"The very best in conjunto Music!" as they say.

I can't see anyway to make it down there this year unless I sell some plasma, but here is the line-up so far for the 18th Annual Narciso Martinez Conjunto Festival. There are going to be shows on Friday too but they haven't scheduled them yet.

(I love that about conjunto festivals in Texas--everything is done at the last minute. You might call it lack of planning, I call it handcrafted).

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Enrique Vela 4:00-4:50 p.m.
Los Donnenes 5:00-6:05 p.m.
Amadeo Flores 6:15-7:20 p.m.
Chano Cadena 7:25-8:30 p.m.
Los Garcia Bros 9:50-11:00 p.m.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Quarto Rosas 4:00-5:00 p.m.
TexManiacs 5:10-6:10 p.m.
Eddie Lalo Torres 6:20-7:25 p.m.
Los Pobres 7:35-8:40 p.m.
Los Dos Gilbertos 8:50-10:00 p.m.

Here is the man himself, from Chulas Fronteras


I am at work on this encyclopedia article on conjunto music (due one years ago) and reading some interviews with the founding conjunto musicians like Martinez. One transcribed interview starts with a disclaimer that the interiewer "is not a fluent speaker of the Texas-Mexican dialect which Narciso Martinez speaks most easily, it is hoped that a scholar with such a language facility will interview him in the near future." I'd be interested to know exactly how this dialect differed from Spanish. I am going to ask around.