Outlaws & LoversOutlaws & Lovers
"She writes about the real roads of living in this music. Spanish ballads that will stand any test of time." Eric Taylor
"I don't often get to hear songs that so
perfectly capture a time and place that most of us only get to visit
in our
dreams." Fred Koller,
author; Lone Star State of Mind
The borderlands of Texas and Mexico are possessed of a special romance, a romance of place and cultures, and of time and timelessness. And this timeless, romantic world is grounded in the harshly beautiful reality of life, of the landscape and the climate, the way the sunlight falls on the distant hills, the sound of a car speeding down a long, dark highway on a moonless night, the bright trail of a tear down a woman’s cheek, all these things whispering their quiet secrets.
Bianca partakes of this special romance in a special way, singing to us of the mysterious secrets of the borderlands through her own unique experiences, her poetic vision, and the strong voice of her music. She sings of life and love on the borderlands of life and love, of adventure and romance, and of uncertainty and danger. She sings of outlaws and lovers like she's lived it and she means it¾ and she has, and she does.
Growing up in South Texas, near Corpus Christi, "six miles from the stop sign between Ingleside and Aransas Pass," as a young girl, her aunt taught her to smuggle tequila across the border under her petticoats, and she became familiar with cantina life, with desperados and secretos obscuros. After leaving school in Houston, she was drawn to the road, learning to hop freight trains as a teenager, living everywhere from Santa Cruz to Sonora, from Nashville to Bogota. Dark, quiet, and observant, she was already fashioning the vicissitudes of her existence into the substance of her art. She remembers making up songs as a child; she studied writing and classical guitar; then she heard Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" and knew what she wanted to do. She met the young, brilliant, darkly handsome Townes Van Zandt in Houston and formed a deep, lasting connection that remains central in her life, and the haunting beauty of Townes' music is deeply ingrained in her music.
What Springsteen does for the streets and swamplands of New Jersey, what Lucinda does for the bayous and backroads of the Delta country, Bianca does for the south Texas borderlands: she takes the unique atmosphere and experience of the time and place and imbues it with her own personal experience, her own point of view, detail, and spirit, and she makes it universal…. Spanish guitars and accordions sketch the scene over a strong, vital rhythmic foundation; a steel guitar cries from an old dancehall; fiddles and Telecasters slide and crackle; a piano ripples from the upstairs window of a bordello. Veterans of the bands of such notables as Merle Haggard, Tish Hinjosa, Robert Earl Keene, Joe Ely, Los Super Seven, and George Strait, these are musicians' musicians: they feel what they play; they make it their own. Bianca's voice is a dark, silky mixture of strength and vulnerability; in her music, tragedy is always tempered with hope, or at least resilience. The songs speak volumes, of outlaws and lovers on the borderlands:
In Carlos, a man tempts fate in dangerous times, and as the sun shines on the mountains "like pride before a fall," he pays a high price, and the old Mexican folk-saying "An open mouth invites bad company" (or "invites flies") takes on a bitter meaning. The dialog of Teye’s flamenco guitar and Joel Guzman’s accordion is nothing short of magnificent. Merle is a rollicking rockabilly number that pays homage to another old amigo, Skinny Dennis Sanchez. Bianca was pals with the tall, skinny bass player in Nashville in the old days, where they hung out and played with the likes of Townes, Guy Clark, Richard Dobson, Rodney Crowell, Rex Bell, and Steve Earle. "Dennis was a real gentleman," she remembers. And a fine bass player¾ as is the standup man on this track, B.B. Morse. The twin fiddles of Erik Hokannen and Gene Elders infuse the proper element of Texas swing.
"Scary" is the word for Townes Van Zandt's Waitin' Around To Die, and Bianca's stark, perfect arrangement¾ drums, bass, and Marty Muse’s otherwordly pedal steel¾ says it all. This is one of Townes' earliest compositions, an astoundingly honest look at life's darker side, and it is one of Bianca’s most moving performances. "I never asked him about it," Bianca says, "but I always assumed it was for me." The haunting Telephone originated on a howling, windy night in the canyon at the bottom of Sugar Mountain, near Santa Cruz, where Bianca lived for some time; she finally got a telephone, but there was nobody to call. There are echoes of Townes in this song too, of a longing for spiritual connection across the boundaries of space and time. Joel Guzman’s beautifully expressive accordion is outstanding, as always. San Antonio Express, plainspoken, bittersweet, and lovely, was written suddenly, in one burst, after awakening in the middle of the night, and it also goes back to Bianca’s days with Townes. "We were both trying to learn to play the fiddle," she remembers, "so for awhile we were both playing the fiddle very badly." The relationship described in the song is based loosely on Bianca's relationship with Townes. He was "horrendous" on the fiddle, she recalls. Gene Elders demonstrates his mastery of the instrument in his fine work on this track.
In Hi-Timin' Girl, Bianca steps out with Jack Daniels, George Dickel, and the King and Queen of Hearts in a droll, fond description of a gambler's family of sorts, "an orphan's song," says the free ramblin' girl, frank and fun, with an attitude, and with some very hot guitar picking. Si Me Recuerdas, which translates to "If You Remember Me," is a hauntingly beautiful song written by Marco Antonio Solis, of the group Los Bukis. Bianca fell in love with the lyrics and the mood, and here performs the song with harmonies from accordionist Joel Guzman, their voices blending to a fine perfection, rich with longing and poignant as only a Spanish ballad can be. Smuggler's Moon is a romantic vision¾ flying down the highway, trunk loaded with contraband, pistol in your pocket, and you’re not looking back¾ and also a cautionary tale. "I turned 16 on the highway," Bianca sings, and we believe she did, and there's Del Rio and Monterrey and Galveston spread out before us in the night, and we can feel the exhilaration, and the danger. Once again, Teye’s flamenco guitar lines and Joel’s accordion add palpably to the romance. You Can't Fool An Old Fool is one of many of Bianca's songs written while driving the highways of Texas, this particular one conceived between Austin and Waco, where she had to stop and buy a pen to write it all down. "I had Townes roughly in mind," she says, but the song "pretty much speaks for itself," as do Redd Volkaert’s guitar and Marty Muse’s pedal steel: eloquently.
Bianca makes Fred Koller and Willard Fitzgerald’s Mr Whiskey ("I'm not as lonely as you said I'd be") her own: bittersweet and blue, but droll and accepting. The bright, expressive guitar work, by Redd and by Marvin Dykhuis on slide, and the tight work of the rhythm section (Paul Percy on drums and David Heath on bass) make this track a barnburner. The Ballad of Dylan Thompson, a tale of friendship and loss, about a man "broken like a white oak tree in a hurricane," was written by the late Harlan Weiss, and was the last song recorded at these sessions, as a tribute to Harlan. I’d Rather Miss Texas is a straightforward, heartfelt statement: "I’d rather miss Texas than you." That says it all. The warm longing in Bianca’s voice says the rest.
And Don't You Hate It When Your Date Gets Shot? Well, don't you? Let's just say "based on a true story." Poor Spot....
These are songs of outlaws and lovers from the heights and depths of life and love; from the heart and soul; from the borderlands.
Robert Earl Hardy, Townes Van Zandt biographer
Bianca acoustic guitar, vocals
Marvin Dykhuis acoustic guitar, slide guitar, high-string guitar
Teye flamenco guitar
Joe Ely vocals on track #4
Redd Volkaert electric guitar
Steve Carter acoustic guitar, high-string guitar, bass, background vocals
Marty Muse pedal steel guitar
Joel Guzman accordion, background vocals, harmony on "Si Me Recuerdas"
Doug Lacy accordion, keyboards
Erik Hokannen fiddle
Gene Elders fiddle
David Heath electric and acoustic bass
B.B. Morse slap bass
Paul Pearcy drums, percussion (except Don’t You Hate It…?)
Wally Doggett drums (on Don’t You Hate It…?)
Leeann Atherton background vocals
Kids Chorus:
Mina Carter,
Mason Bolton,
Austin Atherton
A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt, by Robt Earl Hardy, to be published soon.
All songs written by Bianca except Mr Whiskey, by Fred Koller and Willard Fitzgerald; Si Me Recuerdas, by Marco Antonio Solis; and Ballad of Dylan Thompson, by Harlan Weiss; Don’t You Hate It When Your Date Gets Shot? was co-written with Steve Carter; I’d Rather Miss Texas was co-written with Rich Yancy and Kim Venabol; and Waiting Round To Die, by Townes Van Zandt.
Produced by Bianca with Steve Carter
Engineered by Eastside Flash
Recorded at Flashpoint Studios, Austin Texas
Mastered at Terranova by Jerry Tubb
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