In which Reginald D Hunter gets another road trip across the USA at BBC license payer expense. It’s actually very good, a lot more fun than the 3 parter Songs of the South, which suffered too much from his own opinions and all the decent clips/performers having been used up on equivalent programmes. This, a single hour, explored the whole US/Mexico border from Tex-Mex thru’ Calexico, invoking many delights along the way. On i-player or whatever it is called for a while, as it was first aired last week, me only catching it tonight.
Sounds of the Border
by 17 Comments
My view is the opposite – I liked Songs From the South, but this one suffered from a lack of musical variety, to my ears. Maybe I’m a philistine but I just don’t like the sound of ‘Tex Mex’ music – I detest the accordion – and bar a moment with Lyle Lovett, it all sounded the same to me.
Any show that widens the audience for Carrie Rodriguez surely has to be doing something right. I’m sure we could all have done with the show being 5 or 10 minutes shorter by cutting bits out (I would have lost the Lyle Lovett and ‘playing’ the fence bits) but that’s the same for most music shows.
The guys at the end celebrating the drug criminals seemed weird. But musically it all sounded the same to me – accordions…
What’s wrong with the Accordion? Absolutely nothing, when Flaco Jimenez is playing it
Or, indeed, the very wonderful Sharon Shannon
I saw Flaco play to about 100 people in Grimsby Folk Club in 1986 and he was an absolute fucking gent.
Here he is with THAT song with Peter Rowan. Not the the definitive version, that would be the one that appears on the live album San Antonio Sound. But still…
I saw Flaco play at Womad some years back. Dancing with Mrs BB and our two daughters who were probably about 8 or 9 at the time to tunes such as Goodnight Irene played by an absolute master is, I have to say, a truly precious family memory
I love this one:
And I love the accordion, so that just might explain the disparity. I guess you won’t be tuning in for the yet to be made Sounds of the Swamps.
Apart from loving the music (in both this one and Songs of the South), what was telling for me was Reggie explaining that the difference between the two was his not feeling scared in this latter programme. The Hispanic people he met didn’t have a problem with his blackness.
I didn’t pick that up when I watched Songs of the South. Thanks for the info.
Thanks – I missed this. When we escape from The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer we will direct iPlayer this way.
I will try and catch this over the weekend as I love Accordion and Carrie Rodriguez.
Any show that features Calexico and Carrie Rodriguez is fine by me.
Much as I love mariachi trumpets, why do they always have to wear the gear and sweat fatly as they parp?
It’s a contractual thing.
Horn players are contractually obliged to drink their weight in beer before every gig.
Have whistle, will wet.