Speaking of Tex-Mex Polkas

One of my favourite Tex-Mex polkas was recorded on the first record by Texas Tornados. Flaco Jimenez plays squeezebox on this one, as he did on his solo recording, In Heaven There is no Beer, which I featured in my last post. He looks quite a bit younger in this video, though. The tune is called Soy de San Luis.

Texas Tornados featured the late Doug Sahm, Auggie Meyers, Flaco Jimenez and the late Freddie Fender. Sahm and Meyers had a sound which was well known to pop audiences back in the 60s. Their band was the Sir Douglas Quintet. You might remember She's About a Mover or perhaps Mendocino. Sir Douglas Quintet was a British sounding name, and maybe they thought they could catch a wave with the "British Invasion". Even then, they sounded Tex-Mex to me, with that super-cheezy organ sound. Sahm and Meyers together again, along with Jimenez and Freddie Fender formed a "super-group" of sorts, which had a number of successful records as Texas Tornados. Their first album in particular is excellent. Another polka from that recording was Dinero. If you got the dinero, I got my camero, indeed. Other excellent tunes on that disc include Who Were you Thinking of (when we were making love, last night), and She Never Spoke Spanish to Me. Spanish was written by Butch Hancock of the Flatlanders, a band which also featured Joe Ely.