Living On The Mexican Border

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 6 Sep 2009 3:04 pm

I've got chicken on the smoker, being slowly cooked to juicy perfection by a bed of hot oak charcoal. The oak came from my big oak trees that were trimmed two years ago.

Across the alley, my neighbors have their grill going in their back yard. These are poor people of very modest means. They speak very little English and I speak very little Spanish, but we get along just fine.

They always invite musicians to their backyard parties. Right now, I hear both bass lines and chords being played on a Mexican 12-string guitar, called a bajo sexto. The player is backing up a very good accordion player, who is playing a 2-row or 3-row diatonic button accordion. Lots of singing with 3-part harmonies. They've been playing mostly polkas and waltzes, but they were playing a huapango the last time I was out there.

Beautiful music...

And the neighborhood smells good, too!

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 6 Sep 2009 3:39 pm

Here are some examples of the style of music I'm talking about:

Click Here

And Here

And Also Here

Here is a huapango:

Click Here

Lee, from South Texas

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 6 Sep 2009 6:32 pm

Got some neighbors like that tho they use CD's and such. And we're nowhere near the Mexician border.

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 6 Sep 2009 8:04 pm

Absolutely beautiful Mexican soul music. Yes. Thats real. Lee, I wish I was there.

Jeff Evans · Post by **Jeff Evans** » 7 Sep 2009 7:55 am

I've got chicken on the smoker, being slowly cooked to juicy perfection by a bed of hot oak charcoal. The oak came from my big oak trees that were trimmed two years ago.

Across the alley, my neighbors have their grill going in their back yard. These are poor people of very modest means. They speak very little English and I speak very little Spanish, but we get along just fine.

They always invite musicians to their backyard parties. Right now, I hear both bass lines and chords being played on a Mexican 12-string guitar, called a bajo sexto. The player is backing up a very good accordion player, who is playing a 2-row or 3-row diatonic button accordion. Lots of singing with 3-part harmonies. They've been playing mostly polkas and waltzes, but they were playing a huapango the last time I was out there.

Beautiful music...

And the neighborhood smells good, too!

It's nice that you're living right and appreciating the culture . . . as opposed to calling in a noise complaint to la policía.

The bajo sexto is the instrument which most catches my ear in ranchera/polka style songs. It seems to often have a kind of reedy fullness to the midrange which is pleasing. What I'm trying to describe can be heard here on the song, "Besame." (Please click Preview beside that title.)

Groovy style, isn't it? Hardly seems much of a stretch for shuffle (notice the emphasis of the upbeat) and Western swing fans to find this appealing.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 7 Sep 2009 8:05 am

Jeff - No complaints from us! These folks are always mindful of the hour. They never play past 10 pm. It's usually soft enough that we can't hear it in the house.

For about 2 years I played steel and guitar in a 4-piece band. I was the only "gringo" in the band and I was always the only "gringo" at the venues we played. We had a bass player and a drummer. Tony, the band leader, played guitar on all the country music and I played pedal steel. Tony also played the button accordion, so when we would switch over to Ranchero/Tejano/Norteno style music, Tony would play accordion and I would play guitar, trying to emulate the harmonized bass runs that are played on the bajo sexto. That was a fun gig!

Lee

Larry Jamieson · Post by **Larry Jamieson** » 8 Sep 2009 6:08 pm

When I was in college in Oklahoma, our music groups (chorus and stage band) took a tour of Mexico. We stayed in a hostel that was leased by Oklahoma University, in Colima. One night, a Mariachi band came and played for us. If I remember the instrumentation correctly, there were two trumpets, two violins, guitar, one of the BIG Mexican acoustic bass guitars, and maybe one or two others. They did some very nice and interesting music. I remember one tune where one trumpet player went off in the distance, and echoed what the remaining trumpeter played. It was a great concert, traditional Mariachi music and costumes.
Larry J.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 8 Sep 2009 6:34 pm

Larry - That big bass guitar you remember is called a guitarrón:

Click Here

Those beasts are amazingly loud and can be heard quite well, even with the trumpets and violins and vocals.

Lee

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 8 Sep 2009 6:56 pm

I own a guitarron (hey that rhymes!) though I dare not say that I can actually "play" it, at least not with the traditional tuning on it. I must say, the shape is awkward for me to hold, as the big back is peaked in the back and sticks into your stomach. To get that out of your belly, you really need to point the soundhole up toward the sky. I guess I'd better watch some Mariachi YouTubes to see how it's really supposed to be done. But it's fun to have one. I bought it a few years ago on eBay after an inspiring trip to Mexico.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 9 Sep 2009 4:20 am

We had brunch at a fancy hotel in Austin one Sunday. They had a trio that was wandering around the dining room, playing great old jazz standards. One guy was playing a traditional accordion, another played a violin, and the third was playing a guitarrón. They blended quite well.

Lee

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 9 Sep 2009 4:59 am

I believe the first time I heard that style of music was in 1947 or 48 in Reynosa, Mx across the border from McAllen in a restaurant and the food was fantastic.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 12 Sep 2009 7:51 pm

One difference of living on the border, Bro. Lee, is that you have a chicken on the grill for dinner, and your neighbors might have a chicken hanging in the window to keep away una chupacabra!

But hey, I love it down there in el sur de Tejas!

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 12 Sep 2009 8:56 pm

Herb - A chupacabra almost made it in to Austin. Next time, you might not be so lucky:

Click Here

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 16 Oct 2009 4:49 pm

Well, the guys are tuning up across the alley.

I wonder if I should grab my reso and join them......

Don Drummer · Post by **Don Drummer** » 19 Oct 2009 10:11 am

Lee, Por que no?

Don D.

Lee Holeman · Post by **Lee Holeman** » 19 Oct 2009 12:06 pm

Hey Lee,
I'll be working Fridays @ "Pepe's On The River" with the Good Times Band, and then Sunday afternoon with David & Jody Nunn starting Nov 1 (I think). Stop by if you get a chance.
Lee Holeman
theholemans@aol.com
c: 592-9359

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 19 Oct 2009 4:35 pm

Thanks for the heads up, Lee. Once you know the times, shoot me an email.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 15 May 2010 7:20 pm

Well, tonight they added a bass to the group. I hear accordion, bajo-sexto, and bass, along with 2 and 3 part harmonies. Lots of happy music and good smells.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 29 May 2010 7:08 pm

Another party tonight. I was out in the driveway, washing my wife's car, when the music started. This time it was an accordion, bass, guitar, and two singers. The accordion was so-so and the singers were pretty "pitchy". They started around 8:00.

I'm thinking they must have been the "B Team". By 9:00 more cars and pickup trucks started arriving. The "A Team" musicians must have arrived with them. Now they've got a hot accordion player, and a very talented bajo-sexto player, along with a guitarist, a bassist and very, very good 3-part vocal harmonies.

I can hear the children laughing and playing in their back yard. There is plenty of polite applause after every song. The smells are wonderful. For right now, life is good in this little part of South Texas.....

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 8 Jun 2010 8:48 am

Hey Lee, I was raised hearing that type of music a lot. I'm from the Imperial Valley in southern California about 10 or 12 miles from Mexicali the capital of Baja California. My high school had a lot of hispanic and black students enrolled and this was in the fifties. I was in the class of '57 (just like the Statler Bros.) and back then you could cross the border when you were a teen ager. I think you have to be 18 now. I remember going to Mexicali on the weekends with my buds and getting smashed on Mexican beer and tacos with plenty of female companionship and lots of good & loud music. The Mexican families where I lived were wonderful people and very family orientated, much more so than the caucasians. I left there when I was 18 and went into the US Army and haven't lived there since but I still miss a lot of the southwestern style of living and go to a good Mexican restaurant at every opportunity..........JH in Va.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 2 Sep 2010 7:38 am

Herb brought up chupacabras. Here is an interesting article:

Click Here

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 2 Sep 2010 8:33 am

Man, I grew up with my Spanish grandmother and her sister constantly playing Mexican music on their console stereos, and this was in NJ. I've always loved it and I subsequently built a nice collection of Mexican music through the years.

I was on tour in Germany at the time of the previous World Cup and we were playing an international festival in Frankfurt. We were preceded by a young man playing Vera Cruz harp and singing songs from that region. You wouldn't believe how many nationals emerged from the crowd and stood in front of the stage singing and dancing. It was one of the happiest times of my life.

Brick Spieth · Post by **Brick Spieth** » 4 Sep 2010 11:08 am

Can't believe I missed this thread earlier. I grew up in Calexico, Ca. in the 60s. We used to walk across the border a few blocks in away from the tourist joints and sit in bars drinking .65 mixed drinks and listening to the Mariachies as they floated from bar to bar.

I now live in San Jose in almost the same kind of neighborhood I grew up in and the sounds and smells of the weekend family get togethers are a welcome addition to the local scene. I also know no one is uptight enough to complain when I have my amps cranked. Quite unlike the uptight wealthy city I used to live in.

Mostly Hispanic, but the Samoans know how to have a good time too, and when they roast a pig it is almost unbearable to be outside it smells so good. Since these groups party together as families they shut it down at a reasonable hour.

Mexican music is in my blood and I feel real fortunate when I go over to a friend's house and listen to the Chinese pop music his neighbors are blasting. Can't stand that music. I really like how the band Calexico (from Tuson) has incorporated the border sound into their music.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 4 Sep 2010 11:22 am

una chupacabra

Oddly enough, I'd never heard of such a thing before yesterday.
A short time later whilst surfing the net I ran across a news item where this "animal" is blamed for a bunch of sheep deaths at/near the Mexican border.

The photo was of one of nature's ugliest doglike creatures. The name supposedly originates from "something that has been known to exist but never seen".

Cue the "Twilight Zone" theme...

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 4 Sep 2010 11:44 am

Nice thread Lee, I will be smoking a few pork butts tomorrow and wish I could hear the same music you are listening to.

As for Chupagabra, I used to work at a local golf course and the crew was mostly Puerto Rican and they always talked about Him, or her, they even had T-shirts with what they figurd it looked like. It must be a latino type 'BigFoot', kinda like the 'Jersey Devil' that supposedly lives in the Jersey Pine Barrens.

Happy Labor Day!!

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