Happy Diez y Seis, everybody

Meet Agustin Lara, Mexico’s best singer/songwriter (photo left). From the romantic (yet somehow never sappy) lyrics to his tastefully frilly piano-playing to his impassioned vocals to the natty clothes, this brutha was clean. We move then from Mexico’s finest songwriter to Mexico’s finest vocalist, Jose Alfredo Jimenez. Let the listener beware: This muhfuh can emote.

And what’s a Mexican mix without accordions?

So we cross the border (insert joke here) to Texas’ Steve Jordan’s duet with then-wife Virginia Martinez. Over to LA for two from Los Lobos…some fine gritos on the live Volver Volver. Finally, invoking the ghost of Dan Del Santo (KUT, represent, represent), my brother’s tale of crashin’ quinceaneras at the KC Hall and an instrumental inspired by border crossings, partly recorded near a bus station in Ciudad Juarez.

Enjoy.

Agustin Lara: Solamente Una Vez
Agustin Lara: Farolito
Jose Alfredo Jimenez: El Rey
Jose Alfredo Jimenez: No Me Amenaces
Steve Jordan: Siempre Hace Frio
Los Lobos: Maricela
Los Lobos: Volver Volver
David Garza: Conmigo
David Garza: Asylum

I won’t trouble you with translations to all of the lyrics, but you oughta know at least what Jose Alfredo Jimenez is singing. Thanks to Mama Garza for these.

No Me Amenaces
Don’t threaten me, don’t threaten me,
When you make up your mind to seek a new life
Select your course and leave.
But don’t threaten me.
You are big enough, you understand life, you know what you are doing.
Because you claim that you will leave, will leave
That you will leave and will leave,
That you will leave, and you haven’t left.
and I am awaiting your love,
awaiting your love
awaiting your love, or awaiting your oblivion.

Don’t threaten me, don’t threaten me,
If it is your destiny to forget my path,
Select your course and leave

But don’t threaten me, don’t threaten me
Go ahead and try your luck – you’ve got the deck
But I’ve got the aces.

Because you claim that you will leave, will leave
That you will leave and will leave,
That you will leave, and you haven’t left.
and I am awaiting your love,
awaiting your love
awaiting your love, or awaiting your oblivion.

El Rey
I know that I am on the “outside”
But the day that I die
I know that you will cry
Cry and cry, cry and cry.

You will say that you didn’t love me
But you will be very sad
And that is how you will remain.

With money or without money
I always do what I please
And my word is law
I have neither throne nor queen
Nor anyone who understands me
But I am still king