| Los
Pacaminos are a band you can absolutely count on for a great
night out!
While the name may mean little (as yet) to music lovers,
at least one member of this highly respected group will
be very familiar. The Tex-Mex outfit is led by one of the
UK’s finest and best loved vocalists - Paul Young.
Paul is not the only luminary in the seven piece band,
however. Some of the best musicians in the business have
teamed up to present the incendiary mix of Tex-Mex classics,
Spanish songs and original material that make up the music
of Los Pacaminos.
Los Pacaminos first came together in 1995, the result of
Paul’s desire to get back to basics. As he explains
“I was between record labels and writing material for
a new album but I wanted to play live again. I’ve always
loved the Tex-Mex sound and knew a few musicians who had
a similar passion for this type of music. So I asked them
to join me in forming a band.
It started out just for fun, playing simply for the pleasure
of it, and it just took off from there. What’s really
nice is that everyone else in the band can sing too, and
they do, all in their own very different styles. It’s
real bar room stuff, foot stompers, not too many slow songs
– a real party atmosphere!”
As for the name… “Los Pacaminos? It means nothing!
It’s a nonsense phrase we chose, which is close to
the term “Pack’em in” meaning the audience.
Apparently it is also similar to an Argentine name for street
boys which is OK too!”
Tex-Mex music is somewhere between the Mariachi and Norteno
styles of Mexico and the country/blues sounds of South-Western
America. The band empathises with Ry Cooder, Flaco Jiminez,
The Texas Tornadoes, Los Lobos and Sir Douglas Quintet.
(Their set includes songs like “Wooly Bully” the
national anthem “La Bamba” and sometimes, if enough
tequila is flowing, even “Speedy Gonzales”…)
The band’s long-awaited first album is suitably titled
“Los Pacaminos” and is out on What Records and
distributed through ID/Universal, it features 12 great tracks
guaranteed to get your pulse racing and the dancing shoes
on. Full track listing reads as follows: My My My; Manana;
Perdita; La Mesa; Shadows on the Rise; Raised on Margaritas;
Poor Boys; Handsome Man; Tico; Do We Want The Same Things;
Two Margaritas; Tierra D’Ensuenos.
The band comprise some of the best known names in the business.
From a variety of backgrounds they’ve covered all kinds
of music but are all in accord on one - the sound that’s
brought them together as Los Pacaminos.
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