Texas Towns & Tex-Mex Sounds

Conjunto is the music of working class Mexican Americans across the south-west. Los Texmaniacs are four Texan veterans who have come together to deliver a classic conjunto sound, using bajo sexto (12-string guitar), accordion, guitarron (the large Mexican acoustic bass), drums and fiddle. There are hard driving polkas (or polca, as they spell it) like ‘Viva Seguín’, gorgeous boleros (‘Se Quieres Verme Ilorar’) and American country standards (‘El Paso,’ ‘Waltz Across Texas’) sung in Spanish and English. There is a lovely reading of the late-Lydia Mendoza ballad ‘Amor Bonito’ and even a redova (a song of Czech origin that has remained popular in northern Mexican music), ‘El Aeroplanito’. Several tunes are instrumental which show off Los Texmaniacs fluid musical interplay. Well recorded, with excellent liner notes introducing the band, songs and musical tradition, this is a fine album.