I'll have a cup o' Joe in Dallas, a steak in Del Rio, I'll wait a few more miles, I'll have my cake in Mexico- "Truck Driver's Roll," sung by Del Rey Del Rey and Steve James are back in Mexico, and that's good news for music fans.

These roots blues maestros are making their third appearance in the country as a duo. (Del Rey soloed at the Encuentro de Dos Tradiciones festival back in 1999.) This time they've brought along a friend-all the way from Australia-the nonpareil slide guitarist Dom Turner. The three will perform in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato and Mexico City over the next few weekends.

Del and Steve's music is a celebration of the blues, drawing inspiration from the early masters of the form: Big Bill Broonzy, Kokomo Arnold, Bo Carter, Roosevelt Sykes, Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, to name a few. These seminal figures may have long faded from the radar screen of contemporary listeners, but their exuberant and often raunchy music remains the bedrock of modern pop. Such sounds imbue the repertoire of Del Rey and Steve James.

Audiences are customarily dazzled by the duo's virtuoso technique and humorous interplay on stage. Playing vintage acoustic stringed instruments-Del picks a metal resonator guitar and ukulele; Steve plays National Style guitar and mandolin-they trade riffs and blend harmonies so naturally that the down-home spirit of the early blues shines right through.

Known throughout Australia as the founding member of the Backsliders blues band, bottleneck slide wizard Dom Turner has concurrently developed a solo persona as Supro. Long on foot pedals and special effects, this experimental project showcases Turner's abstract songwriting skills and includes samples of East Asian street music and Delta blues icons like Son House. This nontraditional approach to the blues might seem to run counter to the purely acoustic stylings of Del and Steve, but the pair remains impressed by Turner's solo forays. "Dom is such a thoughtful intelligent musician, so concerned with context and tone, it really comes out great," Del Rey says. It's this more introspective side of Turner that Mexican audiences will encounter.

Although Del and Steve are playing mostly as a duo these days, each boasts a formidable solo career prior to joining forces.

Del Rey dove into the blues at an early age. While still in her teens in San Diego, she developed a passion for Memphis Minnie, studying the flamboyant Delta blueswoman's formidable guitar technique. At a time when her musical peers were emulating the Ramones, Del fell head-over-heels for the music of an earlier era.

"Instead of continuing on my course, playing my Gibson ES330 in garage bands until I got signed in L.A. along with X and the Go-Gos, I immediately became immersed in the world of Memphis Minnie and would listen to nothing recorded after 1940," she recalls. 

The turning point came when she was invited to share the stage at a San Diego record store with Sam Chatmon, one of the original Mississippi Sheiks and half-brother to Charley Patton and Minnie herself. Del has since established herself as a key figure on the Pacific Northwest scene, both as a solo artist and with the Yes Yes Boys, her deliriously retro swing outfit.

Austin-based Steve James is held in high regard among acoustic blues aficionados. A student of Furry Lewis, a Memphis guitarist who took the limelight in the 1920s, James has taken a scholarly approach to the blues: He writes articles for various music publications and features numbers by obscure but noteworthy artists of the past in his repertoire, along with his own blues-infused compositions. 

In addition to cutting CDs for the Shanachie, Telarc and Burnside labels, James has recorded with such diverse musical personalities as Maria Muldaur, James McMurtry and the Bad Livers, and appeared on National Public Radio's Prairie Home Companion. 

Put the two together and you've got a blues force to be reckoned with, as musical insiders are well aware. The two are prominently featured on Maria Muldaur's Grammy-nominated Sweet Lovin' Old Soul, and Del Rey toured the US East Coast with Muldaur in 2005, playing electric guitar for a change. Del & Steve also played Europe last year, bringing their act to France, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Ireland and England. "We try and remind people of a good reason to put up with Americans," she says. "It's the music." 

Their return to Mexico is partly due to Del Rey's longtime fascination with the country and culture. "I've kept coming back to Mexico for its sense of humor and worldview, which seems to me to be something we in El Norte have lost hold of, except in places like New Orleans (at least until Katrina)," says Del, who performed in an all-girl mariachi group when she was in college. "Plus, I speak better Spanish than Steve, so I get to talk more."


Del Rey and Steve James
with Dom Turner
Friday, February 17, 8:30pm
La Carpa
Calzada de la Aurora
100 pesos

Nigel Coxe to Perform at Pro Musica
By B. K. Lake (Feb 10, 2006)

Pianist Nigel Coxe plays two varied programs at the San Miguel el Grande Pro Musica series February 18 and 19, presenting classical and modern composers ranging from Beethoven to Schubert, with some Gershwin and Schoenberg along the way.

Born in Jamaica and trained in England, Coxe has performed extensively in Great Britain, Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and Asia during his more than 30-year career as a concert pianist.

He is known for his interpretation of the works of the late Percy Grainger. Two of his CDs, Music of Percy Grainger and Showstoppers- with pieces by Gershwin, Grainger and Eubie Blake-have been best-sellers.

The composer Brian Chapple wrote "Trees Revisited" for Cox, which he premiered in 1970. Programs of Virgil Thompson's music, which Coxe had prepared with the late composer and had broadcast in Australia and Britain, were issued on a record by the Musical Heritage Society.

The London Daily Telegraph, in a concert review, said Coxe "played with a quite exceptional fire, elegance and bravura." He has been a professor at The Royal Academy of Music, London, and The University of Massachusetts at Amherst .He is now emeritus professor at Massachusetts and a fellow of The Royal Academy.

At his February 18 concert, Coxe will play works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Arnold Schoenberg, Ludwig von Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn and George Gershwin. The February 19 concert features music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Bella Bartok and Frederic Chopin.

Tickets can be purchased at Galeria San Miguel, next to the Presidencia; Casa de Papel, Mesones 57, and at St. Paul's and the Chamber Music Festival office in Bellas Artes, weekdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information is available at www.promusicasma.tripod.com 

Nigel Coxe 
Saturday & Sunday, 
February 18 and 19,
5 pm
St. Paul's Church
calle Cardo 6
Reservations: 
152-0387
150/100/50 pesos

Grupo Xiuhtototl in concert
(Feb 10, 2006)

I erect my drum, I assemble my friends. Aya! Here they find recreation, I make them sing. Aya! Be happy, dress in finery, oh friends. Ohuaya ohuaya  - Netzahualcoyotl

Pre-Hispanic music and ethno-fusion merge in a special concert this week when Grupo Xiuhtototl is joined by bassist Antonio Lozoya. Grupo Xiuhtototl (Azure Bird) consists of multimedia artist and composer Tim Hazell and his colleague, lecturer and Caracol de Fuego member Nestor Vargas. Together they combine experimental pre-Hispanic music with a variety of instruments from other cultures. Well-known musician Antonio Lozoya joins them on contrabass. 

Instruments like the oud, sitar, dulcimer and full moon, a single-string variant of the cello family, come from many parts of the world, while Vargas's complement of ancient microchromatic flutes, musical stones, rain serpent (chicahuaztli), log xylophone, and drums (huehuetls) represent Mexico's pre-Hispanic heritage. Grupo Xiuhtotl combines native performance art with the traditional costumes and rituals of sacred Aztec music. Orchestrations for the concert are creative collaborations between Grupo Xiuhtototl and Lozoya. 

Bassist Antonio Lozoya has played with many jazz greats, as well as with San Miguel's tango orchestra during the International Tango Festivals of 2003 and 2005. Lozoya is the coordinator of the Ciclo de Conferencias Didácticas, a series of presentations outlining the history and appreciation of jazz, and has been an integral part of the San Miguel International Jazz Festival for many years.

This spring the group releases two debut feature-length DVDs, recorded in 2005 for Provicom Productions. 

In January 2007 Grupo Xiuhtototl will premiere their new chamber music work, which incorporates pre-Hispanic instruments with traditional components of a chamber music ensemble. This new work is a collaboration with Lozoya and Guanajuato's Ehecalli.

Grupo Xiuhtototl 
and bassist Antonio Lozoya 
Tuesday, February 14, 7:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana 
Biblioteca Pública 
70 pesos
Tickets available from
February 11 after 4pm
information: 152-7305