s got, but
she’s evil. But you know, God bless him, he
loves her. And that’s the greatest thing about
the story. Once again, you feel the story. And
that’s what you got to play to this. What you
got to think about when you’re actually
playing is just like, Yeah, my heart... I’m
really up against it here with you.
Music News: Well, I found the song to
be very emotional.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, he’s not saying
he’s leaving. He’s begging her to stop doing
what she’s doing. That there’s an incredible...
if you think about that, how incredible that
feeling is. I’m not leaving you, I don’t have
what it takes to leave you. Just please, just be
good to me and I can be so good to you. You
got to stop doing it. And that’s where the
emotion is coming from. So you play with
emotion, or you feel emotion easily. That’s
where you end up going. You got to play that
way.
Music News: Right. I really enjoyed
that one. I really enjoyed some of the softer
songs on here. They’re just.... your playing is
in all of them... for the lack of a better term,
they just sound very emotional. Like you’re
really putting your heart and soul into those
particular songs.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, well, I appreci-
ate that too because that’s the way you do that
kind of stuff. You can’t do without that
emotional element. I mean, I think you’re
barking up the wrong tree. You have to you
have to be able to feel it.
Music News: Right. And then that
brings us to the next song which is also the
title song of the album “Writing On The
Wall”. Now, I may have heard this wrong,
and you can correct me. But when that thing
started out, it sounded like a little bit of a
honky tonk song to me.
Coco Montoya: Yep.
Music News: ...with that piano. Did I
continued on next page
 Coco
Montoya
(continued from
previous page)
hear that right or am I misjudging that?
Coco Montoya: No, I don’t think you
misjudging it at all. I think what the impor-
tant message musically in “Writing On The
Wall” was to not ignore or feel so pigeon-
holed that, that can’t be. I went through this
with “You Think I Know Better” a long time
ago. When I got done with it, I put Leroy on
it. The record company was concerned
because they said it sounded a little bit too
country for them. I said, ‘Well, so what’.
Well, you’re a blues man. I come from the
blues. But am I a bluesman? I don’t know if
I’m a bluesman. I definitely blues in what I
do. It’s all over what I do. I learned to cut my
teeth on all that. And yes, but why should that
stop me from writing something that just
came out of me naturally and organically?
Why should that stop me from going that
direction and then recording the song? I don’t
see the... I didn’t understand the pigeonhol-
ing. I never understood that. And eventually,
I won the argument with them about putting
the song out and what it did it end up being?
It ended up being the title cut. So kind of
funny, is when you hear it kind of leans a
little bit on a country kind of groove, which is
okay. You know, it’s kind of nice and what’s
really brilliant about is that Jeff Paris... I told
him just for an idea, just throw me a solo on
there and look what he did. And I said, ‘that’s
perfect’. That makes the song great! Jeff
played perfect to the song. And you got
enough of me playing all over this record,
why not show the talents of the guys you’re
working with?
Music News: Absolutely. Well, you,
Dave and Jeff wrote this. So who contributed
what to what part? You don’t have to give it
to me line by line.
Coco Montoya: Well, it’s just amazing.
Me and Dave had written probably a good
70% of this song. We never finished it. We
could never find the right... something’s
missing, but we couldn’t put our foot on it.
And maybe we need another first. We needed
something. We said, let’s give this one to Jeff
and see what he can do. It’s pretty much
done. It just needs something else. And
overnight Jeff said, ‘Yeah, I’ll have some-
thing in the morning for you and he came up
with a bridge, which is great in there. And
then he came up with another verse, which is
exactly what we needed to get us into the
bridge. He just, he just filled out the rest of
the song. It’s just perfect. And isn’t it
amazing. You can get so stuck and somebody
else comes in and goes, boom, they can see
clearly what it needs. So that’s how that song
came about is something me and David had
started many years ago, and brought Jeff into
it and it got done.
Music News: How about “Late Last
Night”. You and Jeff wrote that one as well.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, yeah. Yeah,
that’s a fun song. It’s a funny song. Straight
ahead bluesy kind of r&b feel to it. Yeah,
that’s just about the challenges when we’re
younger, going out at night and next thing
you tie one on, and you had to explain to the
little woman where the hell you were and
why you were coming in so late. it’s, it’s fun.
It’s a funny story. It’s just fun.
Music News: What that written by
experience from you?
Coco Montoya: oh, gosh, yes.
Music News: Have you had to do some
explaining about coming in a little too late at
times?
Coco Montoya: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
You don’t have a drug habit and alcohol
problem, and not have this kind of situation. I
haven’t had a drink or drugs since late ’72. I
mean ’92. Me and Jeff on it are hilarious,
because this guy’s like, he’s out there.
Somebody had a jam and he says, ‘I stopped
by to sing a song.’ It turned out to be an all
nighter. It’s kind of... It’s just hilarious. I
listened to this. I started laughing. I smile,
because talking about waking up naked on his
front lawn. That’s pretty funny. And then the
wife says, I don’t trust your friends. I don’t
trust the guys you call friends, what they’re
doing to you! So yeah, I think every guy at
some point or person is at that point where
they’ve fallen off the deep end a little bit and
do some explaining.
Music News: Right. And I think, yeah,
for one reason or another. Yes.
Coco Montoya: I came up with that
line. I wouldn’t have been late if I wasn’t late
last night. I came up with that quite a while
back and that’s another situation where Jeff
said, ‘what was that line again’, wrote it
down and we started working on it. You
know, I hear something there.
Music News: Well, you and Jeff seem
to be doing quite well writing together. The
next one was fantastic, too, a bit slower, but
it’s another one of those emotional songs.
“What Did I Say?” So explain that. What did
you say?
Coco Montoya: Well I think that’s the
question he’s having is, what did I say? What
did I do? The line I came up with once
again... I thought of something, then I call
Jeff. I was ‘Jeff write this down. “What did I
say? What did I do to make you run baby to
someone new?”’ And he said, ‘Okay, wow,
that’s a great, great song. We got something
there’. We would see it and like me and Jeff
will do that. With me, Dave, will do that.
We’ll talk the story out. What is the story?
What are we trying to say? And what we
were talking about basically. The exhilaration
of finding love is just like the exhilarate of
take it.. It was the exhilaration when John
Mayall called me and asked me to be a
Bluesbreaker. I was just like, over the moon
about it. I’m gonna be a Bluesbreaker, and
I’m so excited until I first went on the road
did the rehearsals and all that, and then it
started to sink in. Oh, shit, we’re gonna do
“Have You Heard.” We’re gonna be doing
“Pretty Woman.” We’re gonna be doing all
these songs like “All Those Heroes” where
Clapton played “Have You Heard.” Nobody’s
beat that? Gosh, now it’s sinking in that I’m
gonna be compared to Eric Clapton. I’m
gonna be compared to Mick Taylor. I’m
gonna be compared to Peter Green. Now, the
other side of it, the insecurity. The doubts
start coming in. So it’s the same kind of idea
but with a love affair between two people.
And basically, she’s backing off at him.
continued on next page
October 2023 • Music News 17

Coco Montoya
(continued from previous page)
That’s where we talked the story of me and
Jeff, we were talking the story out and he
doesn’t know why she’s backing off. That’s
why he said, ‘What did I do? What did I say?
What happened? Why are you not contacting
me? Why are you getting cold feet?’ And
basically the song goes through the whole
thing, how he’s changed. He says in the
bridge, then he says that the thing he would
normally do is just walk away. . And he said,
we got to work at this, and to have hurt just
gave him doubts. He kind of said, I like what
he says, What’s your thought? He’s like, did I
fail some test? That’s the idea. It was like
there was a test, and I failed it. Are you
letting me go just because of that., you’re not
going to be willing to work out it. And
basically, if you’re scared, I gotta tell you,
and let me tell you, I’m scared too. I have my
doubts. And that’s what that song is all about
is just like, communicating, because you
really don’t want to lose this great thing you
guys got. But it’s always full of doubts. You
got to get beyond those. If it’s real good and
true love you get beyond the doubts.
Music News: Right? And then now
we’ve got “A Chip And A Chair” now. Is that
a gambling song?
Coco Montoya: Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. Wonderful song. Another song,
like I say, it cracks me up. I have to like, I
have to kind of go after Dave and I have to go
after Jeff. Sometimes they have songs that
they’ve written that they just... “I didn’t think
you’d be interested in this. I never showed it
to”. this gem, this beautiful song or a great
song. Yeah, “A Chip And The Chair” was
Dave song that I liked the groove of it, kind
of swampy little thing. And I thought there’s
18 Music News • October 2023
my vehicle for Leroy Parnell and I could see
the future of that. The song was written by
him and his son Drew. Drew said ‘yeah dad, I
had a gambling problem for a while there,
that I’ve gone to meetings, and I gotten out of
my problem. I don’t have that anymore’. But,
you know, in the old days, when I used to
gamble, is that sort of everybody would say,
that was a saying, as long as you got a chip
and a chair, you’re still in the game. So if you
got your last chip, which is your last bit of
money, you’re still in the game, if you want
to play. So that’s what that whole thing was
derived from was just showing that if you
want to take it, follow it all the way to the
end, whatever it may be, like in the songs
talking about playing to an empty room. The
idea is just, yeah, some days you really got it,
some days you don’t, you just got to keep
going. As long as you got a chip and a chair,
you’re still get in the game, so I gravitated
towards that really right away. I thought that
was a great song.
Music News: And Dave even did a
little guitar on here as well.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, Dave did. I
wanted him for the rhythm tracks and stuff
because he built them so beautifully. I said,
Dave, give me those tracks. So he flew out
and came to the studio and hung out for a day
and brought some great groove to the song. I
don’t think it would be the same. I don’t think
I could have played it anything like that.
Music News: Leroy Parnell’s slide
guitar was fantastic as well.
Coco Montoya: Isn’t that wonderful!
Music News: It is!
Coco Montoya: I knew it. I knew it
right away. He’s been on three songs on my
albums, three albums I mean. There’s three
albums with a Leroy Parnell appearance. He’s
such a dear friend. Great guy. I was a huge
fan of his way back and he ended up playing
on my second album, Ya Think I’d Know
Better. His solo on there is just to die for and
we were good buddies and we just shipped it
down there he put it solos on and played
against me. We played against each other on
it. I think it’s magic.
Music News: Well, it sounds like
magic and the whole song just really grooves.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, it sure does.
Music News: Okay, on “Baby, You’re
A Drag”, tell me about why baby’s such a
drag.
Coco Montoya: Oh, that was funny. It
was hilarious. We we were messing with this
one a long time ago. I had actually forgotten
that we had done this, me and Dave and Dave
said, ‘Do you remember’ revisiting some of
the old stuff? I found his “Baby, You’re A
Drag,” and I did not even remember that. And
then we listened to what we had on it. And
the story, I said, Oh, this is a great story. Why
didn’t we finish this? Usually every writer
goes in there and gets it done till it’s done,
good or bad. We just let that one lag. I don’t
know what we lost it. It got lost in the shuffle,
stuffed in a box somewhere. And yeah, it’s
just a story, a great story that’s not common,
which is great., I mean he’s just commiserat-
ing with his buddy. What I thought right away
is it could be a thing for me and Ronnie
Baker Brooks as well. Write the song into a
place where the two guys commiserating
about what a drag their old ladies are? Their
wives are just no fun. You know, she don’t
want to go out and party. Music’s too loud.
Don’t like those people, you know? Yeah. So,
me and Ronnie said, Well, we can share that.
It’d be two old guys talking about it and
that’s how it came out, as we made it like two
guys just chat it up bitching about the old
lady.
Music News: Yeah, and he does guitar
and vocals on this one.
Coco Montoya: Yeah. That’s another
vehicle for us to share the guitar talents of
another great guitar player and working with
him and we both are trading off.
Music News: Who are the Three Kings
in “The Three Kings And Me”?
Coco Montoya: Very simple. That’s
Albert King, Freddie King, and BB King.
Music News: That’s what I was
thinking. Although it doesn’t really say that.
Or at least if it did, I missed that line.
continued on next page
 Coco Montoya
(continued from previous page)
Coco Montoya: Well, it’s just the beauty of it. It’s just... it was a
guy here that doesn’t have much love for the holidays, especially at
Christmas time. That’s what this is all about. And he’s got no presents,
he’s got nobody there, he doesn’t have a wife or anything. You can
hear through the whole song, it’s just him talking about going through
another Christmas, but he’s got these three wisemen, so it’s about us
musicians and musicians like me and David. So their our Wiseman
and our guys that we look up to as blues players and that right there
got me and the idea that he ends up ‘I’m here with them,’ so it pays
homage to these three greats.

Music News: Well it’s definitely very bluesy.

Coco Montoya: Yeah, definitely very bluesy.

Music News: Last song an album, “Natural Born Love

Machine”. Is that like a song about yourself?

Coco Montoya: Oh, no, at 71. No, I doubt it.

Music News: Well, you never know. Sometimes they say the
older you get, the better you are. I mean, we’re both the same age, you
and I.

Coco Montoya: If there’s another blues guy that is 71 and is

doing all that, I hate him already. I’m jealous as hell. “Natural Born
Love Machine” started out with a guitar riff that I had that led us into
the groove. We approach the song purely from a musical standpoint to
say we’ll catch a groove, catch some chord changes, which is not the
usual way we go about it, but we talked the groove and the idea, then
we just came in “Natural Born Love Machine”. We just wrote
together, me and Jeff on that, so we had plenty of time to sit around
the studio and come up with that. I think he came up the Natural Born
Love Machine idea and we just kept bouncing it off each other until
we ended up with that, which is a lot of fun. It’s just to me just a great
r&b groove. Lot of fun to play that kind of stuff. I had to break up the Music News: We’ve talked a lot about Jeff Paris. We’ve talked
set from some of the slower models. Some songs are a little slower. about Ronnie Baker Brooks and Leroy Parnell. And let’s give a little
It’s so different. It’s uptempo a little more, but it’s so different from love to a couple of the other musicians on here. Nathan Brown is your
“A Chip And A Chair”, things like that. bassist on here. Tell me about Nathan.

Music News: But there’s a lot of great variety on the album
from song to song. It’s not like they all sound the same. There’s a
couple that that might sound a little similar, but they’re not.
Coco Montoya: The important thing is to definitely spread the
flavors, I guess, like I said, to be able to go in here and do these
different kinds of songs on here. They’re so different from each other.
Taking chances is just being able to be free to to create and add
somebody’s... You know, I never have a problem, somebody comes up
live. I didn’t like to feel bad about doing it like that when it’s me, but I
really like “You Got Me”. I didn’t like “Stop” as much as “Three
Kings”. I mean, it’s just but that’s because that’s what people are
gonna say out there. Interesting, and that’s why I like the variety. I’m
not afraid to have the variety to stir it up a little bit. If anything taught
me that was the I Want It All Back album. Don’t forsake everything
that’s inspirational to you because you want to find exactly what the
best... all the songs to be accepted. They’re not all going to be
accepted by all people.
Music News: Absolutely.
Coco Montoya: Yeah. So to me, that’s the whole thing. You
paint the picture, you uncover it. Once you uncover it, now anybody
can say what they want. They think that photo, the painting you did is
a piece of shit or they can send another guy which brings me to tears.
It’s so beautiful.
Music News: Right.
Coco Montoya: Nathan Brown. He’s originally from Michigan.
He lives out here in sunny California and he doesn’t want to leave.
He’s an amazing player. I found him playing with the Boneshakers,
Randy Jacobs And The Boneshakers. Incredible band. Some of the
players used to be in Was Not Was. Great band, really funky and
soulful. I saw him playing at a festival in Santa Cruz, California and I
went up and gave him my number. Just, I’m looking for another bass
player at this time. Let me know if you’re interested. Luckily, him
being more of a jazz bass player and funk, r&b kind of soul thing, I
wasn’t expecting him to say yes, because there’s a lot of different
genres I cover in the scope of my music. But he said yes to it and he’s
been here ever since and we just enjoyed each other. What an amazing
player, very well liked by a lot of people in the business.
Music News: Can you comment a little bit on what his playing
might have lent itself to a couple of songs.
Coco Montoya: I think Nate’s playing, especially on... looking
for the one that I really love what he does. And “What Did I Say” of
course, incredible. “Natural Born Love Machine”’s playing is tough. I
mean, it seems Nate always finds the right thing to play and what not
to play. He knows what not to play. With Nate, it’s always asking him
for something you hear and he’s got it. He said, I just don’t want to fill
it up too much, I wanted to make a statement with simple words,
instead of trying to... It’s like writing 50,000 words and you only need
10 to express yourself. He’s brilliant like that.

Coco Montoya: That’s what you got to let yourself do, open continued on next page
once you’re done with it. That’s okay.
October 2023 • Music News 17

Coco Montoya
(continued from previous page)
Music News: All right now, I will
probably get the name wrong on the next one.
But Rena, Rena Beavers.
Coco Montoya: It’s Renee, Rena
pronounced Renee, but he spells it that way.
And if your guess is as good as mine is why
he won’t change it.
Music News: Well, it’s Rena on what
I’m reading.
Coco Montoya: That’s what it is.
Renee Beavers.
Music News: Okay, tell me a little bit
about Rena.
Coco Montoya: I first met Rena out of
the Blue circuit. He was playing with Jennifer
Magnus, and little Milton he played with as
well if I’m correct. He’d been around. He’s
done toured with a lot of the great blues
people. He was out here playing in some
local clubs and we really connected. And,
yeah, I saw him when I was in need for
another drummer. I mean, he happened to be
around and I gave him a call and he came
down. I said, this is the guy and he’s been
here for a long while. And he just once again,
was really refreshing, he plays to the groove,
plays to the song. That’s what I love about
my guys, they play to the song.They really try
and flush out what is necessary that they need
to do or not do. They’re real conscientious
that way and Rena is very conscientious, like
his famous saying. He always says ‘group
responsibly’, which is what his intention
always is. And yeah, he’s brought the band to
another level because he’s also is a great
singer. He’s got a great voice and a wonderful
falsetto, so he’s enhanced the band not only
as the drummer, but also a background
vocalist. And so yeah, I’ve got probably the
20 Music News • October 2023
best guys I’ve had ever, in these guys.
Music News: Okay, and last but
certainly not least, a man of all seasons here.
Tony Braunagel. Fantastic drummer.
Fantastic producer.
Coco Montoya: A Scalawag. Great.
Music News: Yeah, he’s from Houston.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, he’s from
Houston. He’s a great guy. I’ve known him
for many years, many, many years. We know
a lot of the same people. He did the last two
albums before. He brought me in there in the
studio with old friends. The last ones I told
you does this. I’ve got two albums. Actually,
I got three albums with Mike, Mike Finnegan
on it. If you don’t know Mike Finnegan is
Mike Finnegan’s probably...
Music News: The keyboard player.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, he was the
ultimate to me in every aspect. I mean,
incredible B-3 player, incredible piano
player... the singing. That man can out sing
anybody he ever worked with, anybody he
ever played with. Mike Finnegan could sing
like you wouldn’t believe and I never thought
I would have something like that in my band.
I guess if I had something like that. And the
Tony albums, it shows Mike is just tremen-
dous. Well, I did and when I got a hold of Jeff
Paris and we talked about him joining the
band, I couldn’t believe it when we got out
and start playing. He could sing his butt off.
He’s an incredible singer. Jeff is so multi
talented, so you know what he brings to the
band!
Music News: Absolutely, he plays
guitar, he plays keyboards, he plays every-
thing.
Coco Montoya: There’s nothing he
can’t play. He’s a great harmonica player,
that’s something. I’m thinking of ideas of
how to feature that... I’m going to feature Jeff
on... He’s phenomenal. He’s just a wonderful
talent and wonderful guy to have on the road.
My boys are all behind me. It’s just some-
times I am amazed by how behind me they
are and how much effort they put out. So
another one of the reasons why it was the
right thing to do for us to go in here as a band
and do the album.
Music News: Well, Tony’s on for four
songs on here.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, and that’s stuff
that needed Tony’s expertise on, which is
absolutely wonderful. It always is.
Music News: And what was it like
working with him as your producer?
Coco Montoya: Tony is great. Tony
has great ideas, great vision. He listens,
which is great. That’s part of the real
important thing, is to listen to the artists. It’s
not whether the artist is right, or gets his way.
It’s whatever ideas going through his head, he
gets to state it and put it out there and Tony is
really good about that. He’ll stop what he’s
doing. He’ll say, ‘What did you have to say?
What was your idea?’ That was really
important to me. And I’ve always been
grateful for that and with him. He’s a very
understanding producer.
Music News: And how do you feel that
this album fits in with the rest of your body of
work? Is this the best one yet?
Coco Montoya: Yeah, I think
everyone’s the best one as you do it. I mean,
as you move along, you get better and better
and better. I personally really love where the
sound is coming from in so many ways. Like
I said, the freedom this album represents right
now, I never thought I’d ever have. So this
gives me... I’m looking at it when I walk
away from this, no matter what it does, plus
or minus, that’s up to the good Lord and all
the people out there that either they’ll like it
or they won’t. I’m hoping they do. And I
walk away from this album going, I just
made, in my opinion, a really good album.
And I’m at peace with that. That’s important
to me. Now we want to take it to the people
and see what they say.
Music News: What’s the response
been? I know it’s not out yet, as we’re as
we’re talking now, I know that you’ve
played this for some people. So tell me what
the response has been from the people you’ve
played it for so far?
Coco Montoya: Well, I’ve played it for
very few people. I want to keep it down to
make sure... I was told also by the company
just don’t give it away. I don’t because I want
continued on next page
 Coco Montoya
(continued from previous page)
it to be done right and correct. I have personal friends of mine, a few
personal friends of mine, that just, they think it’s the best thing I’ve
ever done. But that’s too early now to even tell if that means anything.
Give us six months down the road. And we’ll see where this thing is
sitting on the charts to see where this thing is selling, because you
never... I don’t think there’s anybody, I don’t care how big you are,
how small you are. I mean, nobody’s got their finger on the pulse of
what sells and what doesn’t, what’s a hit, what’s not a hit. Nobody can
really. I don’t believe anybody can pinpoint that. People can guess.
But you never really know until that actually does what it’s supposed
to do.

Music News: I don’t know, you’re on Alligator Records and

Bruce Iglauer is very vocal about what he thinks is going to be good
and what is not going to be good, so when you played it for Bruce,
what happened?

Coco Montoya: You know, that’s what’s also brilliant, which is

a very good sign, that also leads me to be more... Even when I say
things well, you never know. But I feel confident, I feel good in this.
And so did Bruce, when we played it, we went to Chicago and
brought him the roughs of demos. And these weren’t even the tracks.
We brought the demos in there. And we listened to all 13 of them. And
he just looked at us and said, I like them all. And believe me, there’s a
guy over there named Bruce Iglauer that will tell you straight out if
there’s something he doesn’t like. He doesn’t have a problem, so it
was a great, great experience for him to say I like them all. And my
manager John Boncimino just said, ‘Well, do we got an album? And
Bruce said, ‘Yeah, let’s get to work’. So that’s a positive sign all the
way down the road to get us to where we are here. Now the next thing
is when we get it released, get it to the people and see where it goes.
And I’m very, very enthusiastic. I’m very, I’ve got a positive mind that
this is going to be probably one of the best sellers if not the best seller.

Music News: I think response on it is going to be fantastic. I

really do.

Coco Montoya: I actually have a good feeling it does. I feel
really positive on this thing. And it’s not just me, it’s all these people
that we just talked about that are involved all the way down the line.
Without their input, it wouldn’t be what you’re hearing. I don’t think it
would be. Everybody was necessary.
Music News: Anything you’d change?
Coco Montoya: No. No, there’s nothing unless there’s some-
thing I can give you. There’s always stupid stuff. You can go in there
go ‘Oh god, I hate that guitar riff. I could play that better.’ You could
do that to yourself ad nauseam. So you try to, you walk away from
this saying ‘look, this works and I’m presenting this. I think this is
great.’ And like I said there’s a couple of little things in there that I
probably would have changed, but you know what it is. To me beauty
has little flaws. You get too perfect, it’s too sterile, it’s too perfect. I
used to make that comparison to Playboy. When playing I used to
have these beautiful pictures of these beautiful women and then you
go back as they moved to Munna, they airbrushed everything so
much, and then you start seeing make believe commercials and all this
stuff in this limited process that they’re just like mannikins. That’s not
attractive to me. You know, a woman with a wrinkle here or a woman
with a beauty mark there, that’s real. That’s the same thing to music,
it’s like a beautiful piece of wood. It’s got a knot in it that you leave in
there because it looks great. It’s got a great design to it. There’s a lot
of ways of comparing it. This album to me is perfection and its
imperfection.
Music News: I certainly understand your feelings with that.
That’s great. If someone listened to your music for the very, very first
time, and they’ve never heard anything you’ve done before, what
album would you want them to listen to, this one?
Coco Montoya: Well right now I can’t get this out of my mind,
so this would be the one because it’s so diverse. We worked hard on
the other ones to be a little diverse as well if you go back and listen to
them. I guess what I’d like this to do is to hear this and then want to
go back and get the others and listen to the others and listen where as
you know, as we count on this road since the first release. That’s the
idea. It’s like, listen to this and then if you can go back further. Go
back further. It may make you want to. I want it to make people say, ‘I
gotta hear his other stuff’.
Music News: Well, this is Coco Montoya today.
Coco Montoya: Absolutely.
Music News: Well, what haven’t I talked about that I should
have?
Coco MontoyaL Well, I don’t know. We pretty much covered
this I think. We got Tony there.
Music News: As soon as we hang up, you’re going to think of
something that we should have talked about.
Coco Montoya: I know, well that’s always the way it goes.
That’s the way it goes. It was just an amazing, great time. The idea
actually is kind of a background info thing. It just like we were doing
this album as well. Jeff’s studio in the back it was... what was brilliant
about this situation is like Jeff’s studio is not far away from being a
real studio. We had to bring in a brand new recording system. So there
was things that need to be done to fire this thing up. It’s like finding an
continued on next page

October 2023 • Music News 21

 Coco
Montoya
(continued from
previous page)
old car. It’s a little dirty here. I want it to start.
If not, what do I gotta do to get this started up
and we had to work on it. I brought in
microphones I’ve had from other items that I
bought over the years. They were really good
microphones. A couple of preamps I had, a
set of Tannoy speakers. Jeff had dug this out
and dug that out so I brought all of this
recording equipment I had for my demos in
my house that I wasn’t using. So we basically
built a studio and fired it up and got all the
bad pits out of that whole thing. I don’t
understand the digital recording. Now that’s
way out of my realm, but these guys basically
built up the studio and got it running. And so
there was a lot going on trying to do all that,
get it ready, and then finally start working.
But in the meantime, we had the ability to
make the demos, so we had to make the
demos and try and get the studio built up and
running on its own. So we did. Jeff did an
amazing amount of stuff. Tony was really
helpful. A couple of the engineers came out
and helped us troubleshoot all kinds of things
and it took a long while so we had to do all
that in the meantime and then eventually go
in there and start working, cutting and it was
a blessing. Next time we go in there, it won’t
take nearly as long but I guess the reason why
I tell you that it’s it shows the dedication
from everybody. You know, everybody
showed up, everybody got things running,
everybody wasn’t worried about the time
clock. Nobody was worried when they’re
gonna get their money. Everybody pretty
much worked on a leap of faith to get it done,
so we could do it at Jeff’s place and we’re so
glad we did it totally.
Music News: Well, before I let you go,
was it the strat you played through the whole
thing, or did you use other guitars?
Coco Montoya: No, I pretty much used
that strat through everything. Yeah. That was
it. I didn’t mess with anything else. I think I
had enough backing things. Jeff played some
rhythm parts. Ronnie played some great parts
as well, you know the background and of
course Dave came in and played. He played
an SG on a lot of things in the background.
So I was covered. I play so unorthodox that
sometimes playing rhythm parts for me, I can
tend to play a little out of tune. That’s just an
honest factor. I don’t care if anybody knows
that. I work on it, but I get help when I need it
and where I need it. I don’t have any ego with
that.
Music News: Well, I enjoyed the guitar
tone through the whole album. It’s a fantastic
album. And well, nothing else we need to
talk about? You Sure?
22 Music News • October 2023
Coco Montoya: Other than, you know,
I was grateful for Two Rock Amplifiers. I got
one of those and it’s proved to be very useful
in the studio, that one and my Steve Carr amp
and we used a lot of different things. We had
another Super of Jeff’s that we used in there
and it’s just the right thing to use. We line all
the amps up and then everything came into
into favor at one point or another.
Music News: All right. Well, I want to
thank you for your time. And if you think of
anything else, give me a call. Otherwise, I
hope I’ll be able to see you in Houston again.
sometime. I believe I saw you here at.... God,
I want to say it had to be 10 to 15 years ago at
the club called Rockefellers,
Coco Montoya: Rockefellers. That’s
about right, Rockefellers. So that’s still there.
Music News: Yeah.
Coco Montoya: Oh, man. Oh, yeah. I
used to play there with Mayall. I played with
Albert.
Music News: Yeah, it used to be a bank
that was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, yeah, I remem-
ber that story. That’s great. They robbed that
place.
Music News: Yeah, there’s still chunks
of concrete knocked out on the wall outside
where they shot it up a little bit.
Coco Montoya: I’ll be damned. That’s
amazing. Wasn’t there another place? Was
there a Fitzgerald’s down there?
Music News: Yeah. Fitzgerald’s, it’s
now a parking lot.
Coco Montoya: Oh, goodness
gracious.
Music News: Oh, yeah.
Coco Montoya: Well, I remember that
place. Oh, my God. I was with Mayall. We
played there and we flew in to do the gig and
they had backline and stuff. But we had our
gear, you know, guitars and John had a
keyboard he had to take with him and all that.
And we went out to the parking lot to watch
over our gear. The area there was a little
shaky, a little weird.
Music News: Right.
Coco Montoya: But there was
supposed to be a car coming along to take us,
a van or something to take us back to the
hotel so we could fly out the next day and go
home. And nobody showed up. Oh, yeah, this
is when we didn’t have cell phones. This was
a long time ago.
Music News: Right.
Coco Montoya: I remember we had to
stand and watch over everything. I forgot
which one of us went find a payphone? Yeah,
we had to call the promoter and all this stuff.
And then he was saying the guy was there
and you weren’t there. No, we’re sitting here,
there’s nothing. And I don’t know how... I
think John got a couple of taxis to come find
us and take us to the hotel. We were sweating
bullets in that dark, dark parking lot. I
remember that.
Music News: Yeah, gravel.
Coco Montoya: Yeah, gravel. Exactly.
Oh, that was just, that’s the road. It’s the
blues. It happens.
Music News: Yeah, I’m sure you’ve
got a lot of tales you can tell about different
venues you performed at, some good, some
bad. Some a little shaky.
Coco Montoya: Yes. some not good,
some great. All in all, it all averages out. It’s
all good.
Music News: Well, I’ll let you go.
Thank you for your time. It looks like we
spent about an hour on this, which I don’t
know if that’s too long or too short.
Coco Montoya: I think we’re fine.
Music News: All right. Well, thanks
again. You have a great weekend. And I’m
looking forward to the next album as well.
Coco Montoya: All right, buddy.
Thank you so very much. We’ll hook up the
next time we come down to Texas.
Music News: Okay, I’ll do that.
Thanks again. Bye bye.
Coco Montoya: Bye.
Writing On The Wall is definitely the
best album for Coco Montoya to date. This
album is chock full of everything that Coco is
know for, soulful and incendiary leads, great
melodies and complete music honesty. This
is Coco Montoya today. This is the passion of
Coco Montoya out front for everyone to hear.
As you can tell by the interview, Coco is
busting at the seems to get out on the road
and start performing these great songs. Coco
plans on tour non-stop, as he has been doing
all his life to promote his new album, Writing
On The Wall. For Coco, touring is everything
besides touring back and forth across the
United States, Coco has performed in many
countries including Australia, Belgium,
Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England,
Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador,
Italy, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and
Canada. Keep you eyes and ears peeled for
Coco Montoya, as without a doubt he will be
performing somewhere near you in the
imminent future. And please be sure to pick
up his new Alligator Records release, Writing
On The Wall. It is simply fantastic!
September 2023 • Music News 23
 The Foo Fighters Perform At
713 Music Hall On October 10
Foo Fighters are set to return to
Houston this month on October 10th at
the 713 Music Hall. This date mark the
band’s first live show in Houston since
the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins.
The tour comes in support of Foo
Fighters’ new album, But Here We Are.
But Here We Are is the eleventh
studio album by the Foo Fighters,
released on June 2, 2023. Produced by
Greg Kurstin and the band itself, it is
their first studio album since the death of
their longtime drummer, Taylor
Hawkins, in March 2022. Frontman
Dave Grohl performed and recorded the
entirety of the album’s drum tracks in
Hawkins’ absence. Four singles, “Res-
cued”, “Under You”, “Show Me How”
and “The Teacher” were released ahead
of the album, while drummer Josh Freese
was announced as Hawkins’ replacement
for touring after its release.
As early as mid-2021, Dave Grohl
had already been planning for a follow
24
6 Music
Music
MusicNews
News
News•• •November
December
October 2023
2020
up album to Medicine at Midnight
(2021). Grohl noted that each album the
band records is a response to the prior
one, and in response to Medicine at
Midnight, he was considering writing
“an insane prog-rock record”. Grohl had
not even started writing said material, as
the band was still focusing on touring in
support of Medicine at Midnight.
Despite this, all plans were later abruptly
cancelled after longtime drummer,
Taylor Hawkins, unexpectedly died in
March 2022. The band cancelled
everything planned for the rest of the
year, largely going quiet and leaving
their future uncertain. In December
2022, a statement was released confirm-
ing that Foo Fighters would continue, but
that they were “going to be a different
band going forward”.
The album is the third collabora-
tion with producer Greg Kurstin,
following Medicine at Midnight (2021)
and Concrete and Gold (2017). The band
described the album’s sound as “soni-
cally channeling the naivete of Foo
Fighters’ 1995 debut album, informed by
decades of maturity and depth” while
lyrically exploring “a brutally honest and
emotionally raw response to everything
Foo Fighters have endured recently [...]
10 songs that run the emotional gamut
from rage and sorrow to serenity and
acceptance, and myriad points in
between.”The album was also described
as “the first chapter of the band’s new
life”. Lyrically, the album explores Grohl
coming to terms with not only Hawkins’
death, but also his mother, Virginia, who
died at an undisclosed-to-the-public time
in 2022. “Under You” released as the
album’s second single, has been de-
scribed as melodic punk.
The album was released on June 2,
2023. The first single, “Rescued”, was
released concurrently with the announce-
ment of the album on April 19. A second
song, “Under You”, was released ahead
continued on next page
Foo Fighters
(continued from
previous page)
of the album on May 17. Over 25 live
shows in support of the album have been
announced across North America and
Europe. On May 21, Josh Freese was
announced as the band’s new drummer,
and during the livestream they debuted
the song “Nothing at All”. Freese made
his live concert debut on May 24, where
the band debuted the album’s title track.
Another song, “Show Me How”, was
released on May 25 and features Grohl
harmonizing with his daughter Violet.
With alt-rock anthems heavy on
melody and personality, Foo Fighters
have grown from Dave Grohl’s humble
solo project into one of the biggest —
and most enduring — acts in modern
rock. Once his self-recorded debut
became a hit in 1995, the former Nirvana
drummer turned Foo Fighters into a full-
fledged band whose lineup coalesced
after the 1997 release of The Colour and
the Shape. With 1999’s There Is Nothing
Left to Lose, the group’s sound gelled
into a recognizable signature built upon
the hooky loud-quiet-loud dynamics of
Pixies and Nirvana, a modern rock sound
anchored by Grohl’s love of classic
guitar rock. Alone among their peers,
Foo Fighters displayed a rigorous work
ethic, recording and touring relentlessly
into the 2020s, racking up hit albums,
multiple Grammy wins and, eventually, a
2021 induction into the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame. All this activity allowed
the Foos to experiment, whether it was
on 2005’s double-album In Your Honor,
the travelogue of 2014’s Sonic High-
ways, or the danceable, feel-good
anthems on 2021’s Medicine at Mid-
night. The dedication to work also
carried Foo Fighters through tragedy
when their drummer Taylor Hawkins
unexpectedly died in 2022. Grohl rallied
the group to deliver But Here We Are, a
cathartic tribute to their colleague, the
following year.
All of this industriousness stems
from Dave Grohl, who had been playing
guitar and writing songs long before he
began drumming. Throughout his early
teens he performed in a variety of
hardcore punk bands and in the late ’80s
he joined the Washington, D.C.-area
hardcore band Scream as their drummer.
During Scream’s final days, Grohl began
recording his own material in the
basement studio of his friend Barrett
Jones. Some of Grohl’s songs appeared
on Scream’s final album, Fumble. After
the band’s 1990 summer tour, Grohl
joined Nirvana and moved cross-country
to Seattle.
After Nirvana recorded
Nevermind, Grohl went back to the D.C.
area and recorded a handful of tracks that
would appear on Pocketwatch, a cassette
released by Simple Machines. For most
of 1992, he was busy with Nirvana, but
when the band was off the road, he
recorded solo material with Jones, who
had also moved to Seattle. The pair kept
recording throughout early 1993, when
Grohl returned to Nirvana to record In
Utero. He had toyed with the idea of
releasing another independent cassette in
the summer of 1993, but the plans never
reached fruition. Following Kurt
Cobain’s suicide in 1994, the drummer
kept quiet for several months. In the fall
of 1994, Grohl and Jones decamped to a
professional studio, where in the space of
a week, they recorded the songs that
comprised Foo Fighters’ debut album.
Boiling down his backlog of songs to
about 15 tracks, Grohl played all the
instruments on the album. He made 100
copies of the tape, passing it out to
friends and associates. In no time,
Grohl’s solo project became the object of
a fierce record company bidding war.
Instead of embarking on a full-
fledged solo career, Grohl decided to
form a band. Through his wife he met
Nate Mendel, the bassist for Sunny Day
Real Estate. Shortly before the pair met,
Jeremy Enigk, the leader of Sunny Day
Real Estate, had converted to Christian-
ity and quit the band, effectively ending
the group’s career. Not only did Mendel
join Grohl’s band, but so did Sunny
Day’s drummer, William Goldsmith.
Former Germs and Nirvana guitarist Pat
Smear rounded out the lineup. The band,
named Foo Fighters after a World War II
secret force that allegedly researched
UFOs, signed a contract with Capitol
Records. The band’s self-titled debut,
consisting solely of Dave Grohl’s solo
recordings, was released in July of 1995.
It became an instant success in America,
as “This Is a Call” garnered heavy
alternative and album rock airplay. By
early 1996, the album was certified
platinum in the U.S.
Throughout 1996, Foo Fighters
supported the album with an extensive
tour, enjoying a crossover hit with “Big
Me.” Late in the year, the group began
recording its second album with pro-
ducer Gil Norton. During the sessions,
William Goldsmith left the band due to
creative tensions, leaving Grohl to drum
on the majority of the album. Before the
record’s release, Goldsmith was replaced
by Taylor Hawkins, who had previously
drummed with Alanis Morissette. The
Colour and the Shape, Foo Fighters’
second album and the first they recorded
as a band, was issued in May of 1997.
Smear left the group in the wake of the
album’s completion and was replaced by
guitarist Franz Stahl, whose stay proved
short-lived; 1999’s There Is Nothing Left
to Lose was recorded as a three-piece,
with ex-No Use for a Name guitarist
Chris Shiflett signing on soon after.
continued on next page
October 2023 • Music News 25

Foo Fighters
(continued from previous page)
One by One, the group’s most
polished production, appeared in late
2002, followed by 2005’s In Your Honor,
which narrowly missed the top of
Billboard’s album chart. After releasing a
live album titled Skin and Bones in
2006, the band returned to Norton’s
studio and started constructing a dozen
fractured, eclectic rock songs to be
released in 2007 under the name Echoes,
Silence, Patience, and Grace. Two years
later, the group released its first compila-
tion, Greatest Hits, as Grohl launched his
new supergroup Them Crooked Vultures,
which also featured Josh Homme of
Queens of the Stone Age and Led
Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Foo Fighters
reconvened for 2011’s Wasting Light, a
Butch Vig production that doubled as the
official return of Pat Smear, who hadn’t
played on any of the band’s albums since
1997. Wasting Light wound up as a
smash success for the Foos, debuting at
number one on the Billboard charts,
going gold in the U.S. and garnering the
band another four Grammy Awards. In
the wake of Wasting Light, several other
Foo projects emerged — a limited-
edition compilation of covers called
Medium Rare released for Record Store
Day 2011; a documentary of the band
called Back and Forth — and the group
toured the album into 2012.
In 2012, Foo Fighters announced
they were taking a hiatus and Dave
Grohl immediately returned to the
626
6 Music
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Music
Music
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News
News•••November
•November
December
December
October 2023
2020
2020
confines of Queens of the Stone Age,
drumming on their 2013 album, ...Like
Clockwork. He also threw himself into
directing a documentary about the
legendary Los Angeles recording studio
Sound City. The film appeared early in
2013 to positive reviews, and it was
accompanied by a soundtrack called
Sound City: Reel to Real, which featured
Grohl-directed jams including a variety
of Sound City veterans, plus Paul
McCartney. Not long after its release,
Foo Fighters announced that their hiatus
had ended and they were working on a
new album. Sonic Highways, released
late in 2014, was their most ambitious
project yet; each track was recorded in a
different city, some with special featured
guests, a process documented on an
eight-episode documentary series for
HBO. Sonic Highways saw international
release in early November 2014. During
the Sonic Highways world tour, the Foos
had the honor of being the final band to
perform on The Late Show with David
Letterman on May 24, 2015. Soon after,
as touring resumed, Grohl fell from the
stage during a stop in Sweden, breaking
his leg. He performed from a throne for
the remainder of the tour, which was
rechristened the “Broken Leg Tour.”
In late 2015, both as a gesture of
appreciation to fans and a tribute to the
victims of the Paris terror attacks, Foo
Fighters released the Saint Cecilia EP, a
five-song blast that featured Gary Clark,
Jr. and Ben Kweller. It returned the band
to the Billboard charts, peaking in the
Top 20 on the Hard Rock, Alternative,
Tastemaker, and Vinyl charts. Soon after,
the band announced an indefinite hiatus
and would not release new music until
two years later, when they returned with
the single “Run.” This was the first taste
of their ninth album, Concrete and Gold,
which appeared in September 2017.
Produced by Greg Kurstin, the album
found Grohl incorporating some prog
rock influences into the group’s sound. It
also featured a handful of unexpected
guest performers, including Paul
McCartney, who played drums on a
track, saxophonist Dave Koz, Boyz II
Men’s Shawn Stockman, and the Kills’
Alison Mosshart; the latter two both
added backing vocals. Along with
topping the rock charts, the album was
also the group’s second to debut at
number one on the Billboard 200.
Foo Fighters toured extensively
throughout 2017 and 2018, including
making an appearance at the Glastonbury
Festival. By 2019, they were back at
work in the studio, recording in an
historic house in Encino, California, and
again working with producer Kurstin.
Initially scheduled for release in 2020,
Medicine at Midnight was delayed due
to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a
lead single, “Shame Shame,” did appear
in November 2020, topping the main-
stream rock chart. Two more songs
followed, “No Son of Mine” and
“Waiting on a War,” paving the way for
the album, which ultimately arrived in
February 2021. In March 2022, the Foo
Fighters traveled to South America to
play a handful of concerts, headlining the
Lollapalooza festival in Argentina on
March 20. On the morning of March 25,
2022, drummer Taylor Hawkins was
found dead in his hotel room in Bogotá,
Colombia, where the group was sched-
uled to perform that evening; he was 50
years old.
At the end of 2022, Foo Fighters
announced they planned to continue as a
band following the death of Hawkins.
Grohl and his bandmates processed the
loss of their colleague on But Here We
Are, an album that occasionally echoed
the spirit of the first Foo Fighters album
while also featuring the assured, precise
execution of Greg Kurstin, who returned
for his third record with the Foos.
 https://www.thebigeasyblues.com
October 7 - Tony Vega’s Birthday Bash!
October 20 & 21 - Keeshea Pratt’s
Birthday Blasts!
October 29 - John Calderon’s Sunday Sessions
@ 7-11pm

Thursday, October 26
Houston Blues Society
Jam hosted by
Sonny Boy Terry

October 2023 • Music News 27

6 Music
28 MusicNews
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September 2020
2023
 Daily Specials & Events
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http://www.acadiabarandgrill.com $3.75 Domestics and $1 Off All Imports from
7pm till close
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Live Music Schedule

Sunday, October 1 - Freak Establishment Tour
Thursday, October 5 - Rose Invasion, Transmission Lost, San Merci
Friday, October 6 - Crushing Planes, Linus, Take This To Our Grave, Bright Fires
Saturday, October 7 - Stone Side, Further North, The After Dark Society, Long Live
Sunday, October 8 - Time Capsule, Hitch Band, The Ronnies
Thursday, October 12 - He Films The Clouds, Under Auburn Skies, Atlas Below
Friday, October 13 - The One Man Menace
Saturday, October 14 - Distartica CD release
Sunday, October 15 - Jackson Aberdeen
Tuesday, October 17 - TANG, Challenger Deep, and Medians
Wednesday, October 18 - Feral Vices
Thursday, October 19 - Bovine, MatthewTheFilm, Bipolar Joyride
Friday, October 20 - STONE AND METAL
Saturday, October 21 - Michale Graves, 307Departure, Doug Westcott, The Revisions
Sunday, October 22 - Bobcat
Thursday, October 26 - The Human Condition with special guests Wick
Friday, October 27 - Mourning Sun, Nativo
Saturday, October 28 - Bar Rats
Sunday, October 29 - KONINGSOR, Never Rest, Four Funerals, Soul Way, Postalsatx
October 2023 • Music News 29

Talkin’ T-Shirts, Houston
Radio, & Moby With DJ &
Entrepreneur Chris Alan
We recently sat down and talked with
entrepreneur Chris Alan, former KLOL DJ,
the owner of all the Christian’s Tailgate’s in
Houston, and now the Saturday afternoon DJ
on Houston Radio Platinum, an online and on
air radio station, about his new business, the
T-Shirt business. Chris is revitalizing the T-
Shirt brands of radio stations KIKK, 97Rock,
and KLOL. If you ever wanted one of those
sought after shirts and never could get one or
if you mother, girlfriend or wife threw away
or destroyed it, they can now be replaced. All
you have to do is go to https://
www.favoriteradioshirts.com/ and order the
shirt of your choice. I’ve got to say, this was
one of the best conversations I’ve had in a
30 Music News • October 2023
while. We sat there and talked for what
seemed about forever about Houston Radio,
T-Shirts, the good old days in radio and even
about our mutual friend, former 97Rock DJ
Moby, who had recently passed away. Let
me tell you, it was a helluva conversation and
was certainly a lot of fun to reminisce about
the good old days when radio was King in
Houston and you could hear your favorite
DJ’s talk and talk about what was going on
around Houston. That conversation really
brought back a lot of memories for me. Back
then I did a lot of business with KLOL and
97Rock. It was always a lot of fun to go
down to the stations and hang out there. It
was even more fun to show up at their
promotions, and believe me, they had some
great ones. At any rate, why don’t you kick
back and take a little time and read this great
interview I did with Chris. It will probably
bring back a lot of memories to you to.
Music News: Hello.
Chris Alan: Hi.
Music News: How are you doing
today?
Chris Alan: Not too good. What a
terrible day. Well, not terrible. You heard
about Moby, right?
Music News: No.
Chris Alan: Oh my god! Moby died
yesterday.
Music News: Oh no!
Chris Alan: So, all last night and today
and I’ve just sat here and went through
hundreds of... We’re putting together... you
know who Bob Ford is right?
Music News: Yeah.
Chris Alan: Yeah, Bob and ... Well,
with Houston Radio Platinum we started
yesterday, we’re putting together a tribute for
Moby for Houston Radio Platinum and then
Bob is going to create a tribute video, so
we’ve been wrangling cats overnight. And
today, Dayna Steele and Brian Shannon and
John Lander to Sam Malone, all these great
radio people to submit videos or just
recordings or just a blurb, just hey, “here’s
my, here’s my Moby story,” and they tell their
Moby story and so we’ve been working on
that from last night. I got up this morning and
got right back on it. I’m just sitting here
going through all these Moby pictures and
compiling them for Bob to use in the tribute
video that he’s going to be putting together.
Music News: Moby was on the cover
of our second issue of Music News.
Chris Alan: If you can, if you’ve got a
copy of an image of that send it to me and
I’ll put it in with the photos.
Music News: I actually don’t. I went
down there to the station and did an interview
with him and he was as colorful as ever. It
really freaked out the girls that I had that
were transcribing the interview for me to put
in the magazine back then, but you know how
he talked. Especially off air.
Music News: Well, we, Sam Malone.
Do you remember Sam Malone?
Music News: Yeah.
Chris Alan: Yeah. Well, for my
favoriteradioshirts.com, we did this legends
of Houston podcast.
Music News: I’ve been watching it this
continued on next page
 Chris Alan
(continued from previous page)
morning.

Chris Alan: The one with Moby?

Music News: Yeah.

Chris Alan: Okay. Yeah. So did you see it on Mike McGuff? I

gave it to him yesterday. We were debating, Sam and I yesterday were
talking and I go ‘Do you realize that this may be his last interview?’
And Sam goes ‘oh my god, Chris. I bet it is.’ And I go ‘so how can we
share this without it looking like we’re trying to shill for shirts?’ He
goes ‘don’t worry about that. Just put it out there now. It’s a historical
thing.’ And it’s really prophetic when you listen to him talk in it. I
listened to it again yesterday when I was out doing my run. But yeah,
he has a potty mouth and he goes ‘oh, shit. I can say shit.’

Music News: Yeah, I saw all that. He was very colorful when I
went down to the station and we did the interview. Of course, we
weren’t on air so he could really express himself, but that was’ 82.

Chris Alan: Yeah, Bob told me the story last night or yesterday
and that he, of course, Bob Ford should be a writer. He wrote this
huge Facebook post about his friend Moby and about the very first
day they met. Moby showed up at 97Rock in a car and parts of it were
falling off because he had hit something and Bob took him to
Fitzgerald’s. That was the first bar they went to and Bob and I, last
night on the phone, were just telling stories about Moby and about
various things and about how genuine and how selfless and how real
Moby was. Bob said “Chris only one time when we were at the
Astrodome and Moby was at the height of his fame, Moby pulled out
the ‘I’m the superstar card’” and Bob goes ‘Come on, man, you’re not
going to do, you’re not going to do that shit with me. Come on man,
I’m Bob Ford, I’m your buddy.’ He said Moby just started apologizing
profusely ‘man, you know that really isn’t me. I’m sorry man. I can’t
believe I acted like that.’ And he was acting like a superstar, which he
had every right to, but deep down Moby’s just not that guy. He’s the
most down to earth, just a simple guy and after talking with Mike
McGuff last week... you know the KLOL movie Premiere’s coming up
October the 12th I believe. I’m a corporate sponsor. I went down to
Match Theater. It’s in Midtown, mid-Main and I went down there
earlier this week, Tuesday I believe, I can’t remember what day. We
went down and did a walkthrough because I’m going to be provid-
ing... Christian’s Tailgate’s going to be providing the food and then I
cut the sponsorship in half to be Christians Tailgate slash
Favoriteradioshirts.com. We looked at the facility and then went into
the theater and stuff and then Mike and I were just sitting and chatting
afterwards about the difficulties in making that documentary. ‘It’s all
of the egos.” He goes, ‘Chris, you don’t understand.’ You know, there
are certain people that years later have come back to me and said, I
want to go back and I want you to re-interview me. Because, you
know, because I’ve lost a lot of weight and I look a lot better now than
I did it.’ And Mike’s like ‘the film’s already made. I go, ‘well, who
was the best?’ He goes, ‘Dayna.’ And I go, ‘of course, she’s the best.’
I just got off the phone with her. I just got her to record a video tribute
to Moby. She’ll do anything, she’s so great.
Music News: I remember when the station turned over to
Spanish. I got a call in the morning from a couple of DJs and they’re
going, man, we showed up at the station. They wouldn’t even let us go
upstairs.
Chris Alan: Oh my god!
Music News: We had to be escorted up to get our stuff out of
there.
Chris Alan: That’s just terrible, man. Well, my stomach has this
feeling in it right now because I’ve worked in radio since I was 19 and
I know that feeling. You come in and you go, ‘oh, something’s
wrong’, and then they call everybody to the conference room, the
radio stations been sold. Now, nobody worry, just keep doing your job
the same way you are. Everything should be all right. Well, no, once
that happens unless you’re just lucky as hell, your job is done. And
getting another radio job isn’t easy. There’s only so many positions,
full-time positions at each radio station... five.
Music News: Yeah, you got to go out and kill someone to get
the job.
Chris Alan: Well, yeah, or you got to do like me. I was
fortunate enough to, I learned early in my career that if, if you just do
a bunch of shit that nobody asked you to do, they kind of want to keep
you around. And so I would do, I would do that. In fact, Shelly James,
my PD at Arrow 93.7... A couple of months ago, she goes Chris, I
haven’t talked to you in a long time. I texted her. I go call me, let’s
talk and we’re talking and she goes, can I tell you the one thing I love
the most about you? And I go What’s that? She was Chris, you did
anything and everything. And she goes, a lot of times I would just be
thinking this needs to be done and I would walk in and you’re doing
it. She goes, ‘that’s what I loved about you. I go, ‘Shelly, thanks for
telling me that’, but I’ve heard that from all my PD’S, because I just
knew how to protect my job. I used to do stuff and people will be like,
who did this, this is great. And then people would go, ‘I didn’t’, ‘I
don’t know’, ‘Oh, it was Chris’ and the other DJs would go, ‘f@#king
Chris, man. But then when Hit 96.5... You know it was 97 Rock, then
Hit 96.5, and then it became Energy 96.5, so it couldn’t have been two
more different formats. Hit 96.5 was an AC Adult Contemporary
format. Energy 96.5 was a high energy dance nightclub blah. You
know, I was the only person that made the transition from the the AC
station into the high energy dance station and the station manager,
God, I can’t remember her name. Last name was Campbell, Susan,
Susan Campbell. She came from Power 106 in LA. It’s a big time
f@#king station. She called me in and she goes, ‘Hey Chris, I see you
continued on next page
October 2023 • Music News 31

Chris Alan
continued from previous page
look worried. Chris, you’re not going
anywhere. You’re going to be a part of what
we’re doing on the other things, but don’t go
around telling.’ She goes, ‘You still got to...
she goes, ‘Chris, we’re gonna make every-
body go through an audition, a live audition
on the air. It’s starting at two o’clock in the
morning until five o’clock in the morning.’
All the other old timey jocks and shit had to
come in and all these guys go on. They were
used to saying, ‘Hit 96.5, we’ve got another
blah, blah, blah, you know, they had to come
in and go Hit 96.5, here we go. And she goes,
You got to do the audition too. She goes ‘but
Chris, don’t sweat it. You have a job.’ And I
go ‘thanks for telling me.’ She goes ‘don’t tell
anybody else. ‘I go, ‘I won’’, and it came to
fruition and so I was lucky that way. But It
32 Music News • October 2023
wasn’t because of talent. it was because of all
the shit I did that, that they loved that. Hell, I
would sweep a radio station out if I had to.
Music News: Well, you know, free
help’s hard to come by.
Chris Alan: Yeah, it is. It is. And like I
said, in the radio business... You know,
you’ve heard the saying ‘where there’s
smoke, there’s fire. Yeah, in the radio
business, where there’s smoke, there is a
f@#king forest fire. So the first time you hear
a rumor? ‘Hey, man, I heard something that
you all might be sold’, it’s true. Just know it’s
true. It was true. That’s the thing I do not
miss about radio, is there’s that sinking sick
feeling that they just come in and you’re
gone. And they come in and no matter how
big you are, you’re all gone. You’re gone.
Everybody’s gone. We’re now playing
German Oompah music and you know we’re
going to cater to the German population here
in Houston. Thanks sir. Thanks for everything
you’ve done. Oh by the way don’t bother
trying to go upstairs. We won’t allow that,
your stuffs in a box over here, so that’s the
one thing about radio I absolutely hated.
Music News: I hated the transition
because I was out money when KLOL folded.
They had been a sponsor of the magazine for
forever, forever. We even had KLOL on the
cover of the magazine.
Chris Alan: Yeah, there in the 90s,
radio stations started producing their own
magazines. Well, Clear Channel did. Right
now I’m staring at a photo, at a framed Jamz
The Magazine KISS 98.5, Nsync on the
cover. I was the executive producer of this
magazine for KISS 98.5, Magic 102, and 97.9
The Box. We just had different issues with
the logos on it. And I had a Jamz The
Magazine Van. I’ve staring at another picture
of me standing next to the Jamz The
Magazine van. My house looks like a Hard
Rock by the way. When you bought an ad in
Jamz The Magazine, you got a mini remote
where Chris Alan would drive the van out to
your location. “Hey, it’s Chris Alan with
Jamz The Magazine. Come pick up your
fresh new copy of Jamz Magazine. We’re
here at Shorties Hydraulic Shop, you know to
make cars bounce up and down. We’ll be here
for the next 45 minutes, come by.’ Yeah, that
was part of what you got with your ad when
you bought an ad. We were billing over
$35,000 a month. It was non traditional
revenue, NTR. Money that wasn’t there
before and it was a cheap, easy way to ease
into radio advertising I, to buy a little quarter
page or larger in Jamz The Magazine and you
got a free mini remote. It was fun. It was a lot
of fun. And then it all went away. Radio
looked for short term gain and profits over
what would keep radio profitable and going
on for years and years and so they’ve just cut
and slashed and now radio’s just a shell of
what it used to be and nobody really listens
anymore. Why would you when you stepped
down for nine or 10 minutes with nine or 10
minutes worth of commercials in a row.
Nobody’s gonna listen to that shit, especially
a kid.
Music News: Well, I loved working
with KLOL. I’ve worked with Doug Harris
there. I remember one time. Doug calls me up
and he goes, ‘Kevin, I got bad news. Our
budget got slashed. We don’t have any money
for the next six months to spend with Music
News. Can we give you our Chevy Blazer?’
So they gave Blazers that the DJs had been
tearing up, so I drove that around for a while.
Chris Alan: Did that have the Silver
Surfer on the side of it.
Music News: Well no, they painted the
whole truck gray when I got it, primer gray.
continued on page 34
 Show
Your
Tribe!

Order
Yours
Today!
October 2022 • Music News 33

Chris Alan
continued from
previous page
Chris Alan: That’s the one that had the
Silver Surfer on it right.
Music News: Yeah, I think so.
Chris Alan: There are images of that
online. Yeah. That was way before my time
there. I was only there for a few years right at
the very end. But I was fortunate enough to to
be over at the Lovett Studio. I wasn’t there
when they moved over to radio hell over by
Post Oak in the Galleria area, so I wasn’t
there. I was in there one day to cut a
commercial for one of our nightclubs at the
hip hop station that was in there. What was
it? I can’t remember what it was called... Hot
97.1 and I walked down the hall and Outlaw
Dave was on the air and I opened the door
and stuck my head and he’s ‘What the hell
are you doing up here?’ You know, I just felt
bad. That’s not KLOL, not up here. KLOL’s
at Lovett Boulevard in the heart of the crime
free Montrose. Just terrible. So, how are we
going to do this, or is that going to be the
interview?
Music News: Well no, we’ll talk a little
bit more than just that. I looked at your
website and somehow I look on here and I
think it’s more than just t-shirts for you. I
think this is a bit of a nod to your legacy.
Chris Alan: Well, maybe a little Yeah, I
didn’t work at 97 rock or KIKK, but I love
radio and I miss radio, even though I do this
Houston Radio Platinum, Saturday afternoon
thing. And so I do that and it’s a chance to
have those same emotions and feelings of
being on the air, which I missed. And all
radio guys miss that. I think I may I may
have told you before when I was on in radio,
34 Music News • October 2023
I was kind of I was kind of the guy that came
in did my stuff and I didn’t hang out with
jocks. I didn’t hang out with the other
announcers and stuff. I didn’t, I don’t know
why.Not because I was stuck up. It’s just I
wasn’t that guy. I didn’t go get drunk with the
other jocks and stuff and years later I look
back on and go, ‘why didn’t I hang out with
these guys.’ And now I’ve made up for that
by now hanging out with these guys and
talking to him and getting to know people. It
was such a competitive business that if you
were the competitor, I wanted nothing to do
with you and damn sure won’t go out and
have a beer with you,. I wanted to kill you on
the radio. I wanted to beat your ass. I had to
demonize my competition, which I guess if
you’re an athlete that’s a good thing, but not
in life and so now for the past 15 or 20 years
or so, I’ve just made an effort to go back and
make friends with these people that I didn’t
hang out with, that may have thought, ‘Chris
is just kind of stuck up, he just doesn’t like
hanging out with us’ and now they’re
surprised to learn that Chris is a good guy. I
wish he would have hung around and and I
don’t know, you probably have to talk to hear it again? I loved just picking the phone
up and giving him a call, just chit chatting,
psychologists to figure out why that hap-
pened, but it was just the way I was. I love
everything radio and I love doing this stuff.
Sam Malone wants to be remembered, God,
wanting to shoot the shit. So that’s done.
Music News: Well, he ended up
Moby wanted to be remembered, he love moving to Nashville, didn’t he?
being remembered. I would call Moby every
month, month and a half just to shoot the shit
with him and tell him that ‘hey Moby I was at
Chris Alan: No, he lives right outside
of Atlanta, just a little to the north of Atlanta
a restaurant today and I could overhear and a town called Roswell with Mary Beth,
people at another table and they were talking his wife. That’s where he’s been living up to
about you’, and he’s like, ‘no shit,’ because a couple of weeks ago, or a few weeks ago.
he would always go, ‘Chris, do people even He went to the doctor for some pains and
remember me in Houston?’ I’m like, ‘oh my stomach pains and issues and they went in
god they remember you. Yeah, of course they and they did, I guess exploratory. They
remember you Moby’, and he loved hearing determined he had stomach cancer and then
those stories, so I loved calling him and they said it was stage four, so they operated
telling him those stories. I’m the person that on him and he at this time wasn’t right. When
gently took a while to convince Moby to be he went into the hospital, I called his house. I
on Houston Radio Platinum, even though it’s didn’t want to bother him on his cell phone,
voice tracking, which he was familiar with. so I called the house phone and left a heartfelt
I’ll always remember where I was sitting in message for him and Mary Beth and then sent
my jeep. We were talking and I was parked in an email and said just ‘you’re in my prayers.’
my jeep. I was about to go in and get my hair And then we get the news yesterday that he
cut and he goes ‘what are you doing’ and I go that he passed, and it was from stage four
‘I’m waiting for the damn hairdresser.’ I’m stomach cancer. That’s a shame, man. But
sitting out my jeep, I don’t like sitting in the these tributes are going to be good and I’m
waiting room inside and we’re talking and continued on next page
talking and finally he goes ‘Chris, why do
you like doing this Houston Radio Platinum.’
I go ‘Moby because I can sit down and I can
put my headphones on and when it tails out
of the song is rolling, I’m back at KILE in
Galveston, my first radio job or I’m in the
control room at KLOL or I’m on The Arrow
93.7 or a station in Austin. Just all of those
memories come back with this man.’ He
goes, ‘Chris, you don’t have to say anything.’
He goes, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it.’ And I
go, ‘great.’ So I was so excited and then I
called Joey K. and I told him ‘Moby’s in’. We
got everything set up for him and he gave us
all of his vocal tracks we had to pull them all
off the air yesterday. Now they’re replacing
everything with tributes to Moby, which is
sad man. I’m gonna miss calling him and like
in my little blurb that I put in Mike McGuff’s
thing, Moby made a lot of people laugh. I
loved listening to Moby laugh. And you
know, I’ll miss that forever. No one will ever
 Chris Alan
continued from previous page
looking forward to all the stuff that we’re putting together and that
other people are doing as well. It just shocked a lot of people that this
just happened.

Music News Well, I’m shocked since you told me today. I’ve
just been listening and watching the video on your website. And I
mean, I’m talking 10 minutes ago, well, 10 minutes before I talked to
you and then I hear, he’s not here.

Chris Alan: Yeah, that was that was filmed in late July or early
August. So it was right before he he got his diagnosis, just a little bit
before that. And so yeah, that’s a shame man. Yeah, it’s a shame. But
I don’t know, I don’t know what to say.

Music News: But let’s talk about the t-shirt business.

Chris Alan: All right

Music News: Tell me about the T shirts. What got you started in
doing these?

Chris Alan: Well, a friend of mine, Tim Trostle, who worked at

97 Rock and worked at Rock 101. He worked with Doug. He was a
promotions guy and he was part time on the air at these great stations
and Q102 in Dallas. And Tim, bless his heart, has Parkinson’s disease.
I just got him moved to another Assisted Living Center and that was
the hardest thing in the world yesterday, to go over there and and tell
him about his friend Moby. But Tim and I were talking about doing
these T shirts. It’d be cool. I wonder why nobody’s done this, but then
we come to find out some people have, but they’re not associated with
radio like we were so I wanted to do this as something to give Tim
something to look forward to, where he would wake up and go ‘T
shirts man, Chris let’s talk about how we can promote these’ and so it
was for that. Now it’s morphed into doing this with Doug Harris.
Some of the money will be used for the George Batches Foundation.
He’s the guy that created the Red Runaway Radio. So I’m doing some
of that for that for charities. There’s not a whole lot of profit in the t-
shirt, but I’m using it for these charities and for Dayna’s ‘A Woman In
The Mirror’ play, her foundation for that, her nonprofit. And that’s
how I got started. And actually the KLOL shirt, not this past February,
but February 2022, when we had the KLOL reunion, I thought it’d be
really cool thing to make up some old historic KLOL T-shirts,
something’s been out of print for a long time. So I made a whole
bunch of them to bring up there to give everybody and it was such a
hit. That’s when I first told Tim that we probably could sell these. A
lot of that stuff is in public domain. And you know, that’s why I’m not
doing them with stations that are still on the air. I don’t want to deal
with the battle. But you have to remember back in the day when these
great radio stations were still on the air. I’m talking about in their
heydays, in the 70s and 80s and early 90s. The only way you got a
Rock KLOL shirt or a 97Rock shirt was if you were taller than the
person to your left and the person to your right, if you were at a
concert or or an event where the radio station was there and they were
throwing T-shirts out into the crowd. You got one and you held on to it
like grim death. You know, I got my KLOL and nobody else in my
school has got one or none of my friends has a KLOL or a 97Rock or
KIKK shirt. You held on to that shirt until you were married and one
day you’re digging around looking for it and you asked your wife or
your significant other “where is my KLOL shirt, the one with a Red
Runaway Radio on it.’ ‘Oh that old thing I cut it up used it for for dust
cloths years ago.’ So now if your wife or whoever did that, you can
come back and replace it. You can find one online. Scott Hunter who
was in the promotions department at 97 Rock and I were having lunch
yesterday at Christian’s Tailgate, where I was in West U when we
learned about Moby’s passing. I asked Scott several months ago, tell
me your favorite 97Rock t-shirt story. Just tell me a story... Your
favorite story about about 97Rock t-shirts and he goes ‘Chris, that’s
easy. We were down in Galveston. 97Rock had a big stage set up and
they had a concert and all of this stuff going on the beach in
Galveston. Scott said ‘Chris, me and a couple of the promotion kids,
we have this huge cardboard box full of 97 Summer Rock T-Shirts and
we’re on the stage just throwing the T-Shirts out into the crowd and
everybody’s jumping up and fighting for them and stuff.’ And Scott
goes ‘Chris, when the box was empty, I picked the box up and I
showed everybody out there and turned it upside down and showed
him showed him that it was empty.’ And he said somebody in the
crowd was going ‘give us the box’ and he goes ‘Chris, I tossed the box
out into the crowd and this one guy gets it and he’s running around
going ‘I got the box that the shirts came in, I got the box.’ That’s how
f@#king important these things were to people back in the day back in
the day. People today cannot understand the importance of of your
connection to your favorite radio station. Back when you were a
young adult and teenager or whatever you were, that was your tribe.
When you pulled into the parking lot at school you could tell which
kids were which kids. If they had a “Proud to be a KIKKer sticker on
the back of their car, they were a cowboy, they were a kicker. Then the
stoners and the surfers and the cool kids and whatever had a KLOL or
a 97Rock sticker there in their window or on their bumper or if they
were fortunate enough, they were wearing the T-Shirt to school.
Music News: I depended a lot on on the radio station T-Shirts
back then. Back in the 80s there was times I wouldn’t have had
anything to wear if I hadn’t been able to pull out a 101 or a 97Rock T-
Shirt.
Chris Alan: Oh my gosh yeah. I’ve got a collection of T-Shirts
from almost every radio station that I’ve worked for. In Austin I
worked for a station called Key103. It was a #1 station and we
famously, you know, had no t-shirts, no wax lips, no records. We don’t
give away trash, we give away cash. But we didn’t have t shirts, and
the only one I’m missing is Energy 96.5 and I gave every one of those
away, I had to. Now I’m looking at right now, going up my stairs
upstairs, at these picture frames that are the shape of a T-Shirt and
continued on next page
October 2022 • Music News 35
 Chris Alan
continued from previous page
they’re made to put a whole t-shirt in and they’re really nice to display
your shirts. I’m looking at Rock 101 KLOL, Arrow 93.7, 97.9, The
Box, KILE and I’ve got these T-Shirts from great radio stations that
I’ve worked for. I went digging around for them when I started this
company. I went digging around for those shirts and we may recreate
the Energy 96.5 and another one that people are asking for is Oldies
94.5 and KQQK, that we may be adding. We just added the Silver
Surfer, KLOL Silver Surfer and Silver Surfer logo.

Music News: You need KBTL. Do you remember that?

Chris Alan: Well, of course I do. It used to be KTLW from

Texas City. And then they became KBTL. And then I think they
became KYST.

Music News: Right! They went out of business owing me

money.

Chris Alan: Oh, wow. Do you remember where their studios

were?

Music News: Yeah, it was in Houston. I think over near the

Astrodome.

Chris Alan: Astrodome, exactly, that’s where it was. But

originally, I grew up in in and around Galveston, and there’s a little
town outside of Galveston called Texas City and I went to school
there. And when we were kids, we went down on Sixth Street not to
be confused with Sixth Street nos.

Music News: No, I know, I live down in this area. So I know

Sixth Street.

Chris Alan: Yeah. So there was the Showboat Theater, and it

was an old timey movie theater.
Music News: It’s still there.
Chris Alan: Yeah, well KTLW was upstairs on the side, KTLW.
Katie Lou is what it was called, Katie Lou. But I was a little kid and
that was the am radio station there, KTLW. And then of course right
across the Galveston Bay was was KGBC in Galveston and KILE and
KUFO, the FM station, KUFO. And my first radio station that I
worked for was KILE in Galveston. Pat Fant worked there. Back in
the day, Bob Ford, Kenny Miles, Ron Foster, Dan Gallo, Pam Ivey, all
of these great people worked at that little radio station in Galveston,
Texas. Who would have thought Man. There’s so many great people
got their career starts at KILE or had went through there at some point
in their life. And that’s, that’s really cool. You remember Kenny Miles,
Miles In The Morning?
Music News: Yeah.
Chris Alan: He was on KRBE.
Music News: T shirts are great bargaining tools. I even had T-
Shirts made up for Music News. One time I went to a club in Houston
and my van got blocked in and I had a box of Music News T-shirts,
and it’s blocked in by one of these small compact pickup trucks. So I
go ‘hey, if anybody will help me move this truck. I’ll give you all a
free T shirt.’ So we got like 10 people. They picked up the truck.
Chris Alan: Oh wow.
Music News: And they moved it out into the middle of
Westheimer and left it sitting there in the street and I was able to get
my van out and they just left the truck in the street.
Chris Alan: Oh wow, that’s, that’s great. Tim Trostle reminded
me yesterday when I was out at his, at the Assisted Living Center that
he’s in. He goes Chris, he goes back in the day at 97 Rock and he said
36 Music News • October 2023
they also did it at KLOL Well, we know when he was in promotions
over there. He goes, you know they would they would go out and get
exotic dancers, titty dancers and they would set up a tent at an event.
They would set up a tent and they would have a really buxom lady
walk around saying KLOL or 97Rock, whichever station it was at the
time, and would say ‘you want to buy the shirt off my back’ and there
would be a line of guys at this tent and they would walk in and there
would be small, medium, large. And the ladies were wearing a T-Shirt
and they would give them $20 and the lady would take their shirt off,
nothing on under it and hand them the shirt for $20 and then move on
out of the tent. That’s brilliant.
Music News: Oh, that is, that’s a great way to sell shirts.
Chris Alan: Yeah, it was brilliant. Yeah, you couldn’t do that
today. But yeah, that’s just frigging brilliant. Yeah, and that’s Tim and
those guys. Promotions guys were extremely creative back in the day,
you know, like Doug, to come up with these promotions and stuff, and
just creativity and that’s when radio was creative and radio meant
something. It doesn’t really seem too much anymore. I don’t. I can’t
say that. Outlaw Dave is on the radio.
Music News: It was good to see him get hired again on a rock
station.
Chris Alan: Yeah. And I was really hoping it was live. I was just
having the image of Dave driving to the studio and going in there and
sitting down with a cup of coffee or with Dave, a beer and doing a
show. And because he posted online, you know, our man, what a great
show, and I’m heading home and all of this stuff. And I thought, Well,
great. He’s really on the air. And then the other day, of course, Dave’s
on the air at Eagle, and then he’s posting live videos of him emceeing
the whatever wet t-shirt contest out at some club. I’m like, Oh, man.
You can’t be at two places at once. Greggo streams voice tracks on
continued on next page
 Chris Alan
continued from previous page
The Spot. Do you listen to that ever?
Music News: No. I never listened to the spot.
Chris Alan: Yeah. 95 is the old KIKK. It was 95.7, but
Greggo’s gone there. Greggo voice tracks that. But Greggo voice
tracks the way I do with Houston Radio Platinum. We were all having
dinner, Moby, Greggo, and a couple of other people and I asked him,
so you’re voice tracking, or is that live? And he goes, ‘Chris, I voice
track.’ And I go ‘honestly, I was driving one day, and there was a huge
plume of black smoke and you started talking about it.’ He goes,
‘that’s a great thing about voice tracking, because Chris, you can go
back and re-record it and make it sound like you’re there, that it’s live
and I go ‘dude you had me f@#king fooled. He says ‘good, because
that’s the way it’s supposed to be.’ I was telling him about mine, that I
would do two or three takes. He goes ‘Chris, if you f@#k up, leave it
in there. It makes it sound like you did when you were live on the air,
you f@#ked up and you just kept on talking.’ And I go, ‘you’re right,
man.’ So I’ve really made a conscious effort to make my shit sound as
live as possible. I don’t intentionally make mistakes, but if I’ve got
one in there, and it’s not something outrageous, I just leave it in there
and keep on going. That’s the way it should be. That was the beauty of
real radio. That’s why you fell in love with these guys, because they
were human and they want to suck up sometimes and maybe you were
listening to it one time when when Moby said “motherf@#ker” on the
air.
Music News: Which could be almost any day.
Chris Alan: Yeah, but, I’ve only had that happen to me one time
and that was at 97.9 The Box. You know what a pot is, it’s a potenti-
ometer. It’s a big dial you turn to turn things up or slide up and down.
I was on the air at 97.9 The Box and I absolutely hated it because I
was a guy that loves talking up and you got a 15 second intro and you
can you could tell everybody what the temperature is, that traffic’s
backed up on 45, blah blah blah blah blah blah, and here’s whoever,
the song title and hit the post. That’s part of being a DJ. Well 97.9 The
Box is just heavy rap songs. They had really short intros and you
didn’t get a lot of talk time, ramp time. And I stepped on an intro and I
slid the pot down as hard as it gets, just real hard. And I go “what the
f@#k” and I slid the pot down. Well it hit so hard at the bottom that it
bounced right back up. So you hear “what the f@#k was that” on the
air. Oh my god, I froze. I was just staring because I could hear it in my
headphones. I’m like, ‘No way’ and I looked down and that pot had
bounced all the way back up and the program director walked in and
he goes ‘Chris, you all right.’ ‘Yeah’, but you know, you could get in
trouble for that. No cursing on the air. Well, supposedly. Yeah.
innuendos. Oh, there was this video I posted in the Houston Broad-
cast. It showed this young DJ, he goes ‘I’m gonna say the F word on
the air and nobody will even realize it.’ He was saying, “for crying out
loud, but he was saying, ‘f@#k crying out loud, f@#k crying out
loud.” I would have been doing it all the time just to push the
envelope.
Music News: Oh yeah. I do the same thing with my podcasts. I
don’t go in and re-record my questions or anything. If I say something
wrong, or I say the same word twice in a row, I just leave it there and
continue on with the podcast. When I did my first couple of podcasts,
I would go back and I would redo what I had said. And then I thought,
Well, that just sounds pretty disingenuous to me. So yeah, yeah, it’s
best to just leave it in there as it was and keep on rolling. Well, what
else do we need to do to talk about the T-Shirts, because that’s what
we’re supposed to be talking about?
Chris Alan: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well. I don’t know what else to
say about the T-Shirt Company. It’s a passion project. It’s a way to
stay in tune with radio and it’s an opportunity for people to show their
colors if you if you haven’t. If you when you were younger, if you
always wished that you had gotten one of these shirts, now’s your
opportunity. You can get one and like I said, I’m not trying to get rich
off of them. There was a need and people want them and I like being
associated with radio and being especially with KLOL. Well I got to
work at KLOL, to be on the air there and that was where I wanted my
radio career, my real radio career, not what I’m doing on Houston
Radio Platinum, but that’s where I wanted my radio career to end, was
at that station, so the very first shirt I designed was a KLOL shirt. I
love everything about that station and I love everything about KLOL,
the talent that was there, the people that were there, and Dayna Steele
had me design some onesies for kids, and it won’t be long those will
be on the up on the site for sale as well. And the great thing about
onesies, if you put the KLOL logo on the front, it’s a onesie. if you put
it on the back, it becomes a dog sweater. It’s the same thing. It’s the
two holes and then you know that your front legs and the dog can fit
into and man, can you imagine who’s a cool dog out for a walk with a
KLOL or 97Rock T-Shirt on.
Music News: Well, it looks like you can’t keep the hats in
stock.
Chris Alan: Well, the hats are a big deal. The Silver Surfer and
if you’re not familiar with this, the Silver Surfer, it’s the chrome
dome. The chrome head that has the lightning bolt going through it.
And boy what a controversial bumper sticker and all of that back in
the day. It was very controversial and there was a small town between
Houston and College Station and the sheriff or the police chief or
whoever in this little community, he told his officers that’s probable
cause to pull somebody over because they’ve probably got marijuana
in their car. So this guy got in all kinds of trouble, this police chief or
sheriff or whoever it was. You can Google the story. It’s out there, but
they would pull over college kids driving driving back from Houston
or coming down to Houston on the weekend and driving back up to
College Station and they would pull them over and search their car. Its
illegal search, but they use that as probable cause if they’ve got that
thing on the back of their car, they’re probably potheads.
Music News: Well as they said in the police business, ‘they fit
the profile.’
Chris Alan: That’s it and that Silver Surfer and chrome dome
logo was it. It rubs some small town people the wrong way for some
reason.
Music News: Oh yeah. If you wanted to drive from Houston to
Dallas and not get stopped, you had a KIKK sticker on your car.
Chris Alan: Yeah, exactly. So I guess I’ve given you enough
stuff, right? You can cut some of this out.
Music News: I don’t know, if we’re doing a story on radio
stations, or the T-Shirts, to be honest with you. It’s a combination.
Chris Alan: You can’t separate the two, the radio station, T-
Shirts. So it’s up to you. I mean, if people are interested in hearing the
radio story, and going ‘Well, damn, and that was interesting.’ And they
hold on and they get to this. Let me go to favoriteradioshirts.com and
see what they’ve got here.
Music News: Thanks Chris, it was great talking to you.
Chris Alan: It was great talking to you too Kevin, bye.
Thanks for staying to the end of this interview. I hope you
enjoyed reading it as much as much as I did doing it and reminiscing
with Chris Alan. I’m sure you can tell we had a great time talking to
each other. So folks, if you want to put your hands on one of these
fine collectable T-Shirts, simply go to https://
www.favoriteradioshirts.com/ and order the T-Shirt of your past. It’s
time to show what tribe you used to belong to. Also be sure to check
out one of the Christian’s Tailgate locations in Houston for a lot of
fun, food, and great beverages. Last, but not least, be sure to check
out one of Houston’s great online and on air radio stations, Houston
Radio Platinum on air at 850 AM KEYH and online at https://
houstonradioplatinum.com/. They’re spinning some great music there
and you might even hear one of you favorite old DJs on there. Tune in
on Saturdays to hear our old buddy, Chris Alan. I think you’re really
going to like his show. Tune into 850 AM any day of the week for
some great music. They’re playing Houston’s Classic Hits.
October 2022 • Music News 37
 Cuco Performs At White Oak Music
Hall On The Lawn October 29
California singer, songwriter, and
producer Cuco rose to success in the late
2010s combining romantic, lo-fi bedroom
pop with charm, wit, and Spanish lyrics.
After winning a fervent fan base with the
release of his 2016 debut mixtape,
Wannabewithu, he signed with Interscope
and gained more widespread attention with
his Billboard-charting 2019 full-length
Para Mi. The slicker but still quirky
Fantasy Gateway followed in 2022 and
featured a range of guests including
Mexican singer/songwriter Bratty and
American country singer Kacey
Musgraves. Cuco continued into 2023 with
a series of standalone singles including the
Marías collaboration “Si Me Voy.”
continued releasing new material, includ-
ing the 2018 singles “Sunnyside” and “CR-
V,” both of which appeared on his EP
Chiquito in May of that year. He issued the
stand-alone single “Fix Me” with Dillon
Francis in 2019.
These placeholder songs paved the
way for Cuco’s debut studio album, Para
Mi, which arrived in the summer of 2019
on Interscope Records. It peaked at number
six on Billboard’s Top Modern Rock/
Alternative Albums chart and cracked the
front half of the Billboard 200. Aside from
an appearance on Yung Gravy’s 2020 track
“Off the Goop,” Cuco kept a relatively low
profile until early 2022, when he released
the singles “Caution” and “Time Machine.”
Both songs appeared on his sophomore
album, Fantasy Gateway, in July of that
year. Produced by Venezuelan hitmaker
Manuel Lara (Kali Uchis, Bad Bunny), the
album boasted a higher production value
and featured appearances from Bratty and
DannyLux, as well as Kacey Musgraves
and Adriel Favela on the streaming hit
“Sitting in the Corner.” Cuco continued his
collaborations in 2023 with “Si Me Voy”
with the Marías and “Medusa” with
Caloncho.

A native of Hawthorne, California,

Omar Banos developed his musical
abilities early, listening to Chicano rappers
like MC Magic and Baby Bash, and
experimenting with digital recording.
Under the name Cuco, he recorded
Wannabewithu while still in high school
and quickly developed a regional follow-
ing, particularly among young Latinos. A
follow-up mixtape, Songs4u, arrived in
2017 as Cuco made the move from playing
SoCal house concerts to proper clubs,
selling out his first two venues. Singing in
both English and Spanish over woozy track
beds of synths and drum machines, he

38 Music News • October 2023

November
May 2022 29
2023 • Music News 27
40 Music News • October 2023

Shakey Graves Performs
At White Oak Music Hall
On The Lawn October 27
Playing a smoky, spectral fusion of
blues, folk, and rock in a stripped-down
one-man-band style, Shakey Graves is
the stage name of Texas singer,
songwriter, and guitarist Alejandro Rose-
Garcia. The Austin-based musician
parlayed the grass-roots success of his
homespun 2011 debut, Roll the Bones,
into national visibility, signing with
Dualtone for subsequent releases,
including 2014’s And the War Came.
Along the way, Graves toyed with his
approach, trying out more expansive
full-band sounds and even venturing into
more psychedelic territory on smaller EP
releases, such as 2020’s Look Alive. In
2021, he put out an anniversary reissue
of his debut with heaps of rare bonus
material, followed in 2023 by another set
of unreleased songs, Deadstock: A
Shakey Graves Day Anthology, and a
lush, stylistically adventurous set of new
material, Movie of the Week.
Born in Austin, Texas, on June 4,
1987, Rose-Garcia grew up in a family
that encouraged his creative pursuits —
his mother was an actress who also
worked as a director and writer, while his
father managed a theater. Initially, Rose-
Garcia followed his interest in acting,
working with his high school’s drama
club and later moving to Los Angeles,
where he appeared in several films
(including Spy Kids 3: Game Over and
Material Girls), as well as landing a
recurring role on the TV series Friday
Night Lights. But Rose-Garcia also had a
passion for music, and he wrote and
recorded songs in his spare time. In
2007, Rose-Garcia attended the Old
Settler’s Music Festival in Driftwood,
Texas, and while spending time with
friends, they began coining rustic
nicknames for one another; someone
dubbed Rose-Garcia “Shakey Graves,”
and the name stuck.
In 2009, Rose-Garcia saw a
performance by blues-punk one-man-
band Bob Log III and was impressed
both by Log’s minimal performance style
and how he used tempo and key changes
to make his songs unpredictable and
capture his audience’s attention. Drawing
inspiration from Log, Rose-Garcia began
crafting a stage persona for Shakey
Graves, using foot pedals to keep the
beat with a tambourine and a bass drum
fashioned from a suitcase, while playing
music he dubbed “hobo folk.” Audiences
were impressed by his music, charisma,
and talent for spinning tales, and the act
evolved from a part-time home-brewed
music project into a growing presence on
the Austin music scene. In 2011, he
released the first Shakey Graves album,
Roll the Bones, which documented his
stripped-down performing approach.
Initially released online, Roll the Bones
became an impressive independent
success, and the Mayor of Austin
acknowledged his rising star in 2012 by
declaring February 9 “Shakey Graves
Day.”
Later in 2012, Shakey Graves
released a follow-up EP, Donor Blues,
and attracted the attention of independent
roots music label Dualtone Records,
which signed him to a recording con-
tract. The first album for Dualtone,
2014’s And the War Came, found him
expanding his approach, using backing
musicians on several tracks as well as
duetting with vocalist Esmé Patterson.
He toured extensively in support, as well
as appearing on a number of late-night
TV shows, including Conan, The Late
Show with David Letterman, and Late
Night with Seth Meyers, as well as
Austin City Limits. In 2015, he decided
to celebrate the anniversary of Shakey
Graves Day by releasing a digital album,
Nobody’s Fool, which was available as a
free download for three days only, from
February 9 to February 11, 2015. Also in
2015, he took home Best Emerging
Artist at the Americana Music Awards.
Two years later, Graves combined Donor
Blues and Nobody’s Fool into the
double-disc collection, Shakey Graves &
the Horse He Rode in On: Nobody’s
Fool & the Donor Blues EP. Early 2018
saw the release of the Sleep EP, with
Graves’ third full-length Can’t Wake Up
arriving later that May.
He began the next decade with
another EP, 2020’s four-song Look
Alive, which featured further forays into
psychedelic pop. In April of the follow-
ing year, he celebrated the tenth anniver-
sary of his full-length debut with an
expanded re-release, Roll the Bones X.
In addition to the original 2011 album,
the reissue included a second disc of
rarities, demos, and deep cuts.
Deadstock: A Shakey Graves Day
Anthology, a collection of previously
unreleased material, appeared in 2023, as
did the singles “Evergreen” and “Ready
or Not,” the latter of which leaned
toward alt-country singer/songwriter
Sierra Ferrell. In 2018, not long after
completing Can’t Wake Up, Graves was
approached by some friends who were
making a film. They asked him to score
their project and he was soon working on
music to accompany the rough-cut
footage, but as he submitted his compo-
sitions to the filmmakers, they didn’t feel
that his ideas meshed with their own.
Eventually, Graves walked away from
the project, but he was pleased with
many of the melodies he’d written and
used them as the basis for his next
album. Boasting a lusher sound than
much of his previous work, Movie of the
Week was released in September 2023.
October 2023 • Music News 41
42 Music News • October 2023
 Check Us Out
Online at
katiesbar.com

Open 6 Days A Week

Tuesday thru Sunday

Wednesday’s @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Thursday, Fridays & Saturdays @ 8:00 pm - 12:00 am • Sundays @ 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Sunday, October 1 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host Hugo Jamz
Wednesday, October 4 - Katie’s Jam with guest host Keith Vivens
Thursday, October 5 - Hugo Jamz Trio
Friday, October 6 - Jay Hooks Band
Saturday, October 7 - Wake Zone
Sunday, October 8 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host Pierce
Wednesday, October 11 - Katie’s Jam with guest host Bob Emmons
Thursday, October 12 - Josh Harnet
Friday, October 13 - John Calderon
Saturday, October 14 - Mark May
Sunday, October 15 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host Mark May
Wednesday, October 18 - Katie’s Jam with guest host Keith Vivens
Thursday, October 19 - Groove Kings
Friday, October 20 - Pierce And The Purple Moon
Saturday, October 21 - Static Blues
Sunday, October 22 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host Bayou Gipsies
Wednesday, October 25 - Katie’s Jam with guest host Bob Emmons
Thursday, October 26 - Lightning Rob
Friday, October 27 - Eric Demmer
Saturday, October 28 - Funksion Halloween Party
Sunday, October 29 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host Chris Castaneda

October 2023 • Music News 43

Saturday, October 21, 9:00 pm -1:00 am
Aspens Bar & Grill
817 Clear Lake Rd - Kemah, TX 77565

Sunday, October 22, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Drifter’s Icehouse
29293 FM 149 - Richards, TX 77873

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114 Agnes Rd - Richmond, TX 77469

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Mac’s Sports Bar
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The Abbey Pub
2002 N Fry Rd - Houston, TX 77084
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817 Clear Lake Rd - Kemah, TX 7756
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Backwoods Saloon
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102 20th St - Galveston, TX 77550
Sunday, December 31, 9:00 pm -1:00 am
*Happy New Year!!!
Aspens Bar & Grill
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 June 2023
September 2023• •Music
MusicNews
News 2345
 Pegstar Presents Beach Fossils: The
Bunny Tour Live at Warehouse Live
October 27 In The Ballroom
Throughout the last fifteen years,
Beach Fossils have steadily earned their
stature as one of the most definitive and
enduring bands of the 2010s New York
underground, consistently reaching new
listeners as their sound has grown from
the DIY solo project of Dustin Payseur to
an influential four-piece dream pop band,
self-produced and self-released.
Bunny (2023) continues the
stunning evolution of Beach Fossils’
sound, pulling elements from the jangly
melancholy of the self-titled debut Beach
Fossils (2010) and What a Pleasure
(2011), the gritty, post-punk inspired
tracks from Clash the Truth (2013), and
the lush arrangements of Somersault
(2017). Throughout, Payseur is joined by
core band members Tommy Davidson
46 Music News • October 20233
(guitar), Jack Doyle Smith (bass), and
Anton Hochheim (drums).
Through tone and mood, Beach
Fossils communicate a coming-of-age
narrative of self-discovery. Payseur’s
slice-of-life lyrics reflect on depression,
love, adventure, loss, mistakes, New
York City, friendships coming and going
— a mélange of granular pieces in the
process of continuing to find yourself.
Chiming guitars, reverb-heavy
production, and easygoing songwriting
with vague traces of nostalgia make
Beach Fossils one of the more adored
acts in a particular wave of dreamy indie
rock bands. Along with albums released
around the same time by Wild Nothing
and DIIV, Beach Fossils’ self-titled 2010
album was a defining document of the
kind of hazy, gently warped sound these
bands were exploring as they started out.
Subsequent albums found Beach Fossils
both upping production values and trying
new stylistic approaches, ranging from a
clearer sound on their 2017 album
Somersault to the poetic lyrical perspec-
tives of 2023’s more personal Bunny.
Beach Fossils originally formed in
2009 as a vehicle for the reverb-heavy
solo recordings of guitarist/vocalist
Dustin Payseur. Bassist John Pena and
guitarist Christopher Burke were brought
into Beach Fossils’ lineup later that year,
after Payseur had single-handedly put
together the recordings that would
continued on next page
 Pegstar Presents Beach Fossils
comprise the group’s first album. Beach
Fossils’ debut 7" single, Daydream/
Desert Sand, was released on Captured
Tracks in February 2010; their self-titled
album was released on the same label
later that year. Pena and Payseur worked
together on the group’s next release,
2011’s What a Pleasure EP, before Pena
left to focus on his own group Heavenly
Beat. The next Beach Fossils album
featured drummer Tommy Gardner and
production from the Men’s Ben
Greenberg. Clash the Truth was issued in
early 2013 on Captured Tracks.
After taking a break, during which
the band appeared on the HBO show
Vinyl as members of the early-’70s
“punk” band “the Nasty Bits,” the group
began working on a new album. This
(continued from previous page)
time out, Payseur involved the other
members of the band in the writing
process, with both bassist Jack Doyle
Smith and guitarist Tommy Davidson
contributing ideas. The record was made
in various locales in New York City and
Los Angeles, including engineer
Jonathan Rado’s home studio and a cabin
in Upstate New York, and featured guest
vocals from Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell
and Cities Aviv. Somersault was released
in early 2017 on Bayonet Records, a
label Payseur started with his wife Kate
Garcia. Their 2018 output included a
cover of Yung Lean’s “Agony” and a
split single with Wavves for a tour. In
2021 the band released a tenth anniver-
sary edition of their self-titled debut that
included a limited-edition 7" of “Vaca-
tion” and the previously unreleased B-
side “Time.” In November of 2021, a
fourth album, The Other Side of Life:
Piano Ballads, was released on Bayonet.
The album featured eight songs plucked
from across the band’s discography, re-
recorded in a tender and saxophone-
dappled jazz style. Payseur and crew
returned to a dream pop sound on 2023’s
Bunny. The band worked with engineer
Lars Stalfors to give it a more pop-
attuned feel, putting big choruses and
sentimental hooks into Payseur’s songs
about the joys of parenthood, the pain of
grief, and other mature themes.
October 2023 • Music News 47
 Ne Obliviscaris Perform At Warehouse
Live October 13 In The Ballroom
Ne Obliviscaris is an Australian
extreme progressive metal band that
melds death and melodic metal, classical,
jazz, and vanguard improvisation. The
group’s early works elicited significant
acclaim in the metal underground. They
courted mainstream success with the
release of 2017’s Urn, which reached
number 35 on the ARIA albums chart.
Ne Obliviscaris’ fourth long-player,
Exul, arrived in 2023. Conceived late in
2003 by violinist/clean vocalist Tim
Charles and harsh vocalist Marc
“Xenoyr” Campbell, the band included a
female soprano vocalist, lead guitarist,
bassist, and drummer. Former Gomorrah
rhythm guitarist Matt Klavins signed on
in early 2004, as did lead guitarist Corey
King. Their original rhythm section was
replaced in 2005 by bassist Brendan
“Cygnus” Brown (ex-Aphotic Dawn/
Primordial Space) and drummer Daniel
“Mortuary” Presland. For nearly two
years this unit continued to rehearse and
play regional shows.
In 2007 the collective released the
three-track, 33-minute demo The Aurora
48 Music News • October 2023
Veil to thunderous underground acclaim
due to its signature yet unpredictable
meld of death and melodic metal,
classical music, jazz, and avant-garde
improvisation. King left shortly after the
record’s release and Ne Obliviscaris
were forced to soldier on without a
guitarist until they successfully audi-
tioned French guitar slinger Benjamin
Baret, who had played with Brown in
Primordial Space in 2008. As Ne
Obliviscaris began recording their full-
length debut with this sextet in 2009,
they held a concert called Festival de la
Grenouille to raise funds for a Distin-
guished Talent Visa. It would allow Baret
to relocate to Australia. After 14 months
of waiting, and having a finished record
about to be mixed, his application was
denied.
Ne Obliviscaris appealed the
decision by initiating a petition and
letter-writing campaign that proved
successful in 2011. The long-finished
Portal of I was finally released in 2012.
The evolution in sound and approach
was greeted globally with critical and fan
acclaim. In 2013 the band signed to
Seasons of Mist and began recording a
follow-up. After finishing the album,
they began a crowd-funding campaign in
June of 2014 to finance a world tour to
support it upon release. They asked for
$40,000 and received over twice that.
Citadel was issued in November of 2014.
The 2017 full-length Urn was heralded
by the release of the singles “Urn (Part I)
— And Within the Void We Are Breath-
less” and “Urn (Part II) — As Embers
Dance in Our Eyes.” It became the
group’s first ARIA-charting effort,
reaching number 35. Tracking for the
band’s fourth album began in earnest in
March 2020, just as the world was going
into lockdown due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Despite all of the setbacks —
longtime drummer Daniel Preslend
parted ways with the group in 2022 —
Ne Obliviscaris persevered and com-
pleted the record. The resulting Exul was
released in 2023.
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38 Music News • April 2023
Conversations With The Professionals
by John in Houston

It’s The Sound Baby!

A conversation With Top
Rated Track Mastering Pro
Nick Landis
When a team of four mastering professionals were asked at
a Recording Academy (Grammy) technical meeting what master-
ing was the panel members smiled and with tongue in cheek
replied that no one was quite sure what the exact definition was
but you can bet it’s there when you hear a great piece of music.
Basically, that’s correct because in the simplest terms when you
hear something that the instrumentation is not over powering the vocals you can bet that it’s the mastering that set the
levels. The bottom line is that mastering is an art form, results rely on the ear of the person doing the mastering work.
Enter Nick Landis, protégé of the world famous Jerry Tubb. Landis’s credits range from symphony music to country
to Americana to rock and more including the sound track credits such as can found in “Sin City A Dame To Kill for”.
The foundation of Nick’s experiences can be traced back to his uncle’s influence while in his formative years. His
uncle would crank up ZZ Top’s Eliminator album and Nick would think wow this is really great. He credits these
experiences as the original foundation of his love of the guitar but that was far from the end of it. Young Nick started
piano lessons in kindergarten additionally church choir through elementary school then saxophone in school band
starting in 5th grade finally circling back to guitar, classical guitar, starting in 8th grade. Yet his thirst was not
quenched so he joined marching band and on top of that jazz band in high school. Originally he lived in Wooster Ohio
then they moved to Toledo until Mom got a full scholarship that took them to SMU in Texas. After his formative years
in Toledo they would live in Texas and all of his coming of age experiences including his increased passion for music
would develop even more. He had been learning the guitar and could not get enough so much so that this inherent
desire moved his level of understanding far beyond normal expectations and with this came a well earned degree. In
his freshman year in college he majored in jazz guitar and this is when the roots of becoming a sound engineer took
shape. In fact it was his first audio job
with the One O’Clock Lab Band at
UNT that moved his interests rapidly
toward transferring into the highly-
selective Sound Recording Technology
program at Texas State. This would lead
to Nick meeting the world renowned
mastering expert Jerry Tubb at Terra
Nova.

Nick received a great honor as he

was chosen to intern for the great master
himself. Nick would go on to become
an integral part of the Terra Nova team
and was actively involved in beta
testing the new mastering compressor
continued on next page

26
52 Music News • October 2020
2023
Page 2 - Conversations With The
Professionals by John in Houston
It’s The Sound
Baby!
A conversation With Top
Rated Track Mastering
Pro
Nick Landis
designed by Rupert Neve and his team at Rupert Neve Designs. Today, with these experiences behind him he is a
revered expert on all phases of recording and mastering at his studio in Austin, Texas. His collection of studio projects
shouts of a who’s who in music including Willie Nelson, Ruthie Foster, Dale Watson, Elaine Garcia, Jesse Dayton and
more. But it doesn’t stop there, the man also gives credit where credit is due to other professionals on his website. For
example, if another studio records the artist/band and he is contracted for mastering duties he lists their credits on his
site as well as any others that could be mentioned. On another front the man continually educates those that are
looking for industrial level support on rising technologies such as Dolby Atmos
(he’s certified by Dolby). However, the education
is not limited to new technologies but also encom-
passes existing technologies that many indepen-
dent artists do not fully understand. A prime
example is the topic of metadata. Without the
proper metadata in place radio stations that spin
the song cannot submit the spin to the chart
tracking companies. Therefore the song is not
going to chart even if it’s gaining strong radio
play. Nick shares, “This happens way too often,
but it doesn’t have to happen. It’s a simple fix but
it must be done before the product is submitted to radio. (Some of this is automati-
cally addressed when submitting to streaming platforms, they have the artist fill out
a form with all the metadata during the submission.) In this instance, metadata like the ISRC (International Standard
Recording Code) is used as a unique identifier much like a more well-known identifier called a bar code. It’s easy to
place when mastering, but without it preferred results on the business side are limited. This information should be as
descriptive as possible removing any barriers to identify anything about the recording in question. Tags like album
artist, track title, album title, and genre
are all common but frequently left off;
other tags like ISRC and IPI, used for
publishing rights, are less common but
can be very important. The end result is
that these tags help identify all kinds of
information about specific recordings
and without them, information gets lost.”
At times artists wonder why a song
seems to be doing good but no money is
coming their way. Could it be it’s the
improper listing of the metadata or
possibly there isn’t any tag at all. Learn
more at www.NickLandis.com
October 2023 • Music News 53
 1006 McGowen 713-650-1006

Leon’s Lounge Is Now Available For Private Parties!

Make Your Reservations Now!!
This October at Leon’s Lounge
Wednesday, October 4 - Randy Soffar Hosts Leon’s Open Mic @ 8:00 pm
Thursday, October 5 - Thursday Sessions
Friday, October 6 - Blue Heeler Juvenoia
Saturday, October 7 - Corny F8ers
Wednesday, October 11 - Brennen’s Party
Thursday, October 12 - Thursday Sessions
Friday, October 13 - Dompston, Mother Ghost, Tides, The Amazing Bozo
Saturday, October 14 - MSGC Jazz Quartet
Wednesday, Octoaber 18 - Randy Soffar Hosts Leon’s Open Mic @ 8:00 pm
Thursday, October 19 - Thursday Sessions
Friday, October 20 - Pushing 10
Saturday, October 21 - The Lightnin’ Brothers
Wednesday, October 25 - Randy Soffar Hosts Leon’s Open Mic @ 8:00 pm
Thursday, October 26 - Thursday Sessions
Friday, October 27 - Halloween Bar Crawl w/ Junebird
Saturday, October 26 - Halloween Bar Crawl w/ Treynwreck
Tuesday, October 31 - Halloween Bar Crawl w/ As If 90s
Wednesday, November 1 - Randy Soffar Hosts Leon’s Open Mic @ 8:00 pm
38
54 Music
Music News
News •• August
October 2021
2023

Marcia Ball Performs at
Bayou Theater At The
University Of Houston
Campus Clear Lake On
October 18
Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist,
songwriter and vocalist Marcia Ball will
perform live at the Bayou Theater in Houston
on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 . Ball has
won worldwide fame and countless fans for
her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse
rhythm and blues party every time she takes
the stage. Ball’s romping Texas boogies,
56 Music News • October 2023
swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-
laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-
of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over
the world. Her latest album, Shine Bright,
produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, is
full of everything music fans love about
Marcia—rollicking two-fisted piano, soulful
vocals, a top-shelf band of Texas and
Louisiana musicians, and Marcia’s magnifi-
cent songwriting. Recently, the Texas
Songwriters Association named Ball its 2023
“Texas Music Legend.” She won the 2023
Living Blues Readers’ Poll Award for Most
Outstanding Musician (Keyboards), and in
2018 Ball was named the Official 2018 Texas
State Musician and inducted into the Austin
City Limits Hall Of Fame.
With Shine Bright, Ball set out to, in
her words, “Make the best Marcia Ball record
I could make.” In doing so, she has put
together the most musically substantial,
hopeful and uplifting set of songs of her five-
decade career. Produced by Steve Berlin (Los
Lobos) and recorded in Texas and Louisiana,
Shine Bright contains twelve songs (including
nine originals), ranging from the title track’s
rousing appeal for public and private acts of
courage to the upbeat call to action of Pots
And Pans, a song inspired by renowned Texas
political writer and humorist Molly Ivins.
From the humorous advice of Life Of The
Party to the poignantly optimistic World Full
Of Love , the intensity of Ball’s conviction
never wavers while, simultaneously, the fun
never stops. Shine Bright is exactly the album
Ball set out to make. “It is a ridiculously
hopeful, cheerful record,” she says, in light of
some of the album’s more serious subject
matter. The secret, according to Ball “is to set
the political songs to a good dance beat.”
Born in Orange, Texas in 1949 to a family
whose female members all played piano, Ball
grew up in the small town of Vinton,
Louisiana, right across the border from Texas.
Seeing an Irma Thomas performance in 1962
and falling under the spell of Professor
Longhair’s piano playing convinced Ball to
seek out a career in music. She led a couple
of early psychedelic country rock bands
before pursuing her solo career from her
adopted hometown of Austin, Texas.
“Fifty years have passed in a flash,”
says pianist, songwriter, and vocalist Marcia
Ball of her long and storied career. Ball, the
2018 Texas State Musician Of The Year, has
won worldwide fame and countless fans for
her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse
party every time she takes the stage. Born in
Orange, Texas and raised in Vinton, Louisi-
ana, her deep Acadian heritage and a lifetime
of absorbing Gulf Coast rhythm and blues is
evident in her original songs and the classics
she chooses to cover. This has made her a
one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all
over the world. With each new release, her
reputation as a profoundly soulful singer, a
boundlessly talented pianist and a coura-
geous, inventive songwriter continues to
grow. Her love of the road has led to years of
soul-satisfying performances at festivals,
concert halls and clubs.
In Marcia’s most recent album, Shine
Bright, she has put together the most
musically substantial, hopeful and uplifting
set of songs of her five-decade career.
continued on next page
 Marcia Ball
(continued from
previous page)
Produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and
recorded in Texas and Louisiana, Shine
Bright contains twelve songs (including eight
originals), ranging from the title track’s
rousing appeal for public and private acts of
courage to the upbeat call to action of Pots
And Pans, a song inspired by renowned Texas
political writer and humorist Molly Ivins.
From the humorous advice of Life Of The
Party to the poignantly optimistic World Full
Of Love, the intensity of Ball’s conviction
never wavers while, simultaneously, the fun
never stops. “It is a ridiculously hopeful,
cheerful record,” she says, in light of some of
the album’s more serious subject matter. The
secret, according to Ball “is to set the
political songs to a good dance beat.”Marcia
grew up in a family whose female members
all played piano and she began taking lessons
at age five, playing old Tin Pan Alley and
popular music tunes from her grandmother’s
collection. But it wasn’t until she was 13 that
Marcia discovered the power of soul music.
One day in 1962, she sat amazed as Irma
Thomas performed on a show at the Munici-
pal Auditorium in New Orleans and delivered
the most spirited and moving performance the
young teenager had ever seen. A few years
later she attended Louisiana State University
and after dropping out to explore the brave
new hippie world of the late 1960s, she was
invited to try out for a blues-based rock band Grammy Award. Awards, and five Grammy Award nomina-
called Gum. She made the cut and her future Marcia Ball has appeared many times tions. 2010’s Grammy-nominated Roadside
was set. on national television over the years, Attractions and 2014’s The Tattooed Lady
In 1970, Ball left Baton Rouge for San including the PBS special In Performance At And The Alligator Man successfully grew her
Francisco. Her car broke down in Austin, and The White House along with B.B. King and fan base even further.
while waiting for repairs she fell in love with Della Reese, Austin City Limits and HBO’s She has been inducted into both the
the city and decided to stay. It wasn’t long Treme. She performed in Piano Blues, the Gulf Coast Music Hall Of Fame and the
before she was performing in local clubs with film directed by Clint Eastwood included in Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. The Texas
a band called Freda And The Firedogs, a Martin Scorsese’s The Blues series which State legislature named her the official 2018
group that pioneered the Progressive Country aired on PBS television nationwide in 2003. Texas State Musician. In 2018, Marcia was
movement, which attracted many musicians Marcia also appeared on The Late Show With inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of
and significant media attention to Austin. It David Letterman with The New Orleans Fame.
was around this time that she discovered Social Club, where she not only reached Since March of 2020 and the onset of
Professor Longhair, the seminal New Orleans millions of people, but also helped to benefit the COVID pandemic and subsequent lock-
piano player. “Once I found out about victims of Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, she down, Marcia has filled her time with work
Professor Longhair,” recalls Ball, “I knew I had a role in the independent film Angels on a nonprofit organization she co-founded
had found my direction.” Sing starring Harry Connick, Jr., Lyle Lovett called HOME – Housing Opportunities for
When Freda And The Firedogs broke and Willie Nelson. In 2017 she performed on Musicians and Entertainers, which pays rent
up in 1974, Ball launched her solo career and NPR’s A Jazz Piano Christmas, live from The and utilities for older musicians in the Austin
began touring outside of Texas and Louisiana. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.Ball area (HOMEaustin.org). She also improved
She signed with Capitol Records in 1977, joined Alligator Records in 2001 with the her streaming and virtual performance
debuting with the country-rock album Circuit release of the critically acclaimed Presumed abilities enough to participate in many on-line
Queen. As she created and honed her own Innocent. The CD won the 2002 Blues Music fundraising efforts throughout the year. She
sound, she released six critically acclaimed Award for Blues Album Of The Year. Her put her domestic skills to work making
titles on the Rounder Records label during the follow-up, So Many Rivers, was nominated masks. She and her husband Gordon got a
1980s and 1990s. In 1990, Ball—collaborat- for a Grammy Award, and won the 2004 dog to replace their dear Lily. She has written
ing with Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues songs and she is collaborating on a musical
Barton—recorded the hugely successful Album Of The Year as well as the coveted play which she hopes becomes a real live
Dreams Come True on the Antone’s label. At Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The show in the near future.
the end of 1997, Marcia finished work on a Year award. Her next release, Live! Down And she’s getting the band ready to get
similar “three divas of the blues” project for The Road, released in 2005, also garnered a back out on the road. “I still love the feel of
Rounder, this time in the distinguished Grammy nomination, as did 2008’s Peace, the wheels rolling,” she says, “and the energy
company of Tracy Nelson and her longtime Love & BBQ (the album debuted at #1 on the in a room full of people ready to go wherever
inspiration, Irma Thomas. The CD, Sing It!, Billboard Blues Chart). She holds eleven it is we take them.”
was released in 1998 and was nominated for a Blues Music Awards, ten Living Blues
October 2023 • Music News 57

Parker McCollum Performs
At The Cynthia Woods
Mitchell Pavilion October 28
Singer/songwriter and multi-instru-
mentalist Parker McCollum rhas eleased
Never Enough, a statement album that
cements his status as one of country music’s
undeniable new stars. It was released this
year on May 12 via MCA Nashville. The
follow-up to his 2021 major label debut Gold
58 Music News • October 2023
with headlining his own tour this summer,
McCollum will play stadiums with Morgan
Wallen on Wallen’s One Night at a Time
World Tour.
McCollum has been named an ‘Artist
to Watch’ by Rolling Stone, Billboard,
SiriusXM, CMT, RIAA, and more with
American Songwriter noting, “The Texas
native teeters on the edge of next-level
superstardom.” MusicRow listed McCollum
as their 2021 Breakout Artist of the Year and
Apple also included him as one of their all-
genre “Up
Next Artists” Class of 2021. A
dedicated road warrior, McCollum made his
debut at the famed Grand Ole Opry in 2021
and he already sells out venues across the
country (over 40 sold out shows nationwide
in 2021) including record-breaking crowds in
Dallas (20,000), The Woodlands (16,500),
Austin (7500+), Lubbock (7700+), Jackson,
MS (5000+), Kearney, NE (3000+),
Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, and three
nights at Fort Worth’s iconic Billy Bob’s
Texas. In March 2022, McCollum made his
debut at RODEOHOUSTON to a sold-out
crowd with over 73,000 tickets sold,
returning to perform at the Opening Day
celebration in 2023. He recently made a
dream come true with his first-ever Austin
City Limits performance, kicking off their
2023 season. In 2022, McCollum earned his
first ACM Award for New Male Artist of the
Year, took home “Breakthrough Video of the
Year” (a fully fan-voted honor) at the 2022
CMT Music Awards, and scored his first-ever
nomination in the New Artist of the Year
category at the 56th CMAAwards.
Never Enough, Parker McCollum’s
second major-label release, is a statement
album. If its predecessor, Gold Chain
Cowboy, announced Parker’s arrival in the
country music mainstream, Never Enough
(MCA Nashville) says that, damn right, he’s
here to stay.
Like Gold Chain Cowboy, it pairs
Parker with producer Jon Randall (Miranda
Lambert, Dierks Bentley), a fellow Texan
who understands exactly what fuels Parker’s
artistry: authenticity, vulnerability, and a little
bit of defiance. Never Enough bristles with
honesty and attitude and is shot through with
equal parts rock guitar and country
songwriting.
“What I do best is write songs from a
very real place and sing country music, but
also be very ‘me’ and not try to sound like
someone else,” Parker says. “We definitely
did that on this record and every one of the 15
songs sounds different.”
Compare album opener “Hurricane”
and the confessional ballad “Have Your Heart
Again” to hear his point. “Hurricane,” a song
about a strong-willed girl who blows through
Chain Cowboy, Never Enough arrives with
your life and leaves it in tatters, is a driving
the momentum of the Gold-certified single
rock anthem with a guitar riff that calls to
“Handle on You.” McCollum earned his first-
mind the theme from Friends (“I’m sure some
ever No. 1 hit with his Double-Platinum-
people will hate on that, but I don’t give a
certified debut single, “Pretty Heart,” and his
shit,” Parker laughs. “I thought it was cool”).
follow-up Platinum-certified single, “To Be
Loved By You,” another No. 1 hit. Along continued on next page
 Parker
McCollum
(continued from
previous page)
“Have Your Heart Again,” meanwhile, is a
simple vocal-and-piano arrangement with
Parker hitting a stunning falsetto note. The
songs are each irresistible and unique, rich in
lyrical imagery, and unlike anything you’ll
hear coming out of Nashville today.

Credit that to Parker, as sturdy as a live

oak, for knowing exactly who he is.

“This town can eat you alive, the

music business can eat you alive, with artists
trying to remain relevant and have hit songs.
That’s something I never cared about when
I’m writing or making a record,” he says.
“I’m never thinking about singles. I’m trying
to just write songs that can potentially stand
the test of time. That’s the sole purpose of
writing songs for me.”

Even Never Enough tracks that have

since become gold-certified hits weren’t
written with radio in mind. To Parker,
“Handle on You” was just a drinking song
with clever lyricism (“I tell myself that I
should quit/but I don’t listen to drunks”) and
a late-Eighties country sound as smooth as
Tennessee whiskey or, perhaps, a Shiner
Bock.

“That song is a nod to some of the

great records I grew up with,” says Parker,
who counts George Strait, Willie Nelson, and
cult hero Chris Knight as chief inspirations.
“A lot of radio songs nowadays are kind of
bubble-gummy. I don’t have any problem
with pop-country, but I’d like to hear a little
more classic country too. My team kept
saying ‘Handle on You’ was a radio song and
I said, ‘If y’all put that on the radio, then hell
yeah.’”
A mostly solitary songwriter prior to
his entrée into Nashville, Parker has now
written with some of country music’s finest.
Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, and Liz Rose
(a.k.a. The Love Junkies), David Lee
Murphy, Brett James, and Ashley Gorley all
contribute to Never Enough, along with
Parker’s Texas peers Randy Rogers, Wade
Bowen, and Ryan Beaver.
“That’s been the biggest change since
coming to Nashville: having access to some
of the best songwriters in the world and
sitting in a room with them to write,” Parker
says. “The way these songwriters care and
write, it’s from a place that I think I do as
well. It’s made me look at songwriting
differently.”
The proof is in Parker’s chart history.
He scored his first-ever No. 1 country hit
with 2020’s “Pretty Heart,” his debut single.
“To Be Loved by You” followed suit, also
hitting No. 1. Now, he’s staring down a
career-making single in “Burn It Down,” a
moody, smoldering break-up song that
equates a busted relationship to a house
reduced to just ashes and smoke.
Written with the Love Junkies, “Burn
It Down” was born during a writing session at
Parker’s home, where he spontaneously
started singing the words “burn it down” over
and over again. “Some days are like that,
where the melody and the idea for the song is
so good and everybody is on the same page,”
he says. “If you’re talking about moving the
needle in my career, ‘Burn It Down’ is
probably going to be the song.”
Parker lives for the type of spontane-
ous creation that happened that day. He’ll
often challenge himself to write a song
without changing a single word. He did that
with “Too Tight This Time.” With a pretty
acoustic guitar lick, a Dobro guest shot by
Jerry Douglas, and a heavy dose of humility
and introspection in Parker’s vocal perfor-
mance, “Too Tight This Time” is Parker’s
favorite track on Never Enough.
“I said, ‘Let’s pour this thing out and
whatever it is in 15 minutes, that’s what it’s
going to be forever.’ I love to write songs like
that and live with the end result. This one was
easy to do because the melody was so good,”
he says. “The line ‘There must be something
broken inside this lonely man’ just hits so
hard.”
For all his quiet strength and rough-
hewn masculinity, Parker isn’t afraid to bare
his soul. But, ironically, one of the most
personal songs on Never Enough is the only
song he didn’t write: “Things I Never Told
You,” penned by Monty Criswell, Lynn
Hutton, and Taylor Phillips, parallels Parker’s
relationship with his mother. “When I moved
away from home/I didn’t realize how much
I’d miss ya,” he sings. “A phone call don’t
take the place/of your smilin’ face cooking in
that kitchen.”
“Those lines were all in there. People
send me songs all the time and I never really
hear any that I’m blown away by,” he says.
Currently getting ready for a massive summer
tour, including stadium dates with Morgan
Wallen, Parker debuted “Things I Never Told
You” for his mother during rehearsals. “We
were in this massive amphitheater and my
mom came the last day and I sang it for her. It
was pretty cool.”
To Parker, the gesture was a way to
show he cared. Never Enough then is a
testament to how much he cares about
country music.
“Sometimes I wish I didn’t care so
much because everything would be easier.
Hopefully one day people will look back at
what I’ve done in country music and think it
was honest and good for the genre,” Parker
says. “This album may be called Never
Enough, but if they see that what I did was
real, that’ll be enough for me.”
Octoer 2023 • Music News 59
 Lucero Y Mijares Bring Their “Hasta
Que Se Nos Hizo” USA Tour 2023 To
Smart Financial Centre October 13
Lucero Y Mijares will be perform-
ing this month at Smart Financial Centre
on October 13.
Catch a passionate performance
Lucero Y Mijares. The dynamic show-
case features two popular artists in the
world of Latin music. Both artists are
multi-talented and have worked as actors
and singers. Since 1987, they have been
making a splash in the industry and
behind the scenes. The two entertainers
married in the 1980s and began their
own careers. These days, even after a
public separation, they are joining forces
on stage once again and treating fans to a
sensational celebration of music and
memories. It is not every day that you
get a chance to see them performing on
one stage. In this concert, fans can
experience the power of their exceptional
talent.
60 Music News • October 2023
Lucero has sold millions of albums
and has worked in a variety of Spanish-
language soap operas known as
telenovelas. She has topped the Latin
music charts and won a slew of awards.
Likewise, Manuel Mijares, known
professionally as Mijares, has had a
celebrated career in his own right. He
performs an exciting blend of Latin pop,
mariachi and more.
Lucero is one of Mexico’s most
iconic performers. A best-selling singer/
songwriter, she is globally renowned for
her recordings of rancheras, mariachis,
and pop songs. Further, she is an award-
winning actress of screen and stage, as
well as a popular television host.
Lucero’s professional career began at age
11 performing on a Mexican children’s
variety program. She started acting in
telenovelas in 1982 and released her
debut album, Te Prometo, as Lucerito the
same year. Her first charting album was
1990’s Con Mi Sentimiento. 1991’s
Lucero de Mexico went Top 40 in the
U.S. Virtually every studio outing that
decade charted, including 1998’s multi-
platinum Cerca de Ti. 2004’s Cuando
Sale un Lucero and 2006’s Quiéreme Tal
Como Soy both hit internationally.
2010’s Indispensable featured “Dueña de
Tu Amor” the hit theme for Soy Tu
Dueña for her telenovela. 2017’s
Brasileira offered bossas and sambas in
Portuguese. Also in 2017, she released
the first part of her Sinaloan trilogy,
Enamorada con Banda, followed by
2018’s Mas Enamorada con Banda and
2019’s Sólo Me Faltabas Tú. The boxed
retrospective 20y20 followed a year
later.
continued on next page
 Lucero Y
Mijares
(continued from
previous page)
Lucero was born Lucero Hogaza
León in Mexico City. From the time she
could walk and talk, she sang and
danced. Her mother Lucero León, a
former performer herself, trained her and
has managed her career, which Lucero
began at 11, performing with her guitar
on the variety show Alegrías de
Mediodía in 1980. Two years later, she
played the title role in the telenovela
Chispita and won an industry award as
best new actress. As a teen, she appeared
in the film Coqueta, which also featured
Pedro Fernández, and earned the
nickname “Queen of the Telenovelas,”
acting in no less than nine, including
Cuando Llega el Amor, Los Parientes
Pobres, and Lazos de Amor.
While her career as an actress
made her a nationally beloved cultural
figure, Lucero’s musical career, which
began with her 1982 debut Te Prometo,
ran concurrently and was arguably more
successful. During the ’80s, she appeared
in no less than seven films and released
six albums as well as a dozen EPs and
singles as Lucerito. They ranged across
the musical spectrum from synthesized
pop to traditional rancheras, mariachis,
and romanticos. With 1990’s Con Mi
Sentimiento, she adopted the name
“Lucero.”
1993’s Lucero sold more than
800,000 copies in Mexico alone and
made inroads at radio in the Southwest-
ern United States. 1995’s Siempre
Contigo peaked at number 15 on the Top
Latin Albums charts in the U.S. and
toured in Mexico and South America. In
1999 she released Un Lucero en la
México, her first live offering. It
included one disc of pop songs and one
of Mexican Regional songs; it was
certified gold out of the box and went on
to sell millions of copies worldwide.
2004’s Cuando Sale un Lucero, her debut
for EMI, was certified gold and subse-
quently platinum. The same year she
appeared as Esperanza in director
Alfonso Arau’s biopic Zapata: El Sueño
de un Héroe, at the time the most
expensive Mexican movie ever produced
— its opening was also the highest
grossing in Mexican history. 2006’s
Quiéreme Tal Como Soy contained
reworked versions of some of her
greatest hits (written by Rafael Pérez
Botija) and covers by Rocío Dúrcal and
José José.
2010’s Indispensable, her first
studio set in four years, was among her
most ambitious and successful outings.
Released during the same year she acted
in the popular telenovela Soy Tu Dueña,
its first single, “Dueña de Tu Amor,” was
the closing theme for the show and
propelled Lucero to the upper rungs of
the Mexican charts, and placed in both
the United States and Europe. While
2011’s Mi Secreto de Amor hit the Top
40, 2011’s Un Lu Jo (a duet album with
Joan Sebastian) topped the Mexican
Regional Albums chart in the U.S.; it
also peaked at number three on Mexico’s
national chart. A collection of romantic
ballads, Aquí Estoy, appeared on
streaming charts in 2014.
Lucero released Enamorada con
Banda in 2017, a set of popular hits
recorded in the banda style, to great
acclaim. It topped the national charts and
landed inside the Top 40 on the U.S.
Latin Albums chart. To honor fans in
Brazil and Portugal, she also released
Brasileira on Fonovisia that year; a
collection of her own songs and covers
of bossas and sambas sung entirely in
Portuguese. 2018’s Mas Enamorada con
Banda charted and sold with equal
success as its thematic predecessor. In
2019, she and producer Luciano Luna
teamed for a third banda collection, Sólo
Me Faltabas Tú, that proved no less
successful commercially.
In 2020, Lucero held a virtual
press conference announcing the release
of the boxed retrospective 20y20, a four-
disc set that covered her 40 years in
music to date. She explained, “The first
two discs cover the transition from girl to
young woman and the second, the last 20
years as an experienced artist, mother,
and mature woman.” In 2021, Lucero
reunited on-stage with ex-husband
Manuel Mijares for the streaming
concert Siempre Amigos. In 2022 she
released no less than nine singles —
including four very different versions of
her pop hit “Los Ricos Tambien Lloran.”
Manuel Mijares is an adult
contemporary pop singer from Mexico
who performs under his last name.
Possessed of a resonant, theatrical
baritone, he is one of Latin America’s
most noteworthy performers. After
placing three Top Five singles from his
1986 EMI debut Soñador, he rode the
Latin album and singles charts to the
tune of ten gold, seven platinum, and
five diamond certifications and has won
countless awards. Mijares has sold more
than 20 million records. His biggest
recordings — 1989’s Un Hombre
Discreto, 2005’s Jose Jose tribute Honor
a Quien Honor Merece, 2013’s Canto por
Ti, and the following year’s No Se Me
Acaba el Alma — have endeared him to
fans across the globe. Further, his songs
have appeared as themes and cues in a
wide variety of television programs and
films including Oliver y Su Pandilla,
Beauty and the Beast, and The Road to
El Dorado. In 2016 he released the live
retrospective Sinfónico Desde el Palacio
de Bellas Artes with his road band, two
symphony orchestras, and a choir. In
2018 he recorded Rompecabezas and its
2019 counterpart, Rompecabezas II,
entirely in Los Angeles. They included
not only new songs but covers and all-
star duets. After embarking on a pair of
sold-out U.S. and Mexican tours, he
issued his debut holiday collection, Feliz
Navidad, in 2020.
Singer Manuel Mijares was born
José Manuel Mijares-Morán in 1958 in
Mexico City. He cites his mother, a
dance teacher, as his first major musical
influence. She encouraged him to
continued on next page
October 2023 • Music News 61

Lucero Y Mijares
(continued from previous page)
participate in his elementary
school choir where his distinctive vocal
qualities were noticed by his teachers,
who offered further encouragement.
After singing in groups with friends
throughout high school, Mijares got
serious about music. He made his
professional debut in 1981 in a local
festival called Valores Juveniles. He
emigrated to Japan at 24 to accept a
singing job in a nightclub, and while
there he recorded television and radio
jingles. After returning to Mexico in
1983, Mijares won a spot in the backing
chorus of Latin pop star Emmanuel. Two
years later he signed a solo deal with
EMI and released his debut album,
Soñador, in 1986. He represented
Mexico in the annual OTI Festival and
won “Revelation of the Year.” The label
reissued the album and it subsequently
netted three Top Five singles. Mijares
first hit the international pop charts with
the 1987 single “No Se Murió el Amor,”
the opening track from Amor y Rock ‘N’
Roll. He toured incessantly across
Mexico and made inroads to West Coast
American radio. He made his debut as an
actor in the 1988 film Escápate
Conmigo, where he met his future wife,
the pop singer Lucero. Based on the
film’s success, Mijares issued the triple-
gold-certified Uno Entre Mil that year
and followed it in 1989 with Un Hombre
Discreto, which was certified gold seven
times over and peaked at number four on
the Top Latin Albums chart.
Mijares would reside in the upper
rungs of the singles and album charts
throughout the early ’90s. After 1993’s
number five Encadenado, he released
62 Music News • September
October 2023
2023
Vive en Me, a live outing recorded in
New York City. It featured songwriting
contributions from Pablo Milanes, Lolita
de la Colina, and Gerardo Flores. While
the album missed the upper rungs of the
charts, it did net two Top Ten singles in
the title cut and Francis Cabrel’s “Je
L’aime a Mourir”; it was adapted as “La
Quiero a Morir” by Luis Gómez-Escolar.
In 1996, Mijares issued Querido
Amigo, a tribute to Mexican singer and
actor Pedro Infante. Producer José Luis
Espinosa dubbed Mijares’ fresh vocals
onto cleaned-up tapes of Infante’s
singing, with fresh orchestral and choral
arrangements.
In January of 1997, Mijares and
Lucero married. El Privilegio de Amar,
his debut album for Universal, was a
chart hit; its title track, featuring Lucero
on backing vocals, became the title
theme of a telenovela, reached the Top
Ten on three U.S. charts, and registered
at number one in 11 Latin American
countries. Its follow-up, “Estrella Mia,”
didn’t chart in the U.S. but did reach
number two in Mexico and the Top Ten
in a dozen other countries. In 2000, he
was invited by Dreamworks to sing three
Elton John songs for the score to The
Road to El Dorado. He also issued the
ballads collection Historias de un Amor,
followed by the 2002 live offering En
Vivo.
Mijares had become an influential
persona in popular music. He sold
enough records and concert tickets to
dictate having a say in what he recorded
and how — a rarity in pop circles then
and now. To that end, he signed a short
deal with Sony to record and release
Honor a Quien Honor Merece in 2005, a
heartfelt tribute to the influence of José
José. It marked Mijares’ first platinum
certification. A year later he issued
Acompañame, a duet album with Yuri,
and in 2007, Swing en Tu Idioma, which
presented some of his favorite songs in
big-band settings. 2008’s Hablemos de
Amor was an oddity for Mijares: A one-
off for EMI, its title track was composed
for a telenovela of the same title and
used as its theme song. The rest of the
recordings were left to languish.
In 2009, Mijares returned to
Warner for the covers album Vivir Así; it
attained platinum status and prompted a
2010 sequel that attained diamond
certification. After more than a decade of
marriage, Mijares and Lucero divorced
in 2011. The singer undertook transatlan-
tic tours in the next two years, and in
2013 he released the platinum-certified
smash Canto por Ti. Its single “Hoy”
featured a duet appearance by Peruvian
Latin Grammy winner Glan Marco. The
album spent five weeks in the top spot
on the Mexican pop charts and registered
Top Ten in a dozen other countries. The
following year’s No Se Me Acaba el
Alma also topped the chart at home,
earning diamond certification. In
September of 2016, Mijares performed a
30-year career retrospective concert at
Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes
with two symphony orchestras, a choir,
and his road band. The show was filmed
for a television special and released as an
audio-video package the following year
as the chart-topping Sinfónico Desde el
Palacio de Bellas Artes. It was certified
gold upon release and later attained
platinum status.
The accompanying video format
appealed to Mijares. For 2018’s
Rompecabezas, he recorded a slew of
new songs and covers in Los Angeles.
Among them were three duets: “A
Donde Vamos a Parar” with Marc
Antonio Solis, the title track with former
boss Emmanuel, and “Vencer al Amor”
with ex-wife Lucero. He and the label
also filmed videos to accompany each
song. Rompecabezas reached number
two in Mexico and earned gold certifica-
tion. Mijares enjoyed the experience so
much, he followed it with a second
volume in 2019. Also recorded in L.A., it
included three duets — “No Te Vayas
Todavía” with Maria León, “Besos
Usados” with Melendi, and “Bandida”
with Andrés Cepeda — and once again
included videos. It was certified diamond
in early 2020. Later that year, Mijares
released his first holiday album, Feliz
Navidad.

Ivan Cornejo Performs At
The 713 Music Hall On
October 21 and 22
Ivan Cornejo is a singer and
songwriter of Regional Mexican
Music from Riverside, California.
Alma Vacía, his 2021 debut
album, was released by Manzana
Records in August, just two
months after his 17th birthday. It
peaked at number two on the
Regional Mexican Albums chart,
while its singles, “Noche de
Relajo” and “Corazón Frío,” also
registered inside the Top 20. A
week before his 18th birthday, he
issued the full-length Dañado. It
too topped genre charts during its
first week of release.
An adept guitarist who
taught himself to play at age
seven, Cornejo began jamming
with older friends at 14. They
praised his playing and singing
acumen and encouraged him to
develop his skills further. He did.
At 15 he began posting video
requintos (guitar instrumentals)
on TikTok, covering songs by his
favorite artists. They registered
millions of views and drew the
attention of Andres Garcia, presi-
dent and A&R boss of Houston’s
Manzana Records, who encour-
aged his singing and then signed
him after discovering that he was
also a fine songwriter.
“Noche de Relajo” appeared
in late 2020 and registered on
streaming charts. “Llamas
Perdidas” followed in June 2021,
just after his 17th birthday. In the
meantime, his performance videos
began to score major notice on
YouTube, garnering millions of
views. In late July, Cornejo issued
the single and video for “Corazón
Frío” and in October he released
the eight-song album Alma Vacía;
it rocketed to number two on the
music industry’s Regional Mexi-
can charts. He followed it with the
Top Ten single “El Greñas
Mentado.”
In February 2022, Cornejo
issued the single “Perro
Abandonado,” a corrido of insuf-
ferable heartbreak. Two weeks
later, he released “Triste,” a duet
with Polo Gonzalez. In June, a
week before his 18th birthday,
Cornejo released the romantic,
ballad-centric Dañado, another
seven-track album. It soared to the
Top of the Regional Mexican
Albums chart as well as stream-
ing, debuted at number four at
Top Latin Albums, and cracked
the Top 200 at number 149 (un-
usually high for a Regional
Mexican album). The set also
became the first chart-topper for
Manzana Records, boosting the
label’s profile across the industry.
Cornejo kicked off 2023 with the
heartfelt single “Aquí Te Espero.”
October 2023 • Music News 63
 La Mafia Brings Their Celebrating Life
Tour To The Arena Theater October 21
The chart-topping, Grammy-
winning Tejano band La Mafia from
Houston, Texas are among the most
enduring, successful, and versatile bands
to emerge from the city’s music scene.
As Texas Monthly put it back in the late
’90s, “They are to Latin music what
Willie Nelson and ZZ Top are to country
and rock.” For 40-plus years, La Mafia
have changed members with almost
alarming regularity, yet with each change
they have evolved, wedding their Tejano
roots to cumbia, Latin soul, tropical
rhythms, electronic funk, R&B, and
stadium rock while remaining close to
the vintage polkas, corridos, romanticas,
and boleros of their youth. They are a
rarity among Latin bands: Instead of
trying to become successful in El Norte
first, they started in Texas and went
south and east before reaching back into
their native United States.
64 Music News • October 2023
In the 2000s and 2010s, La Mafia
became synonymous with power pop
ballads, rife with electric guitars, synths,
samples, and doo wop- and soul-
inflected backing vocals. They have
placed most of their dozens of albums
and countless singles and compilations
on no less than a dozen different charts,
from Tropical Songs to Mexican
Regional and Latin Pop Albums. In
1991, 11 years after they almost
singlehandedly created a resurgence of
the norteno sound, they packed the
Houston Astrodome for the annual
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
with a crowd of 55,000 — only Selena
would surpass that number during that
decade. That same year, they issued
Estas Tocando Fuego, their 16th album
and their first to register platinum. (They
did it again in 1992 with Ahora y
Siempre.) Since that time, they’ve
continued to perform and record, aside
from a very brief and bitter break at the
end of the ’90s. In 2000 they were
named one of the Billboard’s Top Ten
Latin artists from the entire preceding
decade. They took a longer break from
recording, between 2008 and 2014. In
2014, they placed an album in the Top
Ten on both the Mexican Regional and
Top Latin Albums with Amor y Sexo.
They continue to tour on both sides of
the border, playing shows from the
nationally televised Señorita Mexico
pageant to soccer stadiums in Central
and South America. They have been
awarded eight Premio Lo Nuestro
Awards and a dozen Tejano Music
Awards (including one for Lifetime
Achievement) in addition to a pair of
Grammy awards for the albums Un
Millón de Rosas (1996) and En Tus
Manos (1997), and Latin Grammys for
continued on next page
 La Mafia
(continued from
previous page)
Para El Pueblo (2004) and Nuevamente
(2006), and a nomination from the latter
for 2008’s Eternamente Romanticos.

The group was founded by

brothers Oscar (a vocalist now called
Oscar De La Rosa) and Leonard
Gonzalez, from the north end of Hous-
ton, and keyboard player Armando
Lichtenberger, Jr. (who also plays
accordion). They started playing music
together when they were ten years old, at
weddings, quinceañeras, and the yard
party scene like most bands. They issued
their self-titled debut for the independent
Discos Diana label from Baytown, Texas
in 1980. Two more albums followed on
the label over the next year before La
Mafia shifted allegiance and signed to
San Antonio’s Cara label, where they
remained until 1986. On Cara they
issued albums that would spread word of
their sound throughout Texas and into
northern Mexico: Honey (Cariño),
Electrifying, Mafia Mania, Hot Stuff,
and Neon Mania. In 1986 they left the
label and signed to CBS Discos (now
Sony). Even during these early days, La
Mafia was releasing albums and singles
that would inform their later sound and
become treasures among fans, especially
1986 and 1988’s Explosivo. While the
group’s Spanish-language skills weren’t
great (their first language is English), the
music they played, whether the old
standards learned from their parents or
songs by the Beatles, registered with
audiences because of the band’s dynamic
stage show. David De La Garza III
joined La Mafia in 1989 as second
vocalist and keyboardist. His presence in
the outfit helped mightily, both on-stage
and in the studio. 1991’s Estas Tocando
Fuego initially sold half a million copies
in the U.S., but eventually moved over
four million. 1992’s Vida spent 47 weeks
on the Top Latin Albums charts and
peaked at number two. 1993’s Ahora y
Siempre went triple platinum and hit the
top spot on the Mexican Regional
Albums chart. The band became a radio
staple and placed singles on the charts as
often as albums. 1996’s Un Millón de
Rosas peaked at number one on the
Regional Mexican Albums chart and its
single also reached Top Ten on the Top
Latin Songs chart. The album earned
them a Grammy for Best Mexican/
Mexican-American Album.
In 1999, after nearly two decades
of non-stop touring and recording, La
Mafia split, shocking fans, as they were
at the top of their game critically and
commercially. Initally stating “retire-
ment” as the reason, the truth proved to
be a split between the Gonzalez brothers,
who cited differences. In truth, vocalist
De La Rosa had become, for all intent
and purposes, the face and creative force
behind La Mafia. Leonardo sued for the
band’s name, but lost in court.
La Mafia began the new century
as a very different, more polished band,
with Contigo. The album was nominated
for a Grammy for Best Mexican-
American album. It peaked at five on
both the Mexican Regional and Top
Latin Albums charts. The group issued a
pair of albums in 2004, Para El Pueblo
(Latin Grammy nominee), and the
charting Inconfundible. Incessant touring
over the next two years rewarded La
Mafia with an extended break. They
returned in 2008 with the Latin Grammy
nominated Eternamente Romanticos,
their last studio recording for six years. It
only hit 67 on the Top Latin Albums
chart. Over the intervening years, La
Mafia’s various labels filled the gaps
with hits compilations and live albums.
After spending time with family and on
various solo recordings and production
projects, the band reconvened in late
2012 and began rehearsing and touring
again. They re-emerged with Amor y
Sexo in 2014, which landed inside the
Top Ten at Mexican Regional, Latin Pop,
and Top Latin Albums lists. The band’s
personnel still changed repeatedly and its
2010s incarnation included De La Rosa,
Lichtenberger, Jr., and De La Garza III.
Guitarist Marion Aquilina — a group
member from 2000-2006 — longtime
bassist Tim Ruiz, percussionist and bajo
sexto player Robbie Longoria, and
drummer Eduardo Torres. A years-long
worldwide tour was undertaken and
afterwards, another long break. In early
2018, De La Rosa announced the
imminent release of Vozes, a collection
of newly recorded duets. De La Rosa’s
singing partners on the 13-track album
included Sebastián Yatra, Ana Bárbara,
Ricky Muñoz, Andy Vargas, Pedro
Fernandez, Cristian Castro, and more.
Vozes was released in May on Fonovisia.
October 2023 • Music News 65
 The Biker, The
Blues and The
Blues Be Talkin’
To Me!
You would have to be living under a rock
not to know who Dr. John was, he’s gone now
but his music remains. The man could lay down
the blues and he did it for an entire lifetime. His
call to fame was both his gravely voice and his
masterful tempos on the piano. With Dr. John
you felt the blues more than just listened to them and that is exactly how it is supposed to be. The man was cool to the
max. Today there’s somewhere around one hundred blues
festivals in the U.S. alone and when it comes to Europe well the
Europeans know how to treat blues artists. The blues is universal
and to think that about seventy years ago leading into the sixties
it was known as race music. Forward thinking recording studios
and record labels such as Chess Records in Chicago let the genie
out of the bottle with my good friend Max Cooperstein booking
black acts on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. It was unheard
of but once that sound made the main stage on television Katy
bar the door music lovers wanted more. Years would go by and
people like Keith Richards and Mick Jagger would praise the
works of such blues artists as Muddy Waters and many others.
Their on stage presence was effected drastically and years later
they would perform with one of their idols John Lee Hooker. It’s
simply because the blues be talkin’ to me, talking to me, you and
literally millions around the world. Max shared with me that
Muddy was not
sure of going to
England to
perform, he
wasn’t sure the
nation would
accept him. Other Chess artists convinced him it was a good move
and finally he gave in. When the plane landed it pulled up to the steps
so the performers could exit the plane and there was this bright red
carpet waiting for them along with literally hundreds of fans. Muddy
was blown away and extremely happy that he could see their music
being appreciated by throngs of Brits. It continues, today the Lucerne
Blues Festival in Switzerland sells out the very next day after their
current event ends and that is without anyone knowing who the
performers will be the following year. The blues world has what is
known as The Blues Foundation which resides in Memphis. The blues
is so popular worldwide that they have over one hundred blues
societies around the world. Blues festivals now exceed over one
hundred shows annually both here in the states and abroad. Literally
hundreds of radio stations are either dedicated to the blues alone or
continued on next page

66 Music News • October 2023

 Page 2 - The Biker, The Blues and The
Blues Be Talkin’ To Me!
host blues show hosts once per week. One such station is KPFT which presents twelve hours of all styles of blues
every Sunday. People tune in digitally from around the world.
Just about every artist in every genre will tell you
that they started out with the blues. It touched them and
still does. It’s rather unique that young people may think
that the blues is something for their Mom and Dad until
they learn how many of their favorite artists and bands
are laying down the blues. ZZ Top as one example
presents a driving down home beat with lyrics that reflect
on life such as can be found in their famous song “La
Grange”. In his early days Jimi Hendrix traveled to
Chicago just to watch Buddy Guy lay it down and came
away totally blown away. Buddy’s creations include
“Damn Right I Got The Blues” and much of what you
hear is not only his original style but pieces of what he
picked up from the previous generations. No doubt that
Janis Joplin could present what was in her heart as she
performed on stage after stage. Yet for young music
lovers, even though they love these artists most do not
know they are enjoying the blues. The bottom line is that
the blues be talkin’ to me and to you and it hasn’t
stopped. Today aspiring talents such as blues rocker Clay
Melton, Ally Venable, Anika Chambers and many more
are welcomed with open arms by the stars of today
including Janiva Magness, Diunna Greenleaf, Kenny
Wayne Shephard, Trudy Lynn and a host of addi-
tional high demand artists. Why is this happening is the question? Because the blues is in their heart, in their soul. As I
travel around the United States on two wheels I meet the coolest, hippest people on God’s green earth in blues clubs
from city to city. The blues scene can be a bit sultry as it attracts all kinds including all sorts of down to earth souls
and the good news is all are welcome. The famous song
“The Ballad of Curtis Lowe” is a prime example of a
young white person finding the blues in an older black
gentleman who would play the blues everyday for spare
change. The young man was intrigued with this man’s
music so much so that he would go and collect pop
bottles, turn them in just to give Curtis some money to
play the blues for him. You feel the blues and you can
feel it at any age. The blues isn’t just blues rock or
slow blues or any one kind of style, it’s just the blues.
Europe’s Maria Daines sings a song titled “Low Down
Dirty Love” and she delivers it brilliantly. Her
presentation is believable, it’s like she’s been there
done that although maybe she hasn’t but she can relate.
If you have ever fallen in love with the wrong person
you know it’s a low down dirty love but you just can’t
give it up. Some blues numbers are delivered rather
tongue in cheek. Take for example Lonnie Mack’s song about being addicted to Oreo cookies. Too funny and yet
rather believable because whether it’s Oreo cookies or Harley Davidson motorcycles or something else that fascinates
continued on next page

October 2023 • Music News 67

 Page 2 - The Biker, The Blues and The
Blues Be Talkin’ To Me!
you it is indeed a humorous addiction. One that can’t hurt but is there. Blues is true American roots music.
Janis sang a song that included the verse “nothing left to lose and nothing ain’t nothing unless it’s free”. A song
about being with someone you love and yet being free. Me, I hang with my scooter and together we meet all sorts. My
lifestyle doesn’t have to be this way but it’s that low down dirty love of being free, of being a free soul that allows
me to experience people
and regional cultures.
The Allman Brothers
coined it right in the
song “Midnight Rider”
with the lyrics “some
ole bed I’ll soon be
sharing”. This lifestyle
can be lonely especially
when you see couples
and families with pets
and kids. A person
cannot have those
things for very long on
the road. Yet I meet
ladies that have it
together who are alone
too and we bond
sometimes for a night,
sometimes for a week but we both know that one day when the sun rises one of us will say adios. I run into an exotic
dancer that moves around too. I see her every once in a while in different cities. I’ve never asked her why nor has she
asked me why but we have a soft spot for each other in the most bizarre way I suppose. Just as I can listen to slow
blues and get lost in the music the same goes for a woman who is classy enough to present an alluring stage presence.
Sometimes a blues rocker performs and
lights up the night and his or her perfor-
mance is top shelf, that sets me free as well.
I would imagine there are things that set
you free or perhaps you have put yourself
second due to traditional upbringing and
values. Listen to me; once in a while you
got to let the badger loose because you are
only going around once. Right now, today,
set yourself free - at least a little bit. Pour a
cold one, go to You Tube and choose a slow
blues album, and sit back for awhile. If you
can’t get away then arm chair it. Let your
mind relax, dream, be unaware of the rigors
of daily life even if it’s just for a short
while. You will come away smiling, maybe
even refreshed. The blues baby can do that
for you, go on, you know you want to and who knows maybe one day you will set yourself free for a weekend and
take in a blues festival. Hundreds of others that you don’t know. That could be cool. A lawn chair maybe with some-
one you love, a cooler and a good attitude. It can do wonders for the mind. So many interesting people in the world
many of them just like you and me. If you do get away and you see a red chopper with a long rake on the front end
ask the owner if he writes a column about the blues and getting away. See you down the road…
48
68 Music News • October
February2023
2023
OCTUBRE 2023

En Español

Lucero Y Mijares

Iván
La Mafia Cornejo
Octubre 2023 • Music News 69
 Lucero Y Mijares Llevan Su Gira “Hasta
Que Nos Hizo” USA 2023 A Smart
Financial Center El 13 De Octubre
Asista a una actuación apasionante
con las entradas para Lucero Y Mijares.
El escaparate dinámico presenta a dos
artistas populares en el mundo de la
música latina. Ambos artistas tienen
múltiples talentos y han trabajado como
actores y cantantes. Desde 1987, han
causado sensación en la industria y entre
bastidores. Los dos artistas se casaron en
la década de 1980 y comenzaron sus
propias carreras. Estos días, incluso
después de una separación pública, están
uniendo fuerzas en el escenario una vez
más y regalando a los fans una
celebración sensacional de música y
recuerdos. No todos los días tienes la
oportunidad de verlos actuar en un
escenario. En este concierto, los fans
pueden experimentar el poder de su
talento excepcional. Lucero ha vendido
millones de álbumes y ha trabajado en
una variedad de telenovelas en español
70 Music News • Octubre 2023
conocidas como telenovelas. Ha
encabezado las listas de música latina y
ha ganado numerosos premios.
Asimismo, Manuel Mijares, conocido
profesionalmente como Mijares, ha
tenido una carrera celebrada por derecho
propio. Presenta una emocionante
mezcla de pop latino, mariachi y más.
Lucero es una de las artistas más
emblemáticas de México. Cantante y
compositora de éxito en ventas, es
reconocida mundialmente por sus
grabaciones de rancheras, mariachis y
canciones pop. Además, es una
galardonada actriz de cine y teatro, así
como una popular presentadora de
televisión. La carrera profesional de
Lucero comenzó a los 11 años
presentándose en un programa de
variedades infantil mexicano. Comenzó a
actuar en telenovelas en 1982 y lanzó su
álbum debut, Te Prometo, como Lucerito
el mismo año. Su primer álbum en las
listas fue Con Mi Sentimiento de 1990.
Lucero de México, de 1991, llegó al Top
40 en los EE. UU. Prácticamente todos
los lanzamientos de estudio de esa
década llegaron a las listas, incluido el
multiplatino Cerca de Ti de 1998.
Cuando Sale un Lucero de 2004 y
Quiéreme Tal Como Soy de 2006 fueron
éxitos internacionales. Indispensable de
2010 presentó “Dueña de Tu Amor”, el
exitoso tema de Soy Tu Dueña para su
telenovela. Brasileira de 2017 ofreció
bossas y sambas en portugués. También
en 2017, lanzó la primera parte de su
trilogía sinaloense, Enamorada con
Banda, seguida de Más Enamorada con
Banda de 2018 y Sólo Me Faltabas Tú de
2019. La retrospectiva en caja 20y20
Continúa en la página siguiente
 Lucero Y
Mijares
Continuación de
a página anterior
siguió un año después.
Lucero nació Lucero Hogaza León
en la Ciudad de México. Desde que pudo
caminar y hablar, cantó y bailó. Su
madre Lucero León, también ex
intérprete, la formó y ha dirigido su
carrera, que Lucero inició a los 11 años,
actuando con su guitarra en el programa
de variedades Alegrías de Mediodía en
1980. Dos años después, interpretó el
papel principal de la telenovela. Chispita
y ganó un premio de la industria como
mejor actriz revelación. Cuando era
adolescente, apareció en la película
Coqueta, en la que también participó
Pedro Fernández, y se ganó el apodo de
“Reina de las Telenovelas”, actuando en
nada menos que nueve, incluidas Cuando
Llega el Amor, Los Parientes Pobres y
Lazos de Amor.
Si bien su carrera como actriz la
convirtió en una figura cultural querida a
nivel nacional, la carrera musical de
Lucero, que comenzó con su debut en
1982, Te Prometo, se desarrolló al
mismo tiempo y podría decirse que fue
más exitosa. Durante los años 80,
apareció en nada menos que siete
películas y lanzó seis álbumes, así como
una docena de EP y sencillos como
Lucerito. Abarcaron todo el espectro
musical, desde pop sintetizado hasta
rancheras tradicionales, mariachis y
románticos. Con Con Mi Sentimiento de
1990, adoptó el nombre de “Lucero”.
Lucero, de 1993, vendió más de
800.000 copias sólo en México e
incursionó en la radio del suroeste de
Estados Unidos. Siempre Contigo, de
1995, alcanzó el puesto 15 en las listas
de mejores álbumes latinos en los EE.
UU. y realizó giras por México y
Sudamérica. En 1999 lanzó Un Lucero
en la México, su primer trabajo en vivo.
Incluía un disco de canciones pop y uno
de canciones regionales mexicanas;
obtuvo la certificación de oro desde el
primer momento y vendió millones de
copias en todo el mundo. Cuando Sale
un Lucero de 2004, su debut para EMI,
fue certificado oro y posteriormente
platino. El mismo año apareció como
Esperanza en la película biográfica del
director Alfonso Arau Zapata: El Sueño
de un Héroe, en ese momento la película
mexicana más cara jamás producida; su
estreno también fue la mayor
recaudación en la historia de México.
Quiéreme Tal Como Soy de 2006
contenía versiones reelaboradas de
algunos de sus grandes éxitos (escritos
por Rafael Pérez Botija) y versiones de
Rocío Dúrcal y José José.
Indispensable de 2010, su primer
estudio ambientado en cuatro años, fue
una de sus salidas más ambiciosas y
exitosas. Lanzado durante el mismo año
en el que actuó en la popular telenovela
Soy Tu Dueña, su primer sencillo,
“Dueña de Tu Amor”, fue el tema de
cierre del programa e impulsó a Lucero a
los peldaños superiores de las listas
mexicanas, y se ubicó en ambas listas.
Estados Unidos y Europa. Mientras que
Mi Secreto de Amor de 2011 alcanzó el
Top 40, Un Lu Jo de 2011 (un álbum a
dúo con Joan Sebastian) encabezó la lista
de álbumes regionales mexicanos en los
EE. UU.; también alcanzó el puesto
número tres en la lista nacional de
México. Una colección de baladas
románticas, Aquí Estoy, apareció en las
listas de streaming en 2014.
Lucero lanzó Enamorada con
Banda en 2017, un conjunto de éxitos
populares grabados al estilo banda, con
gran éxito. Encabezó las listas nacionales
y se ubicó dentro del Top 40 en la lista
de álbumes latinos de Estados Unidos.
Para honrar a sus fans en Brasil y
Portugal, también lanzó Brasileira en
Fonovisia ese año; una colección de
canciones propias y versiones de bossas
y sambas cantadas íntegramente en
portugués. Más Enamorada con Banda
de 2018 llegó a las listas y se vendió con
el mismo éxito que su predecesor
temático. En 2019, ella y el productor
Luciano Luna se unieron para una
tercera colección de banda, Sólo Me
Faltabas Tú, que resultó no menos
exitosa comercialmente.
En 2020, Lucero realizó una
conferencia de prensa virtual anunciando
el lanzamiento de la retrospectiva en caja
20y20, un conjunto de cuatro discos que
cubrió sus 40 años en la música hasta la
fecha. Explicó: “Los dos primeros discos
cubren la transición de niña a mujer
joven y el segundo, los últimos 20 años
como artista experimentada, madre y
mujer madura”. En 2021, Lucero se
reunió en el escenario con su exmarido
Manuel Mijares para el concierto vía
streaming Siempre Amigos. En 2022
lanzó nada menos que nueve sencillos,
incluidas cuatro versiones muy
diferentes de su éxito pop “Los Ricos
Tambien Lloran”.
Manuel Mijares es un cantante de
pop contemporáneo adulto de México
que actúa bajo su apellido. Poseedor de
un barítono teatral y resonante, es uno de
los intérpretes más destacados de
América Latina. Después de colocar tres
sencillos en el Top Five de su debut en
EMI, Soñador, en 1986, subió a las listas
de álbumes y sencillos latinos con diez
certificaciones de oro, siete de platino y
cinco de diamante y ha ganado
innumerables premios. Mijares ha
vendido más de 20 millones de discos.
Sus grabaciones más importantes: Un
Hombre Discreto de 1989, el tributo a
José José Honor a Quien Honor Merece
de 2005, Canto por Ti de 2013 y No Se
Me Acaba el Alma del año siguiente, le
han granjeado el cariño de fans de todo
el mundo. Además, sus canciones han
aparecido como temas y pistas en una
amplia variedad de programas de
televisión y películas, incluidos Oliver y
Su Pandilla, La Bella y la Bestia y El
camino a El Dorado. En 2016 lanzó la
retrospectiva en vivo Sinfónico Desde el
Palacio de Bellas Artes con su banda de
gira, dos orquestas sinfónicas y un coro.
En 2018 grabó Rompecabezas y su
homólogo de 2019, Rompecabezas II,
íntegramente en Los Ángeles. Incluían
no sólo canciones nuevas sino también
covers y duetos de estrellas. Después de
Continúa en la página siguiente
Octubre 2023 • Music News 71

Lucero Y Mijares
Continuación de a página anterior
embarcarse en un par de giras con
entradas agotadas en Estados Unidos y
México, lanzó su primera colección
navideña, Feliz Navidad, en 2020.
El cantante Manuel Mijares nació
como José Manuel Mijares-Morán en
1958 en la Ciudad de México. Cita a su
madre, profesora de danza, como su
primera gran influencia musical. Ella lo
animó a participar en el coro de su
escuela primaria, donde sus maestros
notaron sus distintivas cualidades
vocales y le ofrecieron más aliento.
Después de cantar en grupos con amigos
durante la escuela secundaria, Mijares se
tomó en serio la música. Hizo su debut
profesional en 1981 en un festival local
llamado Valores Juveniles. Emigró a
Japón a los 24 años para aceptar un
trabajo como cantante en un club
nocturno, y mientras estuvo allí grabó
jingles para radio y televisión. Después
de regresar a México en 1983, Mijares
ganó un lugar en el coro de
acompañamiento de la estrella del pop
latino Emmanuel. Dos años más tarde
firmó un contrato solista con EMI y
lanzó su álbum debut, Soñador, en 1986.
Representó a México en el Festival anual
OTI y ganó el premio “Revelación del
Año”. El sello reeditó el álbum y
posteriormente obtuvo tres sencillos Top
Five. Mijares llegó por primera vez a las
listas de éxitos internacionales con el
sencillo de 1987 “No Se Murió el
Amor”, el tema que abre Amor y Rock
‘N’ Roll. Realizó giras incesantes por
México e incursionó en la radio
estadounidense de la costa oeste. Debutó
como actor en la película Escápate
72
70 Music
MusicNews
News• •Octubre
Septiembre
20232023
Conmigo de 1988, donde conoció a su
futura esposa, la cantante pop Lucero.
Basado en el éxito de la película, Mijares
publicó Uno Entre Mil, con triple
certificación de oro, ese año y lo siguió
en 1989 con Un Hombre Discreto, que
obtuvo la certificación de oro siete veces
y alcanzó el puesto número cuatro en la
lista de los mejores álbumes latinos.
Mijares residiría en los peldaños
superiores de las listas de sencillos y
álbumes a principios de los años 90.
Después del número cinco Encadenado
de 1993, lanzó Vive en Me, una salida en
vivo grabada en la ciudad de Nueva
York. Contó con contribuciones de Pablo
Milanés, Lolita de la Colina y Gerardo
Flores. Si bien el álbum no alcanzó los
escalones superiores de las listas, logró
dos sencillos Top Ten en el corte
principal y “Je L’aime a Mourir” de
Francis Cabrel; fue adaptado como “La
Quiero a Morir” por Luis Gómez-
Escolar.
En 1996, Mijares publicó Querido
Amigo, un homenaje al cantante y actor
mexicano Pedro Infante. El productor
José Luis Espinosa dobló la nueva voz
de Mijares en cintas limpias del canto de
Infante, con nuevos arreglos orquestales
y corales.
En enero de 1997 Mijares y Lucero
se casaron. El Privilegio de Amar, su
álbum debut para Universal, fue un éxito
en las listas; su tema principal, con
Lucero como coros, se convirtió en el
tema principal de una telenovela, alcanzó
el Top Ten en tres listas de Estados
Unidos y se registró en el número uno en
11 países de América Latina. Su
continuación, “Estrella Mía”, no llegó a
las listas de Estados Unidos, pero
alcanzó el número dos en México y el
Top Ten en una docena de otros países.
En 2000, Dreamworks lo invitó a cantar
tres canciones de Elton John para la
partitura de The Road to El Dorado.
También publicó la colección de baladas
Historias de un Amor, seguida de la
oferta en vivo de 2002 En Vivo.
Mijares se había convertido en una
persona influyente en la música popular.
Vendió suficientes discos y entradas para
conciertos como para poder opinar sobre
lo que grababa y cómo, una rareza en los
círculos pop de entonces y ahora. Con
ese fin, firmó un contrato breve con
Sony para grabar y lanzar Honor a Quien
Honor Merece en 2005, un sentido
homenaje a la influencia de José José.
Marcó la primera certificación platino de
Mijares. Un año después publicó
Acompañame, un álbum a dúo con Yuri,
y en 2007, Swing en Tu Idioma, que
presentó algunas de sus canciones
favoritas en ambientes de big band.
Hablemos de Amor de 2008 fue una
rareza para Mijares: única para EMI, su
tema principal fue compuesto para una
telenovela del mismo título y utilizado
como tema principal. El resto de las
grabaciones quedaron languideciendo.
En 2009, Mijares regresó a Warner
para el álbum de covers Vivir Así;
alcanzó el estatus de platino y provocó
una secuela en 2010 que obtuvo la
certificación de diamante. Después de
más de una década de matrimonio,
Mijares y Lucero se divorciaron en 2011.
El cantante realizó giras transatlánticas
en los dos años siguientes y en 2013
lanzó el éxito certificado platino Canto
por Ti. Su sencillo “Hoy” contó con la
aparición a dúo del ganador peruano del
Grammy Latino Glan Marco. El álbum
permaneció cinco semanas en el primer
puesto de las listas de éxitos pop
mexicanos y se registró en el Top Ten en
una docena de otros países. No Se Me
Acaba el Alma del año siguiente también
encabezó la lista en casa, obteniendo la
certificación diamante. En septiembre de
2016, Mijares realizó un concierto
retrospectivo de 30 años de su carrera en
el Palacio de Bellas Artes de la Ciudad
de México con dos orquestas sinfónicas,
un coro y su banda de gira. El programa
fue filmado para un especial de
televisión y lanzado como paquete de
audio y video al año siguiente como el
Sinfónico Desde el Palacio de Bellas
Artes que encabezó las listas de éxitos.
Fue certificado oro en el momento de su
lanzamiento y luego alcanzó el estado de
platino.
Octubre 2023 • Music News 71
 La Mafia trae su gira Celebrando La
Vida al Arena Theatre el 21 de octubre
La banda tejana La Mafia, de
Houston, Texas, ganadora de un Grammy
y que encabeza las listas de éxitos, se
encuentra entre las bandas más
duraderas, exitosas y versátiles que han
surgido de la escena musical de la
ciudad. Como lo expresó Texas Monthly
a finales de los años 90: “Son para la
música latina lo que Willie Nelson y ZZ
Top son para el country y el rock”.
Durante más de 40 años, La Mafia ha
cambiado de miembros con una
regularidad casi alarmante, pero con cada
cambio han evolucionado, uniendo sus
raíces tejanas con la cumbia, el soul
latino, los ritmos tropicales, el funk
electrónico, el R&B y el rock de estadio,
sin dejar de permanecer cerca del polkas,
corridos, románticas y boleros antiguos
de su juventud. Son una rareza entre las
bandas latinas: en lugar de intentar tener
éxito primero en El Norte, comenzaron
en Texas y se dirigieron al sur y al este
antes de regresar a su Estados Unidos
natal.
74 Music News • Octubre 2023
En las décadas de 2000 y 2010, La
Mafia se convirtió en sinónimo de
baladas power pop, plagadas de guitarras
eléctricas, sintetizadores, samples y
coros con inflexión de doo wop y soul.
Han colocado la mayoría de sus docenas
de álbumes e innumerables sencillos y
compilaciones en no menos de una
docena de listas diferentes, desde
canciones tropicales hasta álbumes de
pop latino y regional mexicano. En 1991,
11 años después de que casi por sí solos
crearan un resurgimiento del sonido
norteño, llenaron el Astrodome de
Houston para el Houston Livestock
Show and Rodeo anual con una multitud
de 55.000 personas; sólo Selena
superaría esa cifra durante esa década.
Ese mismo año publicaron Estas
Tocando Fuego, su álbum número 16 y el
primero en registrar platino. (Lo
volvieron a hacer en 1992 con Ahora y
Siempre). Desde entonces, han seguido
actuando y grabando, salvo una muy
breve y amarga pausa a finales de los
años 90. En el año 2000 fueron
nombrados uno de los diez mejores
artistas latinos de Billboard de toda la
década anterior. Se tomaron un descanso
más prolongado de la grabación, entre
2008 y 2014. En 2014, colocaron un
álbum en el Top Ten tanto en el Regional
Mexicano como en el Top Latin Albums
con Amor y Sexo. Continúan de gira en
ambos lados de la frontera, presentando
espectáculos desde el certamen Señorita
México televisado a nivel nacional en
estadios de fútbol de Centro y
Sudamérica. Han sido galardonados con
ocho Premios Lo Nuestro y una docena
de Premios de la Música Tejana (incluido
uno por su trayectoria), además de un par
de premios Grammy por los álbumes Un
Millón de Rosas (1996) y En Tus Manos
(1997), y Latin Grammys por Para El
Pueblo (2004) y Nuevamente (2006), y
una nominación de este último por
Eternamente Románticos de 2008.
Continúa en la página siguiente
 La Mafia
Continuación de
a página anterior

El grupo fue fundado por los

hermanos Oscar (un vocalista ahora
llamado Oscar De La Rosa) y Leonard
González, del extremo norte de Houston,
y el teclista Armando Lichtenberger, Jr.
(quien también toca el acordeón).
Comenzaron a tocar música juntos
cuando tenían diez años, en bodas,
quinceañeras y fiestas en el jardín como
la mayoría de las bandas. Publicaron su
debut homónimo para el sello
independiente Discos Diana de Baytown,
Texas en 1980. Siguieron dos álbumes
más en el sello durante el año siguiente
antes de que La Mafia cambiara de
lealtad y firmara con el sello Cara de San
Antonio, donde permanecieron hasta
1986. En Cara publicaron álbumes que
difundirían su sonido por todo Texas y el
norte de México: Honey (Cariño),
Electrifying, Mafia Mania, Hot Stuff y
Neon Mania. En 1986 dejaron el sello y
firmaron con CBS Discos (ahora Sony).
Incluso durante estos primeros días, La
Mafia estaba lanzando álbumes y
sencillos que informarían su sonido
posterior y se convertirían en tesoros
entre los fanáticos, especialmente
Explosivo de 1986 y 1988. Si bien las
habilidades del grupo en español no eran
muy buenas (su primer idioma es el
inglés), la música que tocaban, ya fueran
los viejos estándares aprendidos de sus
padres o canciones de los Beatles, se
registró en el público debido al dinámico
espectáculo de la banda. David De La
Garza III se unió a La Mafia en 1989
como segundo vocalista y teclista. Su
presencia en el equipo ayudó muchísimo,
tanto en el escenario como en el estudio.
Estas Tocando Fuego, de 1991, vendió
inicialmente medio millón de copias en
Estados Unidos, pero finalmente vendió
más de cuatro millones. Vida, de 1992,
pasó 47 semanas en las listas de los
mejores álbumes latinos y alcanzó el
puesto número dos. Ahora y Siempre, de
1993, obtuvo triple platino y alcanzó el
primer puesto en la lista de álbumes
regionales mexicanos. La banda se
convirtió en un elemento básico de la
radio y colocó los sencillos en las listas
con tanta frecuencia como los álbumes.
Un Millón de Rosas de 1996 alcanzó el
puesto número uno en la lista de
Álbumes Regionales Mexicanos y su
sencillo también alcanzó el Top Ten en la
lista de Mejores Canciones Latinas. El
álbum les valió un Grammy al Mejor
Álbum Mexicano/Mexicoamericano.
En 1999, después de casi dos
décadas de giras y grabaciones
ininterrumpidas, La Mafia se separó,
sorprendiendo a los fanáticos, ya que
estaban en la cima de su juego crítica y
comercialmente. Inicialmente indicando
“jubilación” como la razón, la verdad
resultó ser una división entre los
hermanos González, quienes citaron
diferencias. En verdad, el vocalista De
La Rosa se había convertido, para todos
los efectos, en el rostro y la fuerza
creativa detrás de La Mafia. Leonardo
demandó por el nombre de la banda,
pero perdió en los tribunales.
La Mafia began the new century as
a very different, more polished band,
with Contigo. The album was nominated
for a Grammy for Best Mexican-
American album. It peaked at five on
both the Mexican Regional and Top
Latin Albums charts. The group issued a
pair of albums in 2004, Para El Pueblo
(Latin Grammy nominee), and the
charting Inconfundible. Incessant touring
over the next two years rewarded La
Mafia with an extended break. They
returned in 2008 with the Latin Grammy
nominated Eternamente Romanticos,
their last studio recording for six years. It
only hit 67 on the Top Latin Albums
chart. Over the intervening years, La
Mafia’s various labels filled the gaps
with hits compilations and live albums.
After spending time with family and on
various solo recordings and production
projects, the band reconvened in late
2012 and began rehearsing and touring
again. They re-emerged with Amor y
Sexo in 2014, which landed inside the
Top Ten at Mexican Regional, Latin Pop,
and Top Latin Albums lists. The band’s
personnel still changed repeatedly and its
2010s incarnation included De La Rosa,
Lichtenberger, Jr., and De La Garza III.
Guitarist Marion Aquilina — a group
member from 2000-2006 — longtime
bassist Tim Ruiz, percussionist and bajo
sexto player Robbie Longoria, and
drummer Eduardo Torres. A years-long
worldwide tour was undertaken and
afterwards, another long break. In early
2018, De La Rosa announced the
imminent release of Vozes, a collection
of newly recorded duets. De La Rosa’s
singing partners on the 13-track album
included Sebastián Yatra, Ana Bárbara,
Ricky Muñoz, Andy Vargas, Pedro
Fernandez, Cristian Castro, and more.
Vozes was released in May on Fonovisia.
Octubre 2023 • Music News 75

Iván Cornejo se presenta
en el 713 Music Hall los
días 21 y 22 de octubre
Iván Cornejo es un cantante y
compositor de Música Regional
Mexicana de Riverside, California.
Alma Vacía, su álbum debut de 2021,
fue lanzado por Apple Records en
agosto, apenas dos meses después de
cumplir 17 años. Alcanzó el puesto
número dos en la lista de Álbumes
Regionales Mexicanos, mientras que
sus sencillos, “Noche de Relajo” y
“Corazón Frío”, también se
registraron dentro del Top 20. Una
64
76 Music News • Agosto
Octubre 2023
2023
semana antes de cumplir 18 años,
publicó el larga duración Dañado.
También encabezó las listas de
géneros durante su primera semana
de lanzamiento.
Cornejo, un guitarrista experto
que aprendió a tocar por sí solo a los
siete años, comenzó a tocar con
amigos mayores a los 14. Ellos
elogiaron su perspicacia para tocar y
cantar y lo alentaron a desarrollar
aún más sus habilidades. Él hizo. A
los 15 años comenzó a publicar
vídeos de requintos (instrumentales
de guitarra) en TikTok, versionando
canciones de sus artistas favoritos.
Registraron millones de visitas y
llamaron la atención de Andrés
García, presidente y jefe de A&R de
Manzana Records de Houston, quien
lo animó a cantar y luego lo contrató
después de descubrir que también era
un excelente compositor.
“Noche de Relajo” apareció a
finales de 2020 y se registró en las
listas de streaming. “Llamas
Perdidas” siguió en junio de 2021,
poco después de cumplir 17 años.
Mientras tanto, sus vídeos de
actuaciones empezaron a llamar la
atención en YouTube, obteniendo
millones de visitas. A finales de julio,
Cornejo publicó el sencillo y video
de “Corazón Frío” y en octubre lanzó
el disco de ocho canciones Alma
Vacía; se disparó al número dos en
las listas regionales mexicanas de la
industria musical. Lo siguió con el
sencillo Top Ten “El Greñas
Mentado”.
En febrero de 2022, Cornejo
publicó el sencillo “Perro
Abandonado”, un corrido de desamor
insufrible. Dos semanas después,
lanzó “Triste”, a dúo con Polo
González. En junio, una semana
antes de cumplir 18 años, Cornejo
lanzó el romántico Dañado, centrado
en baladas, otro álbum de siete
pistas. Se elevó al Top de la lista de
Álbumes Regionales Mexicanos, así
como al streaming, debutó en el
número cuatro en Top Latin Albums
y alcanzó el Top 200 en el número
149 (inusualmente alto para un
álbum Regional Mexicano). El set
también se convirtió en el primer
éxito en las listas de Apple Records,
impulsando el perfil del sello en toda
la industria. Cornejo inició el 2023
con el sentido sencillo “Aquí Te
Espero”.
 Check us out at
http://www.rockandbluesinternational.com
Also available on
Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podcast Index,
Amazon Music, Podcast Addict, Podchaser,
Pocket Casts, Deezer, Listen Notes & More!
Octobre 2023 • Music News 77
 RANDOM SHOTS

The HipWaders Flying

Circus with special guest
Bert Wills Perform At
Katie’s Bar
in Bacliff
Photos by
Kevin D. Wildman

78 Music News • October 2023

March 2022 • Music News 61
 RANDOM SHOTS

6th Sense Perform At The

Concert Pub North
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

80 Music News • October 2023

April 2022 • Music News 69
 RANDOM SHOTS

The Cooper Mohrmann

Band Perform At Shady
Acres Saloon
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

82 Music News • October 2023

June 2023 • Music News 71
 RANDOM SHOTS

Hammerlock Perform At Katie’s Bar In Bacliff

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman
84 Music News • October 2023
July 2021 • Music News 65
 RANDOM SHOTS

Jidora Perform Åt The

Acadia Bar & Grill
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

86 Music News • October 2023

April 2023 • Music News 67
 RANDOM SHOTS

Killing Daylight
Perform At The 19th Hole
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

88 Music News • October 2023

 Check us out at
http://www.rockandbluesinternational.com
Also available on
Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podcast Index,
Amazon Music, Podcast Addict, Podchaser,
Pocket Casts, Deezer, Listen Notes & More!
October 2022 • Music News 89
 RANDOM SHOTS

Mark May Performs At The Big Easy

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman
90 Music News • October 2023
 RANDOM SHOTS

Sparky Parker Performs At Dan Electro’s

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman
91 Music News • October 2023
RANDOM SHOTS

Murali Coryell
Performs At
Green Oaks Tavern
In Humble
Photos By Kevin D.
Wildman

October
April 2023 • Music News 73
MusicNews 92
 RANDOM SHOTS

Throat Locust Perform At

The Concert Pub North
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

94 Music News • October 2023

RANDOM SHOTS

Witness To The Fallen

Perform At The
Acadia Bar & Grill
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

October 2023 • Music News 95

 RANDOM SHOTS

Bardo Perform At The 19th Hole

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman
96 Music News • October 2023
RANDOM SHOTS

The Octanes Perform At The Big Easy

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman
October 2023 • Music News 97
 RANDOM SHOTS

Felix The Cats Perform At Katie’s Bar In Bacliff

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman
98 Music News • October 2023
RANDOM SHOTS

Mud Creek Revival

Perform At
Shady Acres Saloon
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

October 2023 • Music News 99

 RANDOM SHOTS

Henry Lee and Michele Brown Perform At Leon’s Lounge

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman
100 Music News • October 2023
RANDOM SHOTS

Judas X Perform At The

Acadia Bar & Grill
Photos By
Kevin D. Wildman

October 2023 • Music News 101