Texas Tornados

¡Está Bueno! (Bismeaux)

What makes ¡Está Bueno! so remarkable isn’t simply timing. It’s the group’s musical effort. These aren’t just guys in the studio backing one another’s agenda for the album. Even the late Freddy Fender’s unapologetic paean to the traditional role of women (“They Don’t Make ‘Em Like I Like”) comes across not as insult but as love for madres y abuelitas. That’s ¡Está Bueno! for you – the Tex-Mex heart of music that Doug Sahm envisioned when he gathered longtime musical companions Augie Meyers, accordion legend Flaco Jiménez (“In Heaven There Is No Beer”), and Fender into the bilingual, cross-cultural supergroup 20 years ago. With Sahm’s and Fender’s passings, the cowboy hat sits squarely on Shawn Sahm, who pulls off his dad’s old tricks with a few of his own (“Chicano”), including the instant classic “Who’s to Blame, Senorita?” Meyers offers his own stamp on the TTs with the title track, as well as “Velma From Selma” and a gorgeous “My Sugar Blue.” ¡Está Bueno! es muy bueno! (Fri., 10pm, Kenny Dorham’s Backyard.)

***.5

This article appears in March 19 • 2010.

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