LOS FABULOCOS FEATURING KID RAMOS Source: El Paso Times Date: 08/2009 Writer: Doug Pullen

Music in the Mountain | McKelligon Canyon concerts include Los Fabulocos, local blues bands

EL PASO -- Most people know Kid Ramos as the fiery blues guitarist who spent several years with Austin's Fabulous Thunderbirds before joining the Mannish Boys.

But for the past four years he's also been playing guitar -- and bajo sexto -- for a band called Los Fabulocos, who combine vintage conjunto and norteño songs with some old-time rock 'n' roll and country.  "This music has an earthiness to it. It's just about the basic stuff of life people go through -- heartbreak, found love, love lost. The basic stuff. It's down-to-earth and straightforward," Ramos says. "And totally danceable."

Which is why El Paso promoters Jim Murphy and Elias Lopez, aka Plain Ol' People Inc., are bringing the California nostalgia trippers to town for a concert at 7 tonight at McKelligon Canyon Amphitheatre.  It's the first of two concerts they're calling the Music in the Mountain series. The other, dubbed Blues in the Box, will feature four area blues bands on Aug. 28, also in the 1,500-seat amphitheater nestled in the eastern foothills of the Franklins.

"We're just trying to institute events out there at McKelligon Canyon," Murphy said. "It's one of the most beautiful venues, if not the most beautiful, in the city, and it's rarely used."

The city's Convention and Visitors Bureau has ramped up efforts to use the amphitheater more this summer. In addition to the just-ended 32nd annual run of "Viva! El Paso," the city has teamed with Jazz El Paso Connection for the monthly Jazz on the Rocks concerts, and El Paso's Two Ton Creativity has booked the Fabulous Thunderbirds for a Sept. 19 show there.

Now this.

"We're trying to keep it interesting for the blues fans around here," said Murphy, who promoted a 2007 show by Johnny Winter at the Plaza Theatre and a 2008 concert by Los Lobos at the Abraham Chavez Theatre. He also helped organize the first Chamizal Blues and Jazz Festival last May.  The Winter and Los Lobos concerts lost money, but Murphy and Lopez are trying to help foster a scene that's largely overlooked here.

"We're hoping we can just make our money back on these shows and just continue to do nice, small events in and around El Paso," Murphy said.

The Los Fabulocos concert should appeal to a few local constituencies -- blues and vintage rock fans who are open to a band that plays a lot of Mexican songs in Spanish and early rock songs in English, reminiscent of the Texas Tornados and Los Lobos.  There are plenty of people who grew up on these songs around here who might appreciate frontman Jesus "Jesse" Cuevas' authentic approach to the music, both on vocals and button accordion.

"This is kind of an oldies town ... their music will fall into that oldies rock 'n' roll vein," said Murphy, whose day job is director of development for the El Paso Museum of History. "I don't know if Tex-Mex is the right word, but it's great dance music. It should be a lot of fun."

Ramos said Cuevas, the former Blazers frontman, is "really steeped in the traditions of conjunto music and norteño. His first language is Spanish. He speaks Spanish. His family does. That's all they speak."

The guitarslinger added the 12-string bajo sexto to his arsenal, and plays it frequently with the Cali-Mex band, which is touting a new, self-titled CD recorded live in the studio over a two-day period.

Ramos said they wanted to capture their onstage vibe on disc. "There's more kick, more energy to playing it live," he said.

The album's 13 songs range from Cuevas' own "If You Know" to covers of Lloyd Price's "Just Because," Rockin' Dopsie's "You Ain't Nothin' but Fine" and Mexican singer Carlos Reyna's "Como un Perro."

What they play tonight, Ramos noted, will depend on the crowd.

"In East L.A., it's pretty much mostly Chicano, Mexicano people who want to dance to conjunto," he said, "but we still mix our own stuff in as well. We don't want to change our identity for the audience, but it depends on how it's going that night and how we feel."

The second part of the Music in the Mountain series is Blues in the Box, which features area blues bands -- the Kat Crosby Band, Pat "Guitar Slim" Chase, Mike "German Mike" Gienapp and Murphy's own Blues Alliance.

"People have said to me, 'They're all local bands,' which is true," Murphy said. "But it's not often you get to see most of the local blues bands together in one shot. It makes the show unique."

Chase agreed. "There are not very many opportunities for blues artists in this area to play with out-of-town acts," he said. "There's just not enough money here to support too many acts -- so for blues music, we don't have very many big shows."

Said Crosby: "We don't get much of a chance to do an all-blues show, unfortunately, but Jimmy Murphy has really helped that situation a lot. He's been beneficial to blues in the area."

If the show's successful, Murphy said, it could become an annual event with a mix of local and national acts.

"We're bringing this community together, blues-wise," he said. "We want to bring musicians together, give them a place to play, talk to each other and make for a better community."