Los Pinguinos del Norte – Corridos De La Frontera / Arhoolie CD-9051

Description

CD 9051

Recorded live at cantina El Patio in Piedras Negras Coah. in the 1970s. Although thirty years old this is the only live recording ever made by a typical authentic Norteño conjunto on their home turf in a cantina singing mostly historic and true narrative ballads from the Texas-Mexico border. This CD includes the original LP album plus a number of previously unissued selections. The LP was also the very first Arhoolie release of this delightful lilting regional Mexican country music.

Rubén Castillo Juárez – vocals & accordion Hilario Gaytán Moreno – vocals & guitar Ricardo Escalante – bass & vocal on track 13 with Hilario Rumel Fuentes – guide gritos & vocal on track 8 with Ruben

1. El Desesperado
2. Gregorio Cortéz
3. BenjamÌn Argumedo
4. Yo Soy Norteño
5. Jacinto Treviño
6. El Contrabando De El Paso
7. Los Dos Hermanos
8. Mexico Americano
9. Luz Arcos
10. El Contrabandista
11. Corrido De Pablo Varela
12. Un Chavo De La Paloma
13. Carga Blanca
14. Los Tequileros

REVIEW

“If Robert Johnson’s diagnosis that ‘the blues is a lowdown achin’ heart disease’ holds up internationally then the poor Pingüinos del Norte are ailing something fierce.  Just don’t tell then since this sun-baked three-man squad has a ball exorcising their trouble.  Nonetheless the telltale symptoms are there: the bitter taste of love and assorted evil in the singers’ mouths and the band’s cathartic need to unload their burden.

It’s just that being Mexican the blues burble out as conjunto.  And burble they do as Corridos de la Frontera was just another day at the office for these so-called Penguins of the North.  They had stoked countless rowdy gigs like this one before so the attendance of a tape machine didn’t alter their ignition of a cantina in Piedras Negras that day in 1970…Despite being sung in Spanish none of the gory details are missed thanks to complete English translations.”

– Dennis Rozanski BluesRag