This Fair is a Rockin’!
While the art is always the main attraction, Fiesta Arts Fair features two stages of live music throughout its two days. From zydeco to conjunto, from folk to rock, there’s always something to tap your toe to.
2011 Entertainers
- Hot Sauce
- Bett Butler & Joël Dilley
- Los #3 Diners
- Wendy Colonna
- The Lavens
- Buttercup
- Los FabuLocos
- Will Taylor and Strings Attached
- Mitch Webb & The Swindles
- George Gaytan
- Sergio & Christian
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Hot Sauce
Toro Flores is well versed in all percussion instruments and is a very accomplished self taught guitar player.After earning his bachelor of music in 1992, Toro has since played in a huge assortment of ensembles including rock, country, blues, classical, reggae, and of course jazz.
In 1995, Toro formed a staple of the San Antonio jazz scene with his Latin Jazz band, Zarabande. This amazing group of the best players in the city fused the great jazz standards of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and many others with a Latin flavor creating an original, San Antonio sound that thrilled audiences across South Texas.
In early 2006, Flores met David Aman. And the Hot Sauce legacy begins!
David Aman’s musical path has been a lucky one. His parents moved the family from Turkey to Iran to Italy and Spain. He awoke to the beautiful arabic melodies from the call of morning prayer. The middle eastern scales were like a magnet to his ears. By the time he got to Spain, his mother had fed him a healthy dose of Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan,Sergio Mendez Brazil 66, Pink Floyd and Bachmann Turner Overdrive. Musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Fiddler on the Roof and Man From LaMancha were sung constantly, the roles split between family members.The families’ first video collection was Hee Haw.A new musical lesson from each hilarious viewing.
David’s got his first guitar in Italy at 14. Though he had piano lessons at 8 he knew the guitar was his goal. David had been given a Christopher Parkening album at 12 and then Dire Staits Love over Gold. The Doors were also a favorite of David’s Mom. Robbie Krieger, the Doors’ guitarist played without a guitar pick. Only fingers. The same was with Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.Also the same with the great Spanish Guitar maestro Andres Segovia. David knew he had master the fingerpicking style.David played guitar in groups through the years but loved the idea of solo guitar. Playing the bass lines and melody lines at the same time became an obsession after he and former bandmate Gigi Mckell saw a nylon string guitar player alone on the shores of Lake Chimse Germany late one night. “I know his first name was Roger but as his hands effortlessly played two different songs at the same time, I forgot everything else. His playing was so beautiful it shocked me. But I had to learn solo guitar after seeing that!!”
After moving to Texas in 1995, David really concentrated on the nylon guitar.He travelled through Brazil driving for weeks from San Salvador to the paradise of Jariquaqua. Costa Rica,Puerto Rico,Belize. Absorbing rythyms and chords of many Central and south American peoples. David was a drummer for the drum team “The Drum Cafe” and has done many team building corporate events using the African beats and pulses.David plays solo guitar throughout the romantic nooks and hidden venues of the San Antonio Riverwalk. “Muzac on Spanish guitar;” is how he describes his style. He also has a love of baroque music for classical guitar and has performed the music for hundreds of weddings.David is the featured soloist at the San Antonio Country Club each Easter Mothers Day and Thanksgiving. And no guitar pick in sight!
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Bett Butler
With a father who would scour thrift shops and second-hand book stores to add to his enormous record collection, Houston-born Bett Butler grew up surrounded by the eclectic music that would later influence her songwriting: jazz standards, Tin-Pan Alley, classic Broadway, singer/songwriter, Brazilian sambas and bossa novas, European and Latin American classical. She discovered her passion for piano at age three and worked in theater for several years before settling into a full-time career as a performing musician. Her musical journey has taken her from theaters to jazz festivals; from rowdy roadhouses to upscale clubs; from writing and performing gospel music in tent revivals to accompanying silent movies.
She’ll tell you that her single biggest influence is Billie Holiday, and that she tries to follow the musical approach of Miles Davis, who constantly incorporated the sounds around him into his own voice. She sees the artist’s role as that of a storyteller and storytelling as the foundation of civilization, for it is through sharing stories that we connect with each other’s humanity. She feels that songwriting is a particularly effective method of storytelling, because music has the potential to overcome limitations of lyric and language. But she’ll also tell you that it’s not about the storyteller, it’s about the story; it’s not about the musician, it’s about the music; it’s not about the singer, it’s about the song.
Joël Dilley
As an instrumentalist, Joël Dilley aspires to give a human voice to the bass, with all its various emotional tone colors. He hears music as essentially a human voice telling a human story, and his compositions spring from the stories unfolding around him. Hannah Castellaw of WomanSpace writes of Dilley’s debut album, River of Hope: “A deeply passionate and personal work….He deftly translates all the colors, sounds, and feelings associated with his life experiences into music….His rich bass is the stuff of heart beats, ocean waves, and other natural earth rhythms.”
He has toured internationally, performed, and recorded with Willie Nelson, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Arturo Sandoval, Richie Cole, Russian classical/jazz pianist Valery Grokhovsky, and regional symphony orchestras. A featured guest bassist on Public Radio International’s Whad’Ya Know and a featured composer on Texas Public Radio’s Classical Spotlight, he authored three critically acclaimed albums on Dragon Lady Records, RIVER OF HOPE, THE WINDOW, and A NEW WORLD. He co-owns Mandala Music Production, where he produces music licensed worldwide for commercial and non-commercial use, including tracks on HBO, the Travel Channel, Playboy Channel, and Food Network.
Visit Bett Butler & Joël Dilley on the web
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Los #3 Dinners
Los #3 Dinners are a mainstay of San Antonio’s diverse music scene. The story begins in 1979 with the band’s first incarnation, Los #2 Dinners. After years of pounding the SA club scene, The Dinners called it quits in order to pursue personal interests in the early 1990s. Shortly after, band leader “Lenny” Eric Friedland, guitarist Frank Karpienski, bassist Bart Nichols, and blues musician/childhood friend Joe Shortt formed the short-lived blues band “The Pralines.” As word of the Pralines spread around town, a renewed interest in the old #2 Dinners material emerged. In 1995, The Prailines changed their name to Los #3 Dinners after the addition of drummer Jake Perales. Thus, Los #3 Dinners was born!
The sound of Los Number #3 Dinners is a high-energy mix of guitar-driven garage rock, South Texas soul, surf-instrumental, and the blues. The Dinners sound fits any venue… from the urban jungle of Tacoland, to the family-oriented atmosphere of The Cove, to the chicken-fried soul of Casbeer’s, to a good ol’ houseparty… they’ve played the m all. The Dinners are constantly shaping and tightening their sound while playing the songs that have been rocking San Antonio for nearly three decades. That’s right San Antonio, baby! This ain’t no Austin band…to do S.A. vato to the max. These guys are busy playing the soundtrack to your weekend.
Visit Los #3 Dinners on the web
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Wendy Colonna
With a smoky voice and poetic lyricism borne of her rich Gulf coast heritage, Wendy Colonna crafts songs that groove, waltz, and swagger through love, heartache, transformation, nostalgia and prayer. Colonna’s savory sound is reminiscent of a bevy of important female artists: the brash bluesy thing of Bonnie Raitt, the pop genius of Carole King, the raw emotion and huge pipes of Joan Osborne, and the soul shout of Queen Aretha. It’s the kind of talent that brought Colonna acclaim as Austin American Statesman’s “Best Signer-Songwriter in Austin 2007,” helped her to win multiple songwriting awards and Famecast’s Grand Prize in the pop category of their international talent competition.
In her 12 year musical career Wendy has toured extensively throughout the US and Europe, and has released three critically acclaimed studio albums as well as a double live album/DVD. Wendy is also an activist, and a certified yoga instructor and recently released a yoga DVD & workbook entitled “Yoga To Go,” which is designed to bring the benefits of yoga to the busy lives of traveling professionals. In the fall of 2009, Wendy released her much anticipated fourth studio album.
Visit Wendy Colonna on the web
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Mitch Webb & The Swindles – Mitch Webb is a gifted songwriter straight from the fertile roots music melting pot of San Antonio. Webb pulled together the finest the Alamo city has to offer when he made his latest cd ” The Lonely Kind.” Backed by a Grammy award winning stable of players such as Joe Reyes {Freddy Fender, Flaco Jimenez, Lara and Reyes} Lloyd Herrman (Gatemouth Brown) and produced by Ronnie Morales (Texas Tornados, Flaco Jimenez, Selena..) The Lonely Kind did very well on the radio in 2008, spending 9 weeks in the Americana Music Associations Top 40 chart and also landing in the top 10 of the FAR chart!
With 4 albums under their belt and years of touring, you can be guaranteed a great live performance every time Mitch Webb walks on to the stage. Strong songwriting and great shows combined with the raw power of a band that has seen it all and lived to tell about it.
Visit Mitch Webb & The Swindles on the web
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George Gaytan
George Gaytan is locally known for his skillful blend of harmonious classics and softly strummed contemporary guitar music. He is also a recording artist with CD’s The Gift of Christmas, Portraits, Ventana, and the recently released Passages.
George is a San Antonio native and alumni of the University of the Incarnate Word, Bachelor of Music Degree. George’s classical guitar can be heard at Barnes & Noble or Borders books and music, and also has a wide audience with the social and party set, including receptions for President and Mrs. Bush, receptions for Governor Rick Perry of Texas, as well as providing background music for numerous PBS documentaries.
Visit George Gaytan on the web
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The Lavens
The Lavens play most Fridays at The Cove in San Antonio. Owner Sam Asvestas says it is his favorite night of the week. Many families bring their kids to not only enjoy the music but with the hope of inspiring them musically with another talented young person.
At ten years of age Rachel begged to stop piano lessons and get a guitar. Dad promised to get her one if she learned six chords. Niko taught her nine just in case and the next day she received a Johnson acoustic guitar. Within weeks she had written three songs. In the grand spirit of sibling rivalry (the title of their CD) Niko started writing songs–and the race was on.
Niko started his musical career drumming for Will Owen Gage and The Krybabies, a teen blues band that could put old men to shame. They joined forces with Ashlee Rose to win Seventeen Magazine’s Top Ten Teen Bands in the nation. Since graduating from high school he has been sharing the lead with sister Rachel.
Mom and Dad have been playing music professionally for the last fifteen years. Mom with The Michael Daniels Trio, then both joined together to start The Jack Boot Thugs. Later came an eight year run with Easy Street. Dad also plays bass with True Stories.
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Buttercup
Since playing their first show in 2003, Buttercup has been a fountainhead of blissful art-rock, entertaining and enlightening audiences in unconventional and creative ways. Formed in San Antonio, the band has fused a post-modern sound that crams their love of The Kinks, Neil Young and The Talking Heads into something more at home with fellow Texans Spoon, Chicago’s Wilco or New York’s Grizzly Bear.
The band shows no sign of slowing their pace, joyously celebrating the July 2009 release of their third full length album, The Weather Here (Bedlamb Records) produced by Salim Nourallah (Rhett Miller, The Old 97s), whose songwriting and production skills have created the group’s best recording to date. With 3 self-produced EP’s released in 2007-2008, Buttercup was armed with more than enough studio experience to record what is their first “live” album with Salim – and the energy and emotion is palpable.
From their charmingly arranged harmonies to their unpredictable onstage antics, Buttercup is comfortable and chameleon-like in a live setting. “The Cup” revels in their ability to adapt from a stripped-down, intimate setting to a raucous, energetic and unpredictable club show. Employing such whimsical tools as an old rotary telephone, tambourines, glockenspiels and other fanciful homemade instruments, fans have come to expect the barriers between the stage and audience to be broken; teeth to be lost and hearts to be won.
Buttercup has just completed a West Coast tour in April and May, doing double duty as the supporting act (opening as Buttercup) and then performing with Ian Moore as his backing band in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. They have new songs and are continuing to pound the pavement with The Weather Here in hand.
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Los FabuLocos
Los Fabulocos play with enough energy to power a small fleet of lowrider vehicles. It’s a fuel that burns full- throttle, ignited by the heat of soulful guitar and accordion solos that will make your heart bleed.
Anyone with even a passing fancy of American roots music or blues is certainly no stranger to Kid Ramos. Throughout most of the ’80s, Ramos was a member of what is often considered to be the classic lineup of the James Harman Band, a group that performed up and down the California coastline and opened for such diverse musical acts as X, Oingo Boingo, The Blasters and The Plimsouls. Ramos left the band in ’88 to begin a family, holding down a day job delivering bottled water for several years before eventually being coaxed back into music full time by Kim Wilson in ’95 as a full fledged member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds for seven years. Ramos released three successful solo recordings on Evidence Records beginning in ’99 and currently plays an active role as a featured guitarist in the critically acclaimed all-star revue, The Mannish Boys.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Ramos recently teamed up with vocalist/accordionist Jesus Cuevas, bassist James Barrios and drummer Mike Molina to form the CaliMex roots oriented quartet Los Fabulocos. The band is fronted by Cuevas, who spent a decade lending his talents on accordion with the East L.A. based group The Blazers, known for their rousing, danceable mix of rocked up norteño, cumbia, and other Mexican styles combined with blues, surf, and country music. Alternating between guitar and the bajo sexto, a type of 12-string guitar commonly associated with norteño and conjunto music, Los Fabulocos is powered by Ramos’ muscular tone and high octane delivery adding more fuel to the fire.
Los Fabulocos simmers up a spicy and tantalizing blend of traditional Spanish and Mexican music, Blues, R&B and Rockabilly delivered with sincerity, honesty and passion. It’s a special brand of roots oriented music that shares much in common with the south of the border stylings of such pioneering acts as Los Lobos, the Hacienda Brothers, and Doug Sahm’s Texas Tornados. “We mix it up,” Ramos explains. “We play songs in Spanish, then we’ll do a Fats Domino song, then we’ll play a blues, and then we’ll do a Buck Owens or Johnny Cash song. People look and go, ‘What?’ Then, all of the sudden, they just start dancing and having smiles on their faces.”
Visit Los FabuLocos on the web
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Will Taylor and Strings Attached
Beginning in 1999, Will Taylor implemented a new idea after brainstorming with other local Austin musicians. Taylor began collaborating with both local and nationally renowned artists, rearranging their known material, brought in his own crew of seasoned jazz and contemporary roots musicians to play, and moved the performance venue from the traditional smokey club scene to the beautiful interior and excellent acoustics of a church sanctuary.
Since then, Will Taylor and Strings Attached have presented over 50 concert collaborations to over 12000 audience members, countless more through four KGSR Live Radio broadcasts, and many appearances on KUT, KLBJ, KMFA and KOOP Radio. The the last few years they’ve expanded the repertoire to include Album/Band tribute shows where again the music is re-arranged and reinterpreted by Will and the ensemble. In 2006, over 1600 Beatles fans saw them re-create the entire White album. They’ve also presented the music of Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and Jimi Hendrix. Guest artists we’ve collaborated with include: Shawn Colvin, Joe Ely,Dar Williams, James McMurtry, Fastball’s Tony Scalzo, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Ruthie Foster, Abra Moore, Darden Smith, Tish Hinojosa, Sara Hickman, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Eliza Gilkyson, Slaid Cleaves, Suzi Stern, Beth Ulman, Kellye Gray, Patrice Pike, Guy Forsyth, Michael Fracasso, Jimmy LaFave, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Albert and Gage, Jon Dee Graham, John Aielli, Barbara K, Kimmie Rhodes, Ian Moore, and Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez.
And though these individual group members are accomplished soloists, when they team up as Strings Attached, the landscape changes completely, as they expand the collaborative artist’s vision into an other-worldly territory, without sacrificing the intent or spirit of the original works.
