with opening performance by Cado
April 10-12, 2015
An exclusive Bay Area performance, not to be missed! With a fresh and thrilling new album, Por Ahi (out May 5), Rana Santacruz redefines the sound of Mexican-American music. His music, often called “Mexican Bluegrass” or “Irish Mariachi” belong to the realm of magical realism, with tales of funerals, loyal dogs, and towns flooded with tears….
With Kari Bethke on violin, John Sutton on bass, Jay Sawyer on percussion, Bennett Sullivan on banjo and Nick Sednew on trumpet.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Santacruz had considerable success with his rock en español band La Catrina before moving to Brooklyn in 2002. Drawing on myriad influences including the golden age of Mexican cinema, the novels of Gabriel García Marquez, musicians like Tom Waits and the Pogues, American bluegrass and folk music and son jarocho traditions from the gulf region of Veracruz, Santacruz recorded a collection of songs assimilating those disparate influences. The resulting solo debut, Chicavasco (2010)—named for a small town in the state of Hidalgo—is beautifully conceived and artfully produced; not surprising as Alex Venguer, who joined Santacruz in producing the disk, just took home a GRAMMY© for Best Traditional Folk Album for his part in Loudon Wainwright’s High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project. Often singing in a lilting falsetto, the melodies soar, imbued with the kind of passion found in Cuban son and Portuguese fado. The music takes you north and south of the border, and across the Atlantic and back. Chicavasco tells tales of broken hearts, sailors, dogs, cactuses, cantinas, funerals and farewells.
