San Miguel City Limits premiers first in concert series
By Veronica Byrne, March 16, 2007

San Miguel City Limits With Gary P. Nunn, Patricia Vonne & Darin Murphy Sun, Mar 25, 2–10pm La Carpa de la Aurora 150 pesos

Get out your dancin’ shoes and prepare to rock the day away at San Miguel City Limits, the first of a series of what promises to be many concerts/music festivals of its type in San Miguel. Scheduled for Sunday, March 25, the doors, or flaps as the case may be, of La Carpa de la Aurora open at 2 pm, with the last guitar licks fading into the night around 10 pm. The show is produced by Los Tejanos de San Miguel, four fellow Texans turned San Miguel locals. Food and beverage concessions serve up Texas BBQ and Italian fare. Wash it all down with a 10-peso beer, a glass of wine or your favorite refresco.

Headlining the show from Austin, Texas, is Gary P. Nunn, from the days of The Armadillo World Headquarters’ fame. Fellow Austinites Patricia Vonne, sister of filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Once Upon a Time in Mexico), and Darin Murphy also take the stage. 

Gary P. Nunn

It all started with a garage band in Brownfield, Texas, when Gary P. Nunn, now described as “a pioneer of Texas country music,” was in the seventh grade. In 1968, after high school and a stint at Texas Tech University and South Plains College, Nunn transferred to the University of Texas at Austin where he plunged into the already bourgeoning Texas progressive music scene. He played bass with notable greats Michael Martin Murphy, Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson, as well as leading The Lost Gonzo Band, which played stage and studio backup for both Murphy and Walker. Nunn has composed many hit songs, including the memorable “London Homesick Blues“(I Want to Go Home with the Armadillo) and “Rock Me, Roll Me.” He has garnered several gold and platinum records, and his songs have been recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker, Rosanne Cash and David Allen Coe, among others.

Nunn’s four-year association with Jerry Jeff Walker and The Lost Gonzo Band resulted in six, top selling albums released on the MCA label, and another three recorded by Nunn with The Gonzos solo on the MCA and Capitol Records labels. With the disbanding of The Lost Gonzo Band, Nunn began performing on his own in 1980, and has become one of the most well-known and popular artists on the Texas music scene. He is respected in the Nashville music community as well, and was recently acknowledged by BMI in Nashville for his contributions as a songwriter and publisher. Among other awards, Nunn was honored by the Texas Department of Commerce and Tourism as a Lone Star Great and received an Award of Appreciation from the San Antonio Texas Music Association, along with ZZ Top, Moe Bandy and Tish Hinojosa, in 1990. He was added to the West Texas Walk of Fame in Lubbock, Texas, in conjunction with the opening of the Buddy Holly Museum, in 1995 and was inducted into the Texas Hall of Fame in 2004.

Nunn enjoys near-folk status in Texas and continues to pack houses, both with his loyal following and new fans, whether appearing in the US, Mexico or Europe. He sings the praises of his native Texas, its culture and its colorful characters to audiences who have given up hard rock, at least for a few hours, in favor of the Texas two-step. Los Tejanos de San Miguel is proud to welcome Gary P. Nunn as the headliner for this first San Miguel City Limits concert.

Patricia Vonne 

The Austin American-Statesman describes Patricia Vonne as “a Tex-Mex spitfire with a rock’n’roll heart,” and says that, “this San Antonio native plays a border-crossing, bilingual mix of flamenco flamboyance and down-in-the-mud exuberance that’s a Lone Star original.”

Vonne’s second album, Guitars and Castanets, intermingles rock numbers like “Texas Burning” and “Lonesome Rider” with mariachi-influenced songs like “La Gitana de Triana” and “Fiesta Sangria.” Vonne includes tributes to personal inspirations like Joe Ely (“Joe’s Gone Ridin”), Alejandro Escovedo (“Guitarras y Castañuelas”), and Johnny Reno (“Sax Maniac”). Vonne also wrote and performed “Traeme Paz,” featured on the soundtrack of the film Once Upon A Time In Mexico, written and directed by her brother, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, and filmed here in San Miguel and surrounding areas.

Vonne grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and moved to New York in 1990, where she sharpened her musical talents singing backup and playing bass with the band, Mick & The Maelstroms. A storyteller par excellence, she began writing her own songs after meeting her future husband and creative partner, Robert LaRoche, at Manhattan’s China Club where his band, The Sighs, were playing. She developed her Tex-Mex musical style and attracted a loyal following playing at some of Manhattan’s foremost rock clubs. Vonne and LaRoche moved to Austin in 2001, bringing her music home to Texas. Vonne founded Bandolera Records and released a self-titled debut album of recordings made in New York. The Austin Chronicle wrote that Vonne’s “bilingual tour de force melds eclectic with electric and exudes an elegance seldom associated with rock,” while Texas Monthly reported that Vonne’s “confidant, tuff gal vocals, sharp musicianship and smart lyricism don’t just promise the total package, they deliver the goods from the get-go.”

When not touring or performing on her own, Vonne opens for an eclectic array of artists—Joe Ely; Alejandro Escovedo; Los Lobos; Raul Malo; Buddy Guy; Cyndi Lauper; Johnny Lang; Pat Green; Charlie Robison and Tito & Tarantula, with whom she toured Europe as a special guest musician in 2002. At barely under six feet tall, this dark-haired, green-eyed beauty will alternately rock and beguile the San Miguel audience, depending on whether she reaches for her guitar or her castanets, as she fluidly moves between English and Spanish, relying on whichever language best tells the story at hand.

Darin Murphy

Although Darin Murphy has been compared to Robyn Hitchcock, Jay Farrar, The Beatles and David Bowie, his reputation as a gifted musician, songwriter, producer and performer is purely original and well deserved. Murphy grew up in Houston’s music and theater communities, surrounded by musicians and actors.

It was inevitable that he would develop diverse musical interests and abilities, as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of pop records. Along with his sister, Trish Murphy, he climbed to the top of the Houston music scene. Together, they produced two CDs and performed to capacity crowds on college campuses. Eventually, they both moved to Austin, and while his sister was drawn towards alternative country music, Murphy was enticed into the British-influenced indie rock scene.

Combining European and American inspirations, Murphy emerged with his first self-produced, self-performed solo album, Solitarium, in 1998, drawing praise from critics, retailers and listeners worldwide. The Austin Chronicle wrote that Murphy’s music is like, “British Pop filtered through Southern soul. Playing all the instruments himself, Murphy’s songwriting displays a penchant for the bizarre… In the liner notes, Murphy says ‘the hook is not part of the song, the hook is the song.’ In Murphy’s case, the hook is the whole album.” When released in Britain, MOJO UK wrote, “Murphy has enough identity of his own to make the listening experience very satisfying. He explores relationships with a detached logic and surgical precision that could make him a difficult boyfriend, but his melodic cart wheeling arrangements sweeten even the bitterest pills, transforming his self-ascribed dissections into compellingly hummable cameos of lovers trapped in a loveless world.” In 1999, Murphy and sister Trish, now a formidabl
e alternative country talent in her own right, toured Europe. 

Murphy followed his first recording effort with Haunted Gardenias in 2001; it reaped multiple songwriting awards, citations on year-end top ten lists and regular commercial radio airplay. In 2005, he made his professional acting debut on Broadway in the original cast of Don Scardino’s Lennon, the musical that tells the story of John Lennon’s life using his own words and music. Murphy says that his story doesn’t matter, but his stories do. “The songs are the autobiography, the diary, everything. But it’s twisted and distorted. It has to be, so that listeners can make their own interpretation. Or none at all if they wish. The main thing is not to try to make something cool,” he says, “but rather to allow it.”

As you can see, San Miguel City Limits is promising quite a lineup for your entertainment pleasure. The music, along with great eats, provide a fun-filled afternoon and evening for the entire family. Tickets for the event are offered at Hotel Casa Linda, La Carpa, Border Crossings, La Conexión, The Bagel Cafe, Romanos Restaurant and The Longhorn Smokehouse. Limited VIP tables are available by calling 152-7347.

Tuneful turns for tickling the ivories

Benefit concert “Musical Marathon: Race for the Piano” Mon, Mar 19, 6–9pm Teatro Santa Ana 300 pesos

“Musical Marathon: Race for the Piano” involves no sprinting, but the range of music and stellar showmanship may nonetheless leave you breathless. This mega-concert, the brainchild of Teatro Santa Ana’s director, José Luis Mendoza, along with musicians Ken and Wendy Bichel and Doug Robinson, will help defray the cost of the theater’s new piano. Proceeds from the cash bar and sale of delectable tidbits at the adjoining Café Santa Ana will likewise go toward the cost of the instrument.

The varied lineup of stellar musicians includes guitarist Ken Basman, Vishnu Wood, saxophonist Claude Lawrence, tenor Javier Hernandez, pianist Lily Hernandez, pianist and cellist Enrique Prado and oboist Carly Cross, singer and actress Shannon Day, pianist Elsmarie, flamenco guitarist and harpist Sergio Basurto and international vocalist and guitarist Myrna. The evening also includes the romantic guitar duets of Jack and Francis, Severo Barrera playing flamenco guitar, a performance by classical pianist Victor Hugo Ramos, from Guanajuato, and gypsy guitarist Javier. 

Tickets are on sale at Teatro Santa Ana and La Tienda at the Biblioteca Pública for 300 pesos, and of course donations are most welcome!

Globetrotting guitarist takes us on her journey
By Keith Wall

Erika Luckett Tues & Wed, Mar 20 & 21, 8pm El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro Plaza Pueblito 28 Stirling Dickinson Colonia San Antonio 150 pesos 154-8701

Internationally acclaimed Latin songstress and instrumentalist Erika Luckett is arriving in San Miguel next week directly from five days of performances at the International Guitar Festival in Zijuatanejo. She offers an evening of South American-themed jazz, blues, folk and pop in her own eclectic style at the intimate venue of El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro.

Globally rooted, Luckett’s performances celebrate her transcontinental upbringing. Born in Mexico, she began exploring songwriting and music-making during a unique childhood that zigzagged across the Venezuelan countryside, Brazilian rain forests, and South American metropolises; took her on to subway serenades in Paris and eventually to the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts for a degree in film scoring.

With lyrics that capture the intimacy of our human experience and melodies that make distant lands feel like home, her songs invite the listener into a terrain that is both vast and familiar. Describing what happens during her transmission is like trying to explain the way the sunrise casts light across birds in flight. Poetic and sensual, her voice conveys lyrical depth, and her fiery, innovative guitar playing creates an orchestra of sound with only six strings. This unique expression of world-class artistry has earned her a remarkable variety of accolades. Her album, Unexpected, was honored as Album of the Year 2006. Her many awards include Best International Music Album of the Year 2005 and Best Independent Release of the Year. Luckett was also recognized by Modern Woman Today as one of the 100 Most Outstanding Women of the Year.

Whether singing in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese or delivering a thrilling guitar instrumental, Luckett has captivated audiences with her luminous presence and dazzling musical talent. San Miguel audiences have the opportunity to meet and experience Erika Luckett on March 20 and 21. For reservations, call El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro at (415) 154-8701.

Pro Musica presents “Go for Baroque” festival
By B. K. Lake

Concert Pro Musica “Go for Baroque” festival Sat, Mar 24–Sun, Apr 1 Various locations and times

A week-long festival featuring Baroque music from Italy, France and Germany is presented March 24 to April 1 by musicians from Texas, Guanajuato, and Mexico City playing rare instruments from the Baroque period.

The “Go for Baroque—and More!” festival, a collaboration of the San Miguel el

Grande Pro Música and the Camerata Ventapane of Houston, presents concerts in San Miguel and a concert each in Querétaro and Guanajuato. The festival also includes a musical evening with cellist and viola de gamba artist, Barrett Sills, two films about the Baroque era, a lecture and demonstration of a French-style harpsichord and a closing gala with the musicians in the Hyder House mansion.

“San Miguel, Querétaro and Guanajuato are ideal locations for the festival because of

the architecture from the Baroque period that extended to about 1750,” said Rodrigo Trevino Lozano, festival director. “The music will be played in intimate settings as the composers intended.”

Sills, the festival’s artistic director, has performed widely in the US, Europe, South America and Japan. He is the principal cellist for the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra

and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra as well as a soloist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Ballet. He is co-founder and artistic director of the Camerata Ventapane. Other members of the Camerata Ventapane are soprano Ana Treviño-Godfrey, harpsichordist Brad Bennight and violinist Jonathan Godfrey. 

Members of the Capella Guanajuatensis who are performing include Mikhail Rovinski, viole de gama; Djamilia Rovinskaia, violin barroco; Cuauhtemoc Trejo, baroque flute and traverse, and organist Jose Suarez.

The films shown during the festival are Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings of the World) and Le Roi Danse (The King is Dancing). Tous les matins du monde takes place in the late 17th century, with viola da gamba player, Monsieur de Sainte Colombe and aspiring student, Marin Marais, as the two central characters. Overflowing with rivalry and drama, Le Roi Danse takes place in Versailles with the French sun-king, Louis XIV, and Florentine Gianbattista Lulli as the two main players in this stunning film. The Teatro Santa Ana in the Biblioteca Pública shows these two films.

Tickets for all events are available at La Tienda, Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25; La Conexion, Aldama 3, and Casa de Papel, Mesones 57. Season tickets are 1,650 pesos, including all events, except transportation to the Querétaro and Guanajuato concerts. The evening concerts on March 28 and 30 are 200 pesos and the March 31 concert is from 75 to 200 pesos. The matinee concerts are 125 pesos with brunch or lunch 175 pesos additional. The closing gala is 550 pesos and the encore concert in Guanajuato is 120 pesos. The films are 50 pesos each. The concert in Querétaro is free.


“Go for Baroque” calendar

Saturday, March 24: A demonstration of a French-style harpsichord and a lecture in Spanish, by maestro Juan Luis García of Mexico in the Museo Allende.

Monday, March 26: At noon, the film Tous Les Martins (All the Mornings of the World), which features a best-selling soundtrack.

At 7pm in Querétaro, at Santa Rosa de Viterbo Church is a performance on the baroque organ.

Tuesday, March 27: At noon, the film Le Roi Danse (The King is Dancing), a Golden Globe winner and nominee for an Oscar for best foreign film, is shown.

A soiree, “Up Close and Musical with Barrett Sills,” with wine and canapés will be held at 6:30pm, in the home of Barbara Porter, Sollano 49, for season ticket holders.

Wednesday, March 28: At noon there is a matinee concert in the garden room of the La Finestra Restaurant, Ancha de San Antonio 9, followed by an optional luncheon.

At 7pm, Italian Baroque music is featured in the Sala Franciscana of the ex-concert of San Antonio de Padua, Mesones 46, behind the San Francisco Church.

Friday, March 30: At 12:30pm, the matinee concert takes place in Posada Corazon, Aldama 9, preceded by an optional breakfast buffet.

At 7pmGerman Baroque music will be performed in the private music room at Chorro 19.

Saturday, March 31: At 5 pm, French Baroque music will sound off the walls in St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Cardo 6. 

A buffet dinner with wine will be served at the closing party on March 31 at 7:30pm, in the Hyder House mansion, Quebrada 83, where guests can meet the artists.

Sunday, April 1: At 1 pm, there is an encore concert of French Baroque music in the Gene Byron Museum in Marfil, on the grounds of the ex-Hacienda de Santa Ana on the outskirts of Guanajuato.

A Forest of Americas, a multi cultural musical collaboration
By B. K. Lake

A Forest of Americas Sat, Mar 24, 7:30pm Teatro Ángela Peralta 200/150/100 pesos

A Forest of Americas, a 45-minute piece combining musical styles from Europe, the US, Mexico and Latin America and ancient and modern instruments returns to the stage for an encore performance. After more than 400 people turned out for the standing-room only concerts in January at St. Paul’s church, discussion is underway for a possible US tour.

“What a triumph,” exclaimed George Bell, a former concert violinist who books international stars for San Miguel’s chamber music festival. “I was hoping they would play again,” one audience member said.

A Forest of Americas is the first collaboration between San Miguel composers Tim Hazell, who collects and plays ancient instruments, and Doug Robinson, a jazz pianist and record producer.

Hazell and Robinson said their goal “was to combine the compositional and performance earmarks of classical chamber music, the indigenous instruments of pre-Hispanic Mexico and the improvisational creativity of jazz.”

“We’ve just been knocked out by peoples’ response to the music,” Robinson said. “The premiere inspired us to keep creating—there will be one new movement, and some very cool new arrangements for the opening acts as well. And since so many people have asked about it, we will have a live recording available for sale.”

“Everyone in the ensemble was enthusiastic during rehearsals, but you never really know how an audience will react until you get out there and do it live,” Robinson said. “When we finally premiered it, the music just leapt off the paper and it came alive. And because of the amount of improvisation built into the composition, every single performance was different. That’s the most exciting aspect of “Forest”: the audience can look forward to being surprised every time we play it, and the same goes for the performers. That’s really the jazz influence at work.”

The proof, of course, was in the listening. And what the audiences heard was music that, by turns, was beautifully melodic, playful, surprising and always absorbing. This was chamber music in the sense it was meant to be played by a small group in an intimate setting. But it was music that pulled the audience into the performance, in part by playing to the listeners’ sense of anticipation by switching styles frequently: classic Bach, Cuban and Flamenco rhythms, some heartland banjo, a dash of pop and big servings of jazz. Seamless ensemble playing that suddenly gave way to extended piano and percussion solos. And the sounds of those ancient string and percussion instruments: birds and running water, melancholy and foreboding. 

Just as varied were the members of the ensemble. Joining Robinson and Hazell were Maureen Conlon Gutierrez, a US-based concert violinist; 16-year-old Rolando Fernandez, a Cuban-born cellist; Gonzalo Gomez Martinez, ancient instruments; José Luis “Hopalong” Chagoyan, contrabass; Victor Monterrubio, percussionist, and Ken Basman, guitar. 

“The US concerts are developments currently being discussed,” Hazell said. 

“We now have interest from organizations and government departments that promote liberal arts and biculturalism, which could help to make further concerts for Mexican and Latino audiences a feasible and desirable goal in 2007.”

If the other concerts don’t happen right away, they will certainly in the near future. “Forest” needs to be heard in many places by people ready to open up their senses to this tapestry of sounds and styles that Robinson and Hazell have woven. 

The composers received a grant from the San Miguel Educational Foundation. The Pro Musica series, which sponsored the premiere, also presents the March 24 concert. Tickets are available in the Ángela Peralta box office, Hernández Macías 62.

Shannon Day farewell concert at the Teatro Santa Ana

Shannon Day Sat, Mar 24, 7:30pm Teatro Santa Ana, Biblioteca Pública Reloj 50A 150 pesos

Singer/Entertainer Shannon Day is performing excerpts from her One Woman Show at the Teatro Santa Ana with pianist Elena Shoemaker. After three sold out performances in the Sala Quetzal, Shannon would like to give San Miguel a sampling of her cabaret show that will be opening in the famous “Plush Room” in San Francisco this summer. She weaves the story of her life from a tomboy childhood to the insanity of Broadway auditions in New York City. She also flashes back to the time she went AWOL from Opera School in Italy, and the days of singing in wedding bands and church choirs. All of these experiences are told with funny characterizations and fabulous music. Amazingly, much of Shannon’s life can be told through the musical theater genre; music by such great composers as Stephen Sondheim, Ira and George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Cy Coleman. 

Shannon is a graduate of the University of South Florida’s vocal music department. She also attended the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy. Shannon studied and performed in the authentic tradition of the African-American Spiritual for 6 years and is uniquely gifted at crossing styles and genres of music. She sang and recorded professionally with the San Francisco and Atlanta Symphony choruses and has also gigged with various Jazz bands in both Florida and California. Her first professional theatrical role just happened to be her dream role, that of Eva Peron in Evita. A consummate performer, she loves the challenge of trying something new. She is currently working on perfecting her yodel.

A passionate and devoted teacher, Shannon is an artist in residence at Rooftop Alternative School in San Francisco, California where she also maintains a private voice studio.

A portion of the proceeds from all concerts benefit “The Language of Photography.”



This is a show you won’t want to miss, so get your tickets early. Tickets are available at the Biblioteca.