Los Super 7

Los Super 7

Heard It on the X (Telarc)

The latest installment of the Only Supergroup That Doesn't Suck is a triumph, even if it's obvious from reading the credits that counting vocalists alone, it's Los Super 10. The concept: a mixture of musics one might have heard blasted from one of the megawatt Mexican border stations of blessed memory, stations where advertisers bought blocks of airtime and played music between ads for their products, some of which were dubious at best. There's nothing whatever dubious about the music here. You get Western swing (Lyle Lovett singing "My Window Faces the South"); Mexican pop ("Cupido" and "Ojitos Traidores," with Freddy Fender on the former and Rick Trevino on both); smooth blues ("Talk to Me" and "I Live the Life I Love," both nailed by Delbert McClinton); and the many faces of rock, including two Doug Sahm obscurities ("I'm Not That Kat Anymore" with John Hiatt, and an absolutely perfect version of "The Song of Everything" with Raul Malo), Joe Ely remembering Bobby Fuller ("Let Her Dance"), Rodney Crowell doing the same for Buddy Holly, and Ruben Ramos tackling ZZ Top on the album's title tune. Whew! All of which is introduced by Calexico's Joey Burns and his freewheeling "The El Burro Song," a pastiche of all these traditions with a heavy mariachi overlay, and closed by Gatemouth Brown's recasting of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" as a John Lee Hooker-esque boogie. You know that slogan about how you can't hear American music without hearing Texas? Here's your proof. (Saturday, March 19, 1am @ Stubb's)