Steve Salas and I Invade El Paso: April 21-23, 2005

Steve Salas, original lead vocalist of Tierra, and I performed as an acoustic duo in El Paso, Texas on April 22, 2005. We hadn't planned the musical pairing, but circumstances gave us the opportunity to do so. I had gotten a call from an El Paso visual artist, Carlos Callejo, who had spent many years as an artist in East L.A. Coincidentally, during that period he knew and worked with Steve Salas' father, who is also an artist, small world. Plans were made for me to come to El Paso to perform as a solo. A few days later, I got a call from Manuel Velez, a teacher at El Paso Community College. This was one of the two venues where I was to perform. The other was to be a community event in a suburb of El Paso called Canutillo. Manuel said Steve Salas was set to go to El Paso a week or two prior and it was possible that he could come during my week instead and we could perform on the same show. Manuel had told Steve I was coming and Steve thought it would be a good idea to come when I was in town. Steve and I spoke on the phone and mutually agreed it would be more interesting to perform on the same bill. At first, we thought we would perform separately and do a few songs together. We finally decided to do the whole show together. We had a rehearsal at Steve's place in Montebello, California and came up with a good set, consisting of Steve's recently recorded reggae version of Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man," a harmony duet of the Mexican classic "Gema," which had also previously been covered by Tierra and my dad, Lalo Guerrero, and Steve's hit with Tierra, "Together." My lead vocals were my "On the Boulevard," "Oh Maria," "Ay Yi Yi Yi (Nobody Told Me)," and my dad's classic "Los Chucos Suaves." I didn't know Steve could play guitar since I'd always known him to be a front man singer, but he could do so very well. We sounded great together and had a great time playing and singing together. Steve and I had known of each other since the early 60s when he was a member of the Jaguars with the Salas Brothers and I was in Mark & the Escorts. Both bands shared the same manager at the time, Billy Cardenas. We also shared the same manager in the early 70s, Art Brambila, when Tierra first formed and I was a solo artist. However, this was the first time we had ever sung together. It came together fast and easy.

Since I used the phrase "Steve Salas and I Invade El Paso" for the title of this article, it would be appropriate to say he cometh by land and I cometh by air to the West Texas town. Yes, Steve decided to drive with his friend and assistant, Mary Alcantar, while I opted for air travel. We arrived on April 21st and were put up at the Marriot Hotel near the El Paso airport. Since I had flown, I arrived many hours before Steve and Mary showed up. The artist, Carlos Callejo, came to my hotel a couple of hours after my arrival and took me to a down home Mexican restaurant in a barrio. El Paso is on the border north of the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez and has a population of around 700,000. More than 80% of the population is Latino. In some ways, it reminded me of a gigantic East L.A. This made me feel right at home. The next afternoon Steve and I performed for a classroom of Chicano students at El Paso Community College. I showed a short video on the life and career of my dad. Steve showed a video of Tierra's 1982 performance on the nationally televised American Music Awards. We also spoke about our own musical careers and the "Eastside Sound," as well as Chicano music in general. We then performed a few songs for the students. It was an enjoyable and rewarding experience for us. Later that afternoon, Carlos Callejo took Steve, Mary and I to see one of his incredible murals in the downtown El Paso courthouse. (I've included some photos of the mural on my "El Paso Photo Gallery" below. That evening Steve and I performed our set at a community event in Canutillo. I used a great 12-string acoustic guitar I borrowed from Manuel Velez' father, who's a local musician in the El Paso area. I enjoyed playing it and it added to the sound and style of our show. Hopefully, Steve and I will perform again in the future, either as an acoustic duo or perhaps with a band.