Los Texmaniacs Release New Album
What does jalapeno-spiced polka music sound like?
- By Aviva Shen
- Smithsonian magazine, September 2012, Subscribe
“San Antonio Rose” has been a staple of Texas music since 1940, but Los Texmaniacs add new color to that and other country-western classics on their album Texas Towns and Tex-Mex Sounds, released July 31 on Smithsonian Folkways. Los Texmaniacs, a quartet founded in 1997, are rooted in conjunto, the jalapeño-spiced polka music featuring the 12-string bajo sexto and the button accordion (a legacy of 19th-century German immigrants to the Lone Star State). On Texas Towns, however, the band tours the region’s broad musical canon and draws on classic rock, blues and Chicano dance music along the way. Even “The Eyes of Texas,” written in 1903, sounds new.
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Comments (2)
I got the message below for Mitchell, but the Texmaniacs plays just fine. Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage What you can try: It appears you are connected to the Internet, but you might want to try to reconnect to the Internet. Retype the address. Go back to the previous page. Most likely causes: •You are not connected to the Internet. •The website is encountering problems. •There might be a typing error in the address. More information
Posted by Lynn Austin on December 26,2012 | 09:31 AM
I normally do not like to listen to "polka sounding" music but los texmaniacs truely play the typical "country" music of the northen region of Mexico. Their sounds brought a melancolic of times gone by in my life, I will continue to track their musical journey. It clearly reflects the mexican heritage since Tejas was part of my home sta(e of Coahuila De Zaragoza. Thank you, Rudy guerrero.
Posted by rudy guerrero on September 11,2012 | 08:30 PM