"Delicias" a Michoacan-style tune from the repertoire of the great Serafin Ibarra of Morelia, Michoacan.

Delicias

A classic Huapango played from Spain to Veracruz to New Mexico.

La Petenera

Paulino Bernal's "Cuando Bebo", from the album "Dias Felices," available at www.lmduplication.com.

Cuando Bebo

"Patricia", from the repertoire of Pedro Ayala.

Días Felices (MP3)

Patricia

"Las Conchitas," a traditional huapango huasteco learned from Rolando "el Quencho" Hernandez of Trio Chicontepec in Mexico City.

Las Conchitas

Dias Felices, a polka we learned from a recording of Los Paisanos de Santa Fe from the 1970's.  The tune is also played in Texas and Northern Mexico in slightly different versions.

Happy Days

A Northern New Mexican dance tune from the repertoire of Mariano Romero, a Santa Fe violinist who was a member of Los Villeros Alegres.  In some areas this tune was played as part of the quadrillas dance set.  We added an extra section to the tune and a few other elements inspired by the orquestas de cuerdas that flourished in Northern Mexico and in Texas in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, before the accordion came to dominate the style and repertoire of that region.  Orquestas  usually featured double violins, bajo sexto, and bowed bass or cello;  this track features Santa Fe violinist Karina Wilson on the cello, and highlights the close connection between Northern New Mexican music and fiddle traditions of the lower Río Grande valley.

La De Mariano Romero

Huapango huasteco from the repertoire of Antonio Maciel y el Trio Aguilillas.

El Ausente

A danzon norteño from the repertoire of the great Flaco Jimenez of San Antonio, TX.

Juárez

Cumbia norteña made popular north of the border by Los Relampagos del Norte

El Mudo

El Corrido de Río Arriba
By Roberto Martínez, Sr., (additional lyrics by J. Wax)

Año de sesenta y siete
cinco de junio fue el día
hubo una revolución
allá por Tierra Amarilla.
Allá en la casa de corte
pueblo de Tierra Amarilla
Nuevo México el estado
Condado de Río Arriba.

In the year of '67
The fifth of June was the day
There was an act of revolution
There in Tierra Amarilla.
There in the courthouse
In the town of Tierra Amarilla
State of New Mexico,
County of Río Arriba.

Un grupo de nuestros valientes
muy descontentos bajaron
y en oficiales de estado
su venganza ellos tomaron
Su jefe les suplicaba,
"No debería haber violencia."
Pero no los controlaba
pues perdieron la paciencia.

A group of our rebels
Came down, very upset
And on state officials
Brought justice.
Their leader begged them,
"Let there not be violence."
But he couldn't control them--
They had been pushed beyond patience.

Un diputado en el suelo
se queja con agonía
con una bala en el pecho
allá por Tierra Amarilla
Las mujeres y los niños
Iban corriendo y llorando
En ese instante pensamos
Que el mundo iba acabando.

A deputy on the floor
Is crying out in agony
With a bullet in his chest
There in Tierra Amarilla.
Women and children
Went crying and running
In that moment we thought
That the world was ending.

Este corrido termina
cuando se haga la justicia
cuando renazca la tierra
cuando muera la codicia
cuando por fin se respeta
al prójimo como a uno mismo
¡Arriba nuestra rebeldía
Abajo el colonialismo!

This corrido will sound
Until justice is finally done
Until our land can be reborn
Until greed loses its hold
Until at last we can respect
The rights of all people.
May the memory of our struggle awaken
And uproot the legacy of colonialism

El Corrido de Rio Arriba

Composed by New Mexico legend and accordion mentor Antonia Apodaca, of Rociada, NM, in honor of New Mexico and it's people.

Estas Lindas Flores

A son planeco from the repertoire of Alma de Apatzingan of Apatzingan, Michoacan, Mexico.

El Lagartijo

This is a medley of a polka and chotís, both learned from accordionist Antonia Apodaca of Rociada, New Mexico. Antonia was born in 1923 into a musical family.  We met her through Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie, who met Antonia in the 1980’s at a point in her life when she had given up music. They encouraged her to begin playing again, and then played with her for many years, touring together to share her music across New Mexico and the US.  

Antonia started playing her mom’s diatonic accordion as a child and took after her mother’s style, which is characteristic of Northern New Mexico: the accordion is played like a one-row instrument, with lots of chord clusters in the melody and strong bass chords that don’t follow the melody in the way we’re used to nowadays, creating a percussive and drone effect.  This style of playing has more in common with old Midwestern and Scandinavian styles than the neighboring Tejano styles that have become more popular in New Mexico today.  Antonia recalls meeting conjunto tejano accordion pioneer Santiago Jiménez Sr., who loved her playing and encouraged her to “keep up her old style”.
 
When Antonia was just 9 years old, she won her first accordion by taking first place in an accordion contest in Santa Fe. It was this tune, “La Polka Suazo”, which she played, having learned it from her mother’s family.  We combine this tune with another we learned from her, a chotís that some people call “La Burra Orejona”.  The chotís (also called the chote and shotís in New Mexico) is a popular partner dance (it originated in Bohemia as the šotyš and then spread throughout Europe and the New World.)  This particular chotís inherits the first part from an American square dance tune called “Flop-Eared Mule”. In the territorial period many Midwestern and Southern hoedown melodies were incorporated in New Mexico music as chotíses, cuadrillas and marchas, with the melodies altered and ‘New-Mexicanized’ by new melodic and rhythmic interpretations.  Sometimes half of a back-East hoedown ended up combined with half of a local tune to make a new creation, as is the case with this chotís.

La Polka Suazo - Chotis De La Burra Orejona

New Mexican roots music, classic conjunto, huapangos huastecos, and sones from Michoacan.

Lone Piñon

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