Search - Various Artists :: Rough Guide: Tex-Mex

Latin music has been burning for years on the Tex-Mex border. Tejano conjunto, as it's known, is all about the vibrant pleasures of the accordion (introduced by Bohemian immigrants in the 19th century), dramatic voices, and the 12-string bass guitar known as the bajo sexto. This well-curated and nicely annotated compilation draws from the great Tex-Mex music of the past half-century--from a spry Narciso Martinez polka recorded in 1946 to the contemporary drinking music of the young cross-cultural Austin band Los Pinkys. And while Mingo Saldivar's thrilling Spanish-language version of June Carter Cash's "Ring of Fire" makes the country-conjunto crossover explicit, each of these 19 tracks has a story to tell, and together they map out an exciting and extensive emotional territory. --Richard Gehr