There’s not really a Westside Social Club but it sure seems like Larry Lange is stepping into Ry Cooder’s role by creating San Antonio’s version of the Buena Vista Social Club. When Lange started the Lonely Knights in Austin several years ago, their direction was aimed directly east, along Highway 90 from the Gulf Coast into Louisiana. Their horn-driven retro sound embraced swamp pop and nuggets from regional radio and local jukeboxes. Somewhere, Lange took a turn into South Texas, and his band took on a whole new purpose.
Lange, a veteran bassist on the scene best known for playing with Paul Ray & the Cobras and Delbert McClinton, fell in with many of the musicians written about in Ruben Molina’s 2006 book Chicano Soul. An instant rapport developed with them and thus began a joint effort that culminated in the tribute to Esteban Jordan here during the summer. The combination of Lange’s soulful brass-powered band and these wonderful Chicano vocalists is a match made in cielo.
On Saturday, the Patio Andaluz reunion takes place in San Antonio at the Plaza Guadalupe. Larry Lange & the Lonely Knights will be the band behind many of the Alamo City’s most famous voices: Little Henry of the Laveers, Sonny Ace of the Twisters, Dimas Garza and Joe Jama from the Royal Jesters, Rene from Rene & Rene, Ernie Garibay, and Sunny Ozuna. Expect Austin’s own Joanna Ramirez to duet with Dimas Garza again.
The surrounding streets will be closed for this event, which serves to not only celebrate the music by remembering the beloved, long-shuttered venue Patio Andaluz, but proceeds go toward San Antonio’s Hispanic Veteran’s Memorial, including a sculpture by Jesse Trevino. This is particularly meaningful to the town’s Hispanic musicians, whose own ranks were decimated by Vietnam and the draft during the 1960s and 70s.
This isn’t accordion-driven norteno, conjunto, or Tejano – these bands had traded the accordion for the more rock & roll sound of farfisas and Vox organs. Lange describes it as “the swamp pop sound of the Gulf Coast and Louisiana with R&B horns and Mexican lyrics.” And it’s not just old school, it’s old school San Antonio, meaning it is from the wellspring of this music and comes with all that corazon and soul. (This weekend in San Antonio, you can also find the best in accordion music a few blocks away at the International Accordion Festival at La Villita.)
And wouldn’t this be the perfect set for an Austin City Limits segment? It strikes at the core of everything musical in the Lone Star state as well as the show’s philosophy. ACL has turned to more alt-rock in recent seasons but this is a homegrown sound that may be more ethnically diverse than any other music around.
Nowhere but Texas.
This article appears in October 3 • 2008.