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11 August 2010 - I bumped into Distinto by Diego Tores. I really like to listen to him on a show on Telehit, a Mexican channel. I am listening to it in my car. At times, I think I have an English album playing but it isn't tool long before it is back to Spanish.
16 July 2010 - I recently picked up Euphoria by Enrique Iglesias, A son de guerra by Juan Luis Gerra and the 4.40, and Paraíso Espress by Alejandro Sanz. I have listened to them a couple of times on iTunes but they haven´t made it to the car.¨"Niña de fuego" is still being played there.
20 June 2010 - I have added a few albums and haven't included them here. Lets start with Alacranes Musical and Por Siempre. Then Julieta Venegas and Otra Cosa, Marc Anthony and Iconos, Lila Downs and La Misterosa en Paris, and finally, Juan Gabriel with his self-titled album Juan Gabriel. None of these albums replaced Buika for very long in my car. I tried to play my iPod's mega-mix but couldn't find the radio frequency.
29 April 2010 - I have added a few new albums and fogot to update them here. I have "Niña de fuego" by Buika. She is sort of the African and Spanish version of Nora Jones but I like to listen to her better. It has been playing in my car for awhile. I also purchased "Los Años de Oro: La Carta de Sus Éxitos (Remastered)" by Reynaldo Armas. This is a músic de llanera album. I was re'introduced to Armas by a friend from Bogota. I was walking around WalMart and found "Amame, besame" by Diana Reyes. Diana was the first duranguense singer that I purchased. She misses on some songs but this album is as good as it gets.
20 December 2009 - I have been playing Thalia's new album in my car since 1 December. I was told it is her response to people that thought she couldn't produce a hit record anymore. I fell into that group. I have purchased but not seriously played anything since "Amor a la Mexicana". Primera Fila is worth going out of your way to find and purchase. I like the medley and mujeres the best.
15 July 2009 - I went out looking for Bebe and the other new releases. I found "Necesito de Ti" by Vicente Fernández and "Mi Tesoro Norteno" by Pablo Montero. These two albums are better than anything I purchased in the last month.
2 July 2009 - I continue to be amazed. I went into Hastings and they had the "The Very Best" new album by Lila Downs. Out of the 4 albums that I was interested in, only "Sin Remordimientos" by Reyes couldn't be purchased locally. I expected to find "Gran City Pop" by Rubio and the rest were surprises.
25 June 2009 - This is a rare week. You have new albums by Paulina Rubio, Alicia Villarreal, and Diana Reyes. At this point, it is a toss up as to whether I like "La Jeja" by Villarreal or "Sin Remordimientos" by Reyes more. Neither album is typical of the singer. "La Jefa" sounds like it is half way from Villarreal's recent stuff and "Grupo Limite". When I first purchased an album by Reyes, it was Durangense and that is what I got used to listening to. This is 15 hits and is more ranchera.
14 June 2009 - I purchased "El Tahúr" by Vicente Fernández, IV by Intocable, "Que vueltas de la vida" by Reyli, "15 Exitos" by Pedro Infante, and Desatados by Los Horóscopes de Durango. The Infante album was the only bad one. It came from a time when recording technology was only borderline bad and there isn´t anything they can do to really improve on it.
7 April 2009 - I purchased a new album called "Cuculand" by Cucu Diamante. I downloaded the siingle of the week and liked it so well that I purchased the complete album. I let one of my Mexican friends listen and he thought was Gloria Estefan. Diamante has a similar voice and some of her Miami Sound Machine rhythm. There are other tracks that sound like "The Ketchup Song" from Las Ketchup and their album "Hijas del Tomate".
5 November 2008 - I have been lazy again. I have a number of new albums. I will start out with Grandes Exitos by La Oreja de Van Gogh. I like this album because it is Amaia singing. La Quinta Estación has a new one out called "Directo desde Madrid" and isn't bad to listen to.
La Historia de Gloria Trevi is an old album that has been re-released. I like her newer stuff a lot better. I really haven't had much of a chance to listen to "Palabras del silencio" by Luis Fonsi because "Una día más" by Reik has been playing in the car.
13 October 2008 - I have been lazy lately. I have a number of new CDs in Spanish. I will have to update my list.
Lunada by Thalia is a recent purchase. I don't know if I am the only one but "Sangre Caliente" has Thalia with a much stronger voice. I have liked a number of her songs but her weak voice has always kept me from ranking her very high in my list of singers.
I purchased Lucero's "En Vivo Auditorio Nacional". The recordings don't seem to be that good.
I am listening to Marco Antonio Solís' album "No Molestar" in my car. I don't always like the lyrics but his voice is very pleasant to listen to. When I think of other singers, I think of "Para Siempre" as sung by Vicente Fernández.
I have "Tu Inspiracion" and "Ahora y Siempre" by Alacranes Musical. I have a number of Duranguense genre Spanish music albums. Like banda, I prefer the lighter versions. It is a genre that is easy to overwhelm my listening pleasure.
La Oreja de Van Gogh has a new singer and a new album. Leire Martinez is the singer who replaced Amaia Montero. I really liked the sound of Montero's voice and was concerned when she had artistic differences and left the band. I have been listening to "A Las Cinco en el Astoria" with iTunes. Martinez's voice is very similar to Montero's but the songs don't seem to play to the pluses of her voice as they did when Montero was the lead singer. I don't know if I will like to listen to their CD for a week or a month in a row as I did in the past.
15 July 2008 - I was loaned a copy of Julio Iglesias album called "Esos Amores". That is one of the most pleasant albums to listen to that I have encountered in several years. There are people complaining about the lack of sales. I think it is the fans telling them that if they put out crap, I am not going to buy it. The recording artists and the record companies don't seem to be listening.
30 December 2007 - I have found a few links to artists that I like on Myspace. They are: Camila, Elefante, and Yuridia.
12 December 2007 - I hit gold tonight. I found "15 Años de Exitos" by Alejandro Fernández, Fuerza by Alejandra Guzmán, "Realmente lo Mejor" by Julieta Venegas, and "Y sus corridos consentidos" by Vicente Fernández. This leaves finding only the new albums by Elefante and Olga Tañón.
6 December 2007 - The Voice of An Angel (Yuridia) has a new album out. It is called "Entre Mariposas" or "Between Butterfilies". She has been on my mega lists since "La Voz de Un Angel" was released. She never made it to being played in my car but "Entre Mariposas" is going into my car today. She has a web site called "www.yuridiagaxiola.com" but it says "sitio en construcción". She isn't receiving a lot of notice in the USA. For example, "Entre Mariposas" was released on 15 November in Mexico but was released on 4 December 2007 in the USA.
22 November 2007 - I am sitting at my computer and listening to the new music that has been added to iTunes. I started out listening to "No es de madera" by Joan Sebastian. Itunes has a free single by Notch but it is REALLY not my style of music. The next thing I know, "Heaven, Heartache, and The Power of Love" is playing. There may be other country singers out there but none of them grabbed my attention like this song did.
16 November 2007 - I didn't intend to purchase any new CDs this week but I broke down and purchased "The Living Legend" by Vicente Fernandez. There is an old saying about a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush and that seemed to apply. At the same time I found the new album of Joan Sebástian called "No es de madera". Of the two, Sebástian's new album is the most interesting to my listening taste. I still like to listen to Fernández singing Sebástian songs.
13 November 2007 - I haven't found any CDs that I wanted to buy but I did find an awesome DVD. I have moved away from listening to her because she is hard for me to understand. She is one of my original artists that sing in Spanish but her "Oral Fixation Tour" DVD is truly awesome. Around the middle of the show, Shakira does this song (No) and dances with a red dress that will blow you away. I was trying to work in the kitchen and listening while I worked. The sounds made me think something was going on and I stepped into the living room where my HDTV is located and all I could see was this spinning and undulating red thing. I seem to remember invoking one of the dieties and stood there with my mouth open in shock. Then, she does a belly dance to "Whenever, Wherever" and goes out into the crowd. The mic is live and it is wild. I remember watching some of her music video when she first became popular. The music would pull me in and the video would drive me back into the computer room. You can't do that with this DVD.
21 October 2007 - I have 3 more CDs. They are "La Tragedia Del Vaquero", and "Historia de Un Idolo" by Vicente Fernández and "Me Estoy Enamorando" by Alejandro Fernández. After I have purchased a number of albums by an artist, I try to end up with their most popular songs on their other CDs. I also end up purchasing old CDs that have been reissued. It turns out that I really like "Para Siempre" by Vicente. It was originally released in 1987 and just reissued. The insert says that Joan Sebastian wrote all of the music. Sebastian's live album from Guadalajara is one of my all time favorites. At any rate, "Para Siempre" has been playing in my car for a week now. This is a first for Vicente. I have listened to "El Hijo Del Pueblo" and others when I walk but I never liked his current CDs to the point that they were played in my car.
It turns out that "Para Siempre" reminds me of the Mexican music that I heard when I was young. The big difference is that I now understand much more of what is being said. Vicente uses his booming voice but didn't go operatic on me and that helps me understand much of what he is saying. This gets more expensive because I have also been picking up some of the movies that he starred in. They have his movies in a number of boxed sets of 4. He has a web site about his ranch and the horses at "Los 3 Potrillos". There are also several links to the events and facilities at "Arena VFG".
When I was much younger, we had singing cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry that were always going after the bad guys. They would get into a chase sequence and you swore they had 60-shot six shooters. You also had the singing cowboys such as Marty Robbins who sang about more troubled people. I wore out several LPs of his "Gunfighter Balads and Trail Songs". In the movie that I remember, he played someone towards the outlaw side of the law. His "Balad of a Gunfighter" is only available in a Region 2 DVD, which isn't supposed to play in the USA. I watched it on an almost worn out VHS tape.
There was a different combination where an anglo cowboy was teamed with a Mexican vaquero. Many times that vaqueror would play a guitar and sing in Spanish. He was often stereotyped as a layed back, almost lazy, ladies man. It gave him a non-threatening image. That image quickly disappeared when they got into trouble and someone started shooting at them. These old movies are popping up in boxed sets with multiple DVDs and for the first time everyone moves at the right speed. So, I am being hit with nostalgia from all sides and it is bringing me back to a style of music that I new when I was young.
13 October 2007 - I had an email about "Would I like to be interviewed" by Manuel Marino. He has the start of what looks like an enteresting web site at manuelmarino.com. He is another artist from mp3.com.There is a group that goes by Kent and I get hits on my "Kent's mp3 music". I couldn't figure out why I was getting as many hits as I was and did a web search on Kent. I have been thinking a lot about artists that I followed on mp3.com. I have been following artists on MySpace and "my.batanga.com". I even went so far as to register for accounts on both of them. Of the two, Batanga is the most interesting. You can add artists that you like and then look up other people that like the same artists. I think that is really cool.
11 October 2007 - I have 2 new CDs. They are a special edition of "Todo Cambió" by Camila and "Para Siermpre" by Vicente Fernández. I have been playing "Para Siempre" in my car for several days now. This is the first CD of Vicente to get that honor. His booming operatic voice is something that I like to listen to but only in moderation. His album "El Hijo del Pueblo" was the one that made it into some of my extended play lists.
The special edition of "Todo Cambió" has a DVD with videos of Camila. I like to watch the people that I like to listen to. It makes listening to them more personal. I guarantee that Camila looks a little strange to my dress code but that never interferes. It also has 4 more tracks. I know that I will get tired of Vicente and I have my copy ready to be played in the car. The car scratches the CDs and I never ever play a purchased CD in my car.
9 October 2007 - I am in the process of replacing a W2K Server system running a Intel PIII 450 with an AMD 1600+ XP system. It will just be running Windows XP. It is too much trouble for a simple user to maintain a server and have virus protection. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be cleaned up. In the process of looking around, I found an artist that I liked to listen to in 2002. She is María Isabel and I never made it to the point of buying an album. On the old mp3.com, you could listen to artists and they would get credit for people listening to them. I really liked "Santa Fe" and "Tejas es mi madre". I ended up downloading a number of songs and that was what I found when I was looking through my directories. I was curious enough to do a web search and see if there was anything new. I found a site for Maria Isabel on musicdownload.com. There I found Cindy (Cynthia) Jordan on cynthiamusic.com. I was trying to write this and was not having a lot of luck with cynthiamusic.com. This morning Freewebs seems to be more trouble than some of the older free personal web sites provided by GeoCities. Their free sites were always over using their free bandwidth and the site would become unavailable. Cynthia is a writer/musician and the first song she wrote was "Jose Cuervo you are a friend of mine". It was made famous by Shelly West. I liked a number of song that she and David Frisell did. They belong to the few groups that I would put up with the crowd to watch in person. Cindy also wrote "If Texas was a woman", which was translated into "Tejas es mi madre". Now she has a show on KCSA 95.7 Radio in San Angelo, Texas. It is called "Ahh Music by Cynthia"
8 October 2007 - I have found music by InkAmerica on iTunes. They have been a favorite for many years. I used to listen to them via mp3.com but it disappeared many years ago. I created a fan page called InkAmerica to remind me of what I knew. I always hoped they would break free and make it to the popular intertainers lists but they never did. For me, Andean music is a mood music. I can be in a really agitated state and Andian music will call me down.
1 October 2007 - I found Isabela's most recent CD, "Porque te vas". It had an website address for "Isabela en linea". I tried it without the spaces and found her web site. It was interesting to find an album that was prohibited to be sold in the USA in the Latin Music CD section of a local store.
27 September 2007 - I have 2 new CDs. They are "Mujeres Bravas" by Graciela Beltran and "Exitos de Los Tigres en Duranguense" by Isabela. Azucena del Campo listed Isabela as a favorite on her myspace account. I listen to Isabela using my Yahoo Music account and decided to buy a CD. I couldn't get the one I wanted but the "hits" album is not that bad.
16 September 2007 - I have purchased a couple of new albums and they are: Céu by Céu, and Azucena by Azucena del campo. I have been listening to Céu in my car but am going to switch to Azucena. The odds are pretty high that I will go back to "Todo cambio" by Camila. I really like that album.
I still want the album by Daniel Sanchez. I also found out that he was one of the backup singers on Intocable.
1 September 2007 - I am hopelessly behind here. I have a number of new albums and a number of old ones that I just purchased. I can only list them. The new CDs are "Simplementa la mejor!" and "Beso y Copas desde Hollywood" by Jenni Rivera, "Enamorandome" by Myriam Hernández, " El Indomable" by Christian Castro, "Regresso el jefe" by Elvis Crespo, "Quién dijo Ayer" by Ricardo Arjona, "Grandes Exitos de Juan Luis Guerra y 440", "Todo cambió" by Camila,, "La Voz" by Hector Lavoe, and "El Contante" by Marc Anthony. Lavoe prompted me into buying "El Contante". Of these newly purchased albums, "Todo cambió" by Camila, has had the most playtime in my car and I am listening to Enamorandome as I work on my web site. I think that I listened to Adentro by Arjona too many times and the new CD sounded like a repeat. I like Rivera´s voice in "Simplamente la mejor" it has a much purer sound than you hear in her recent works.
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 gave 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 it 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.
8 May 2007 - I added "Te Quiero Así" by Betzaida. She is a new artist for me. She is pleasant to listen to but I don't know how long I can listen to her before I change the CD. I also picked up a "La Historia" CD/DVD by the "Los Panchos", Candela y muchos éxitos más...¨by Noelia, and "Exitos...sólo para usted" by Alexandre Pires. None of these albums really struck a chord with me. They were interesting but none of them will replace "La Historia Parte III" by Marco Antonio Solís, which is currently playing in the car.
17 April 2007 - I added Fe by Reyli and "Mil Heridas" by Cuisillos. I haven't listened to either. I had a more important request to find a flight from Reynosa, Mexico to Spokane, Washington. The cheapest ticked was $942; however, McAllen, Texas is 15 miles from Reynosa and a ticket from there to Spokane is only $386. All of the International flights out of Reynosa pass through Mexico City. Now, I have to use iTunes to convert the new CDs and then I can listen to them.
14 April 2007 - I just added "Don't Mess With The Dragon" by Ozomatli to my iTunes music library. I have most of Ozomatli's work. I am not a big fan but they are interesting on occasions. I listened to a few songs and then, I switched to Pires' new album. I had not given it a fair shot to my time. You have to understand that my playlist always contains an album by Pires. The only question is which album. The more I see the cover to "Un Idolo", the more I like it. I really don't like dark photos and it is a dark, brooding image. Alexandre has a Fu Manchu beard, and for a lack of words, he looks "elegante". The music on the album is different. I am slowly accepting it. It wasn't an instant hit with me like "Estrella Guia" was.
5 April 2007 - I have added "A Un Idolo" by Alexandre Pires, and "Mi Vida Loca" by Jenni Rivera. I haven´t listened to them yet. I am currently listening to Recordando by Shaila Dúrcal using Yahoo Music subscription. When I went out looking for new CDs, I was also looking for "Don't Mess With The Dragon" by Ozomatli. I thought that finding 2 out of 4 was pretty good for Spanish music. Now I have to add Pires to my Samsung Sync, which I use as an mp3 player when I walk. To be a really good mp3 player, the Sync needs 2x more volume steps. It seems like the songs are either too loud or not loud enough. I would prefer to use the iPod and the Sync but I can't hear calls on the Sync when I am plugged into the iPod. So, I sacrifice choices on the volume for hearing calls.
I have followed Pires since I saw him kiss Kelly Clarkson on one of the award shows. He is really easy to listen to. He got a kiss and it cost me money. What is wrong here <grin>.
29 March 2007 - I went back to Wal Mart and they had "La Historia... Mis Exitos" by Alicia Villarreal and "Promesas No" by Gracíela Beltrán. I have all of Villarreal's albums, so it was a given. It has a DVD of videos, which is even better.
Beltrán is light enough banda music for me to listen. My Mexicana amgia thinks she sings dumb songs but she also likes her Exitos album. I don´t have that problem because I can listen to Spanish songs like she does to English songs.
27 March 2007 - I did something different and purchased Jennifer Lopez's "Como ama una mujer". She passed from I really like, to I couldn't buy, to buy again. I still have problems with her weak vocals; however, her latest album is interesting to listen to. She also has a tremendous video to go with it. She will never sing ranchero because she doesn't have the booming voice to go with it. Her music would be better if she tried to learn how make her voice boom more. Entertainers don't have to be one of the best singer to be an entertaining singer. I would class her as an entertaining performer.
21 March 2007 - I purchased 2 really different albums last night. The 1st album is "La llave de mi corazon" by Juan Luis Guerra and 440. It is kind of Spanish Jazz. The 2nd album is "Papito" by Miguel Bosé. It is Miguel singing duets with just about everyone producing block buster albums. My neighbors are going to think I have changed the style of music I like to listen to in my car. I like Guerra's album the best for right now. For a change of pace next week, I will have to play Diana Reys latest album. That will throw them off a bit. Reys music is really different for me but I find that I am slowly starting to like to listen to her stuff. I can't play it continuously for a month like I have done with works by Solís and others but I need something different every now and then.
31 January 2007 - I was walking by the música latina section at Wal Mart and Te Voy a Mostrar by Diana Reyes jumped out at me. I think the cover caught my attention like the 2nd solo album by Alicia Villarreal. It took a minute but it was the makeup. When she moderates her eye makeup, she is really beautiful. Without her hat, it makes her face less angular. So a really pretty picture caught my attention, I recognized who it was and bought the album. The other thing that stood out on this album was the sound. It was Duranguense but it was milder. It was similar to comparing Conjunto Primavera with Los Tigres del Norte. But then, I may just be getting used to listening to that style of music.
I started out listening to the album and when Angel played, I stopped working on the computer to listen to the song. On iTunes, people liked Cuando Baja La Marea best from this album. Of course, it was stronger Duranguense like people would expect from her. I like Angel because she showed more range with her singing and I simply liked it. Hey, it is a stretch to get me to listen to Duranguense.
24 January 2007 - I was in Wal Mart last night and there was "Que Bonita Es Mi Tierra" by Pablo Montero sitting in the música latina CD section. I had been looking for it but had not seen it recently. You have to compare Pablo with Alejandro Fernández. I got interested in Pablo because of the telenovela "Duelo de Pasiones". It has Alicia Villarreal singing the title song. I added Pablo's CD to my iTune music library and had to read the reviews of this album. One was really negative. I didn't think his one star was right but his comment about Montero's thin voice hit the money.
One of the reasons I don't like to listen to Vicente Fernández is his booming voice. It is like you were listening to Pavarotti sing pop. Alejandro, on the other hand, does a good job singing rancheras and also sounds really good singing the other genres.
I really liked to listen to Pablo´s album "A todo ley". The only song I have heard from the new album was "Celito Lindo" and his voice was noticeably weak on that one. It was not enough to make you click the next button but it was enough to make you think about the reviewer's comments and, at least partially, agree with them.
13 January 2007 - I was in Wal Mart last night and saw "Éxitos" de Elefante in DVD. I had been sort of looking for it for some time. "Sort of" is all I can do where I live because who I can find in a local store is really hit and miss. It has been a while but 5 grammy winning Spanish singers had new CDs out and there wasn't a local store that had them in stock.
It is interesting to go from a CD to 5.1 Dolby stereo on a DVD. DVD audio can have a higher bit-rate sound, which makes the audio seem a little bit cleaner", and the dolby takes it from 2-D to 3-D. This gives it more presence and a depth that also just sounds better. Watching the performers dealing with their audience also adds to the performance.
I would have a hard time deciding whose male voice I like best. I like Marco Antonio Solís, Alejandro Fernández, and the lead singer of Elefante. I don´t have a problem choosing the female voice because Rosana Arbelo stands alone. I think Mercedes Sosa has the purest sounding voice but I don´t get goose bumps from listening to her but I do listening to Rosana.
12 January 2007 - I have a few new CDs that are being played. I like "Noches Eternas" by Marisela. I also purchased "A Toda Ley" by Pablo Montero. I have added many others but they were ignored because I had to reinstall the XP operating system on the computer I maintain this web site on. Rebuilding my music library was a lot of work because I currently have 788 active albums. The worst part of this was resyncing my iPod with the albums maintained by iTunes.