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I keep coming across new artists. Some I like and some I don´t. You will only see the ones I think are interesting on these web pages. The fact I don´t like a singer doesn´t mean I should talk about them. Just because I don't like them doesn't mean there are a lot of people out there that really like them. My new music is listed on "Whats New".
13 October 2008 - I kept remembering the spray painted walls in Zinapécuaro about "Alacranes" and heard some songs by "Alacranes Musical" and purchased some of their music. They are frequently referenced as playing Duranguense music. I have a few artists that sing in that genre.
11 September 2008 - I met a Bolivian Andean music group called "Nuna'Y" at a fresh food market. They were setting up and had 4 or 5 CDs. I wanted one and they suggested "My Bolivia", which was their latest album. That was the only time I used Spanish in Canada. I asked what it cost and they didn't understand but they understood "Cuanta questa?" just fine. I wanted to add their cover art for "My Bolivia" and create a simple fan page on Nuna'Y.
31 August 2008 - I just encountered Bárbara Muñoz. On Myspace, you have a number of videos. "I will always love you" gave me goose bumps just like Whitney Houston did in "The Bodyguard". After that, I became very unhappy because there were no sites that sell her albums in the USA.
8 October 2007 - InkAmerica are not really new artists to be but find them on iTunes was new. In order to keep track of what I knew, I even created a fan page for them but I could never find out enough information to finish it. Andian music is a mood music for me. When I am up tight for some reason, the music from the Andes can relax me. It is the only music genre that I know of that can do that.
1 October 2007 - On Azucena del Campo's web site, she listed a favorite as Isabela. It took a while but I found her CDs. She has a web site at Isabelaenlinea.com. She has some interesting Duranguense music.
16 September 2007 - I have been listening to a couple of singles by "Azucena del Campo". They were interesting enough to buy her new CD, "Azucena", last night. No real information was available on her but she has space under construction on Myspace as "azucenadelcampo". Just so it isn't a surprise, she is considered "Mexican Regional". Itunes has her listed as "pop" but she is more banda.
I added the album "Céu" by "Céu". It surprises me at times when I visit the local music stores. One of the albums that has been released but they didn´t see fit to add it to the recent release lists will suddenly appear.
10 August 2007 - I received an email from Batanga Music Team. I am on their mailing list. They fronted a new artist by the name of Alicastro. He has one album on iTunes called Todo Vale. So, I am going to have to boot topaz into XP and see what is available via Yahoo's Music Jukebox. YMJ has a subscription that lets you listen to singers and save the music on your computer. You can't load it onto your portable mp3 player and unless you have a different option. I can't use music downloaded from YMJ on my iPod and there is no incentive to do anything but decide who I am going to buy their CDs. Batanga had a video of a concert and people were saying that he was better than Juanes. I haven't especially liked any of Juanes' newer albums. I really liked "Un dia normal" and that was it. I found the Yahoo has Alicastro's "Todo Vale" on their music site and I am listening to it while I finish this. Alicastro is really pleasant to listen to. I am going to have to see if I can find his album. I have an iPod 60gb, a shuffle, and a Sony Walkman mp3 player. None of the protected music will play on all of them unless I burn a CD but then, I am taking a lossy medium and creating an Audio CD and then ripping it into a lossy medium. You lose quality at each conversion.
13 July 2007 - I am listening to a new artist his name is Daniel Sánchez. Both iTunes and Yahoo Music have been pushing him for me. I have Y! Unlimited and downloaded his "Hermosa amanacer". I love beautiful sunrises. Everyone game him 5-* and I may not rate him that high but I am thinking about how I would rate him. Much of his music sounds like Gary Hobbs was a singer that influenced him. I like to listen to Gary Hobbs. I can't burn Sanchez's album to a CD and I don't know if I want to purchase the album on iTunes. That is why I have Y!. It lets me listen before I purchase.
13 June 2007 - He isn't really a new artist to me but Toby Keith's "Big Dog Daddy" was a break through album for me. I never paid much attention to him before. After all, he is country and all I have been paying attention to is Spanish singers; however, this is a good album to listen to.
8 May 2007 - I saw a new artist in Wal Mart. Her name is Betzaid and the new album was "Te quiero así". She sings a fusion of genres, which is really kind of interesting because her label is Fonovisa and she isn't Mexican Regional. If I were to compare her to someone, it would be Yuridia. She doesn't have the voice of an angel but it is very pleasant to listen to. She was chosen to sing one of the theme songs for Univision's coverage of the "Copa Mundial" from Peru. It is on the "Arriba, Arriba" CD. The song "Vamos al mundial" by Jennifer Peña, which was the Univision copa mundial song in 2002, was a much more interesting song and video.
5 April 2007 - I have been listening to Shaila Dúrcal on Yahoo Music. The album is called "Recordando". This is another album that I can not find in local stores. They did surprise me because I found copies of Alexandre Pires' "A Un Idolo" and Rivera's "Mi Vida Loca". I wasn't surprised to find Jenni Rivera's album. She fits into the local Mexican regional scene.
An additional artist that popped up on Yahoo Music was CéU. I have listened to her using myspace and I am waiting for Yahoo Music to download her album on to my computer topaz.
13 March 2007 - I picked up the self titled album by "Rodrigo y Gabriela". It is guitar music that will make you stop to listen with your mouth open in awe.
12 December 2006 - I added Yuridia's second album. Her freshman album, with a title of "Voice of an angel", got my attention. Nobody is that good but she did sound nice. I gather that the voice of an Angel comes from having a fairly pure sounding voice. Her albums never made it to my mega-playlist but I did listen for a couple of days.
5 December 2006 - I saw "Las #1 De La Reina" by Diana Reyes. The fake tatoo of a scorpion on her abdomen has always caught my attention. I think it is fake because is one of those "now you see it" and "now you don't". Duranguense style music is a little strong for my ears. I have friends who would probably not have any problem dancing to her but I tell them "No sé bailar" and smile. I have to think of the Australian that says "criky" and I feel to creaky to dance that fast. I was actually surprised that I kind of liked it. I guess it kind of grows on you.
22 November 2006 - I have all three Belinda albums. Interesting is all I can say. The Utopia album is by my large audio video system with 120 watts/channel where it gets played on occasion. I have problem with the Utopia sound track. I think it sounds terrible. She sings a little bit and then they have a blaring chorus. Add them together and it has a discordant sound.
I keep bumping into her videos and they do look interesting.
21 October 2006 - I recently purchased CDs by 2 new artists. Yahoo's Music Engine has been suggesting Reik and LU for some time. It takes time before I really pay attention becuse it has suggested hip-hop and rap artists on many occasions before the recent one. I can not listen to either without shuddering from dislike. Several days a go, I told YME to play the top songs by Lu and really liked what I was listening to. I have a track by Reik that came from the recent "Now Esto Es Musica! Latino" CD. It didn't make an impression but I didn't hate it so that is a recommendation to try an album if I could find one. I walked by and saw LU's "Lu" album and then I saw Reik's "Sesion Metropolitana". I figure it was meant to be and purchased both of them.
25 July 2006 - I had burned a copy of Magia by Rosana onto a CD. I took it to my Spanish class to let them hear how she sounds. I also did a search and found that she has a web page at Rosana.net. Her name is Rosana Arbelo and she was born in Lanzarote, Islas Canarias in 1963. In 1963, I graduated from the University of Utah and by October I was in Richland, Washington working for the GE Hanford Laboratories. A couple of days ago my neighbor wanted me to print a thank you note and I was playing Magia when she got here. She doesn't speak Spanish and was totally impressed.
22 July 2006 - I finally got tired of complaining about not having a CD by Rosana and downloaded Magia from iTunes. It loaded flawlessly onto my iPod. It is an easy way of being able to buy 4 albums for the price that 2 would cost in the local music stores. I can see buying "Lunas Rotas" next.
9 June 2006 - I can not understand why I have not bought anything by Rosana. I like to buy local and I will have to order her CDs from some place such as Amazon. If you click the Rosana-link, it will take you to Amazon's page on Rosana. I think I am sort of afraid to start because she has a number of CDs and they all have songs that I like. Yahoo Music engine has a 4-star rating system and I have not rated any of her songs below 3-stars. I am listening to Llueve as I write this. It almost gives you goosebumps as you listen.
I have also bought "Así soy yo" by Anais. She won one of the Spanish versions of American Idol and this is her first album. I do not have that much of an opinion at this point. One huge point in her favor is the "Fútbol copa mundial" song that was released. Talk about being included with top grade singers.
I also purchased "Ese que va por ahí" by Jeremías. I didn't find his album to be nearly as interesting as Anais'.
28 March 2006 - I recently purchased a CD by Coti. My iTunes setup keeps telling me that people that like singers that I like also bought Coti. I told mi amiga de México that I was looking for Coti. She didn´t like Coti and didn´t think that I would either. I found a copy of "Esta mañana y otros cuentos" at the Hastings Bookstore. I had given up looking for him and then, there was a CD right in front of me. I figured that it was meant to be and bought it. It was recorded "en vivo" and he sounded like a lounge singer. These are people that you can carry on a business meeting and enjoy the background music. For example, Norah Jones thought of herself as a jazz oriented lounge singer until people went crazy buying her CDs. I told mi amiga that it was music I could fall asleep to. Both my friend and her husband laughed. I was pretty sure that I had to explain that music that I can fall asleep to is special. It can not be either loud or irritating and it also has to be pleasant.
14 March 2006 - I was in one of the local WalMart Supercenters and had the guy in front of me joke about understanding part of People en español. I find that People en español is full of stuff that is of no interest too me; however, it is the only magazine that reviews CDs and DVDs in Spanish. If it saves me the price of a bad CD, the price of the magazine was worth the cost. None of the genre of music that I was interested in was rated above a "B". I have found, that whenever the reviewer gives an "A" to something, I will enjoy what they rated.
24 February 2006 - I seem to constantly be neglecting my list of new artists. For example, I purchsed "Pafueras Teluarañas" by Bebe. This is an explicit album but Malo was good enough to be nominated for an award. If Robert Rodriques can name his group Chingon and it doesn't make me blush, then Bebe's music will not make me blush.
I was loaned a copy of "Entre Amigos" by Julio Preciado. I liked it well enough to add it to my Creative Touch. I was also loaned several other CDs but they were too Banda.
28 January 2006 - I have neglected adding some new artists. Mi amiga de México loaned me albums by Julio Preciado. We both like "Entre Amigos" the best. I also purchased my first album by Nek called "Una Parte De Mi". An old Italian friend called Laura Pausini a "good Italian sanger". His English grammer may need work but he was on the money with Pausini. Pausini's album Escucha is an interesting album.
13 October 2005 - I purchased Elefante de Elefante. I really like this album. I never got to listen to the older lead singer but I find the new lead singer is very easy to listen to.
24 March 2005 - I was introduced to Maria de Barros by Lila Downs. It was an indirect introduction because I visited narado.com to register owning Downs' CDs. There, I just happened to listen to their free service called "Narado Radio". It was not long until Maria started playing. It didn't take long until I stopped what I was doing and just listen. That doesn't happen very often. You have to also understand that she was singing in a dialect of Portuguese. I think Portuguese sounds like they took all of the easy Spanish words and replaced them with French.
I try really hard to purchase my music locally. If I like it, I know there are other people that will also like it. If it isn't around, they can't purchase it. I gave up after 2 weeks and ordered it over the Internet.
1 March 2005 - I was out looking for the latest CDs and found one by Lila Downs. Downs kept popping up in my related artists on Music Match's On Demand. I first heard of her on a web page by Stan Gotlieb called "Realoaxaca". I would look in the Música Latina sections of the various stores that sell CDs but never saw any CDs by her. Finally, I got serious and looked her up in Hasting´s information kiosk. There were 3 different CDs but I couldn´t find them. I had looked through the vertical section and was on my knees when one of Hasting´s people asked me if she could help. It turned out that the kiosk was wrong and the CD suggested "World" music for a genre and that was where Down's music was stored. I have "Una Sangre" or "One Blood". It is a little different than I am used to listening to but I think she is an artist that I can listen to for some time.
20 February 2005 - I was browsing in my favorite music store and found a 30-track CD of Pedro Fernández. I told some one that I had bought a DVD with Lucerita and Pedrito Fernández. I have always like to listen so some of Lucero´s music but my friend like Pedro. I couldn´t watch much of the DVD movie. It was good, Spanish speaking kids doing stupid things. I had problems with some of Pedro´s music because he sounded like he was very young. He sounds much better as an adult.
1 October 2004 - I visited Nínel Conde again. I think the sound setup in the WalMart stores are really terrible. If you like the way some one sounds, they must be "really good". I ended up buying Nínel Conde and she didn't sound as bad on my audio systems as she did in the WalMart. I have also purchased Carlos Vives, and Rosario. Rosario's "de mil colores" impressed me the most. Unfortunately she is bumping up against the "Mexico and Mariachi" compilation based on Robert Rodriquez's El Mariachi trilogy.
In July 2004, I came across Nínel Conde on Repapodaca. She is really pretty, enough so that I wanted to know what she sounded like. I finally bumped into her "Ninel Conde" album at the Kennewick, Washington Wal Mart Supercenter. I went to play it on their machine and it was rebooting the OS. Everytime I see this happening, I think they must use Microsoft Windows NT-4. W2K and XP, from personal experience, don't reboot that often. I finally found one that wasn't rebooting and had it read the barcode. I listened to the music for a while, kind of shuddered, and walked off. Needless to say, I didn't buy the album.
I have recently added albums from Ednita Nazario, Miguel Bosé, Itati Cantoral, Yolanda Pérez, Roselyn Sanchez, and Alejandra Guzman. "Ednita por ti" is an interesting album. Roselyn sounds like an actress trying to forge a singing career. That doesn´t often work because they haven´t spent the time training their voice and seem to be trying to get a long on appearance. Thalía got by for awhile and I will probably buy at least one more album by Ednita. The other albums probably fall into the "one is enough" category. The cover of Lipstick is interesting but many of the other images are just strange looking to me.
In June 2004, I was introduced to the music of Alicia Villarreal. I read "People en español" and have decided to purchase any musical group with a top rating. I was initially turned off because she looked like Cyndi Lauper, who I have long had a negative reaction to. I needed a while to see that resemblance and by then, I really liked her sound. The cover for "Quando el corazon se cruza" was also a more glamour shot than previous covers. This didn't affect my buying her album because a pretty lady in a ranchera outfit is still a pretty lady. The main problem with the latest album is the lead in track. It basically makes me shudder; however, the advance button on my cd player gets me past it in a hurry.
Alicia has a web page called aliciavillarreal.com.mx but it is under construction but you can also find a reference on her management group Repapodaca. You have to choose "Elenco" and then "Música Ranchera". Between the two of them, someone doesn't understand Internet marketing. The Alicia Villarreal site should have been contructed and debugged long before any reference was published. Of course, if you want the revenue from the CD to pay for the web page, that is not possible.
There is a fan web site for "Grupo Limite" that I liked.That is about your only choice now. The official web site gives a 404 error. He also has a Tejano web site with many people that I identify with.
Alicia has a really strong voice and constraining it to a category of "ranchera" on Repapodaca doesn't do it justice. I consider that to be something like taking a good pop singer and adding a few country quitar picks and calling it a "country album". She is much better than that.
I read that some of the members of "Grupo Limite" were having problems with her being the leader. I had to chuckle because they obviously forgot something. When you form the group, you can also disband the group, which is what she did. Now the group is called "Alicia Villarreal" and everyone should understand their place in the structure of things. There were also comments that she joined the already successful "Grupo Limite". If this latter version is the truth, then the other members have to understand that people identify with the lead singer.
In November 2003, I was introduced to the music of José Luis Perales, Roberto Carlos, Yuri, and a number of other artists. I haven't found a local copy of anything by Yuri but have found collections by Carlos and Perales. There are others but some of them have been dead for a number of years and nostalgia doesn't seem to count for very long in the music industry.
In October 2003 I was introduced to the music of Pablo Montero. Some of his music is pretty heavy banda style, which I can only handle so much of. I like to listen to pop, tejano, or ranchero most often. His "Gracias - Homenaje de Javier Solis" is much different and is really easy to listen to. Some of the songs are old and were written in the early 1940's. While I was listening to Pablo via my MusicMatch premium subscription, I can across José Luis Perales, and Maria Conchita Alonso. There were several others that I have to figure out if I will purchase one of their albums. I have also listened to Linda Rondstadt for a long time but just recently listened to one of her Spanish albums.
My current "New Artist" list contains singers such as Jimena, Pancho Barraza, Joan Sebastian, José José, and others. Sebastian's "En Vivo Desde La Plaza El Progreso de Guadalajara" caused me a lot of problems. I was playing the mp3 music library using Microsoft's Windows Media Player and it was removing the "track #-" from the front of each mp3 file. This made the order be alphabetical instead of track order and suddenly, Joan was saying "Buenas Noches Guadalajara" around song number 5. I had to reprocess my albums and back up all of theirs folders on a 2nd computer with a lot of disk storage. None of this converted music is available via the Internet.
It was some time ago that I bought some artists that have been around for a relatively long time. One in particular is Vicente Fernández. I like western movies and the US studios are no longer making the formula versions. I think that Spanish language westerns of the good-guys versus the bad-guy gangsters or banditos are still being filmed in México. They aren´t good enough to make it to the DVD re-release market and my Spanish isn´t good enough to follow them in Spanish without sub titles on vhs video tapes. There are a lot of westerns in the local video stores that were made in México with Vicente as one of the stars. I think Marty Robins would be an American singer that followed the same formula.
When I was a young, many of the kids I knew wanted to be the fast draw Ranger from Robins "Big Iron" and we all went so far as to buy 44 calibre, single action, pistols. My mother had to put up with listening to "Big Iron" and Guy Warrens "Themes for African Drums". The fast draw as a game became serious when one of us tried to blow his knee cap off. It was amazing how fast everyone got realistic at that point. I figured that I could be next since 4 out of 5 of my shots would hit a 5-gallon can at 25 feet but the 5th might hit 5 feet in front of me.
I was also told to buy Joan Sebastian. His "En Vivo" album, that was recorded in Guadalajara, is really easy to listen to. He is one of these long time artists that have really good voices. I think he also has a powerful voice. What is important about that? Well, the dynamic range is a function of the power of the voice. I have questions like - could Paulina or Thalía be heard half way through the crowd without a microphone. I think Joan or Olga Tañón could be heard by the last row of seats. A standard venue in México would be the "La Plaza del Toros" or the bull fighting arenas. A video of Ana Gabriel performing in the "La Plaza del Toros" has 1000's of people seated from the stage to the top of the arena.
It has been quite awhile since I was told to buy Bronco and Marco Anotonio Solis. I like about 1/2 of Bronco's songs. I like Solis a little bit better. Bronco looks ranchero and I chuckle everytime they play the horse whinny. Solis looks more like a Luis Miguel style of singer. The only thing missing is the 100's of women in the front row lusting for his body. I am adding this after 2 weeks of listening to Solis. I was listening to his "En Vivo" from Puerto Rico and he talks to much. Don't get me wrong, if you tape a concert, you are going to hear a lot of talking. The change occured when I bumped into a new and an old album. The new one, "Mas De Mi Alma" was the breakpoint. I could drive my automobile playing "En Vivo" but I like the others when I am sitting down to eat at Old Country Buffet. This was true until Marco released "Tu amor o tu desprecio" and I had an album that I liked where ever I was at the time.
It is kind of fun to let some of the kids (anyone under 40) from México that I know what I listen to and find something they really like. At any rate, I have decided that I like Marco a lot more. I was really surprised to find that Marco is considered Tejano. I also like ranchero and have since I was a young boy and the braceros, who would come into the USA and work for the summer. There was a camp where they lived across the street from where I grew up. But you need to be a vaquero to appreciate some of the songs.
I was raised on a farm/ranch and had a horse (caballo) as soon as I could climb on her but I have never worked as a cowboy or vaquero. Solis, on the other hand, sings songs that are pleasant to listen to but paced just a little bit faster than I can understand. Michuacan is a long way from Texas and the first tejano singer that many people will think of as tejano is Selena. Most of the songs that Marco sings use words that I understand, which means understanding them can be a short term goal. I just need to think in Spanish at little bit better faster and I will be able to understand the songs as he sings them. They need the equivalent of "easy listening" because many of the música español singers fall into that category. I think tejano and norteño sound quite similar.
Marco might just end up being my cantante goal similar to reading Julia Alvarez's story of "Las mariposas" en español. I always thought it was going to be Soraya but there are more songs that Marco sings that I identify with. I still find that listening to Soraya's "Pueblito viejo" makes me feel both happy and sad and I don't know why. Her songs are always good and the instrumentals are very clean. She would also make a very classy "super star". I look at images of Soraya and I look at Aguilara and wonder what is wrong with people. At any rate, since I opened up a chapter in the advanced section of the text book "Español a lo vivo", that I had never read, and could read it, some of these goals may not be in the distant future.
Much of the remaining comments are historical. Mp3.com disappeared and eventually came back. You have to subscribe to Rapsody, which appears to be related to Real.com. Real audio products have messed up enough computers that I use and nothing new from them will be added. Of course, I can not say "never". When it becomes really important, it will be added very quickly just like anything else that was judged to be important would be.
Leila - is a new artist for me from Mp3.com. I have two and they are in the order that I like their voices. Leila has a web page on Mp3.com/Leila. Leila has a voice that has presence and almost resonates as you are listening to it. It is almost goosebump good. Her album is mostly English and I am looking for Spanish. I noticed one of her images has the typical mp3.com axial compression problem. The photographer in me really doesn't like "Serinity". It looks like they tried to do a high-key by digitally lightening the image and didn't cope with image contrast at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't know how to do it either. It is just that I have seen a large number of high-key prints and know what it is supposed to look like. In addition, every computer is setup differently and only a few will display the effect properly. I tried unsquishing Leila's composite from 400x400 to 400x275. The last ratio is the size of the image from the 1st page as reported by Netscape. She now has her own web site called Leilas World. You can do so much more when you have control. Another site with information on Leila is on Cd Street.
The other Mp3.com artist is Ihara. She also has a very mellow voice but she has a mix of songs that I like better. You can also find her on Mp3.com/Ihara. When I first encountered her web site on mp3.com, most of her songs had problems. Several of us probably emailed her about the problem and she has fixed the problem. She still needs to do something about her images but they are of secondary importance when you are looking for audio. I used Adobe´s Photoshop to unskew the images. The original is Ihara-2 and the modified one is Ihara-2-unsquished. See if the unsquished one looks better to your eye. What I did is tell Photoshop to adjust the image size from 700x700 to 700x900. I tried 800 pixels vertical but liked 900 better.
I am not trying to pick on these two artists. It is just they were the two good enough to be added to this page. I have also emailed them about the improperly added images and nothing has changed. The CD-ROM from Ihara also had the squished image on the cover. Are you going to remember her music longer or the dumb looking image on the CD-ROMs cover. This is a universal problem on Mp3.com.