Mark Weber's love and admiration for conjunto music started in the early 90s. Weber began listening to conjunto while stationed at Fort Sam Houston military base in San Antonio, Texas. Intrigued by the accordion, Mark began taking lessons from the legendary Valerio Longoria†* in 1996. Both eventually became close friends.
Established in 2012, the Los Fresnos High School Conjunto Program is changing students' lives along the Texas/Mexico Borderlands.
Beatriz "B" Santa Ana is a Central Texas native who got her start in music at a young age. The spark she has for singing first ignited and grew within her family home. Her very first stage was her family's garage and the first song B ever learned was Patsy Cline's "Release Me." It was through her singing for friends and family that she became inspired to chase her passion for music.
Santiago Jiménez Jr. was destined to be tejano conjunto royalty at birth. El Chief was born in San Antonio, Tejas and is the son of the late, great conjunto pioneer Santiago Jiménez Sr. Santiago Jr. has an older brother whose name you might also recognize, Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez.
Since we announced this year's festival back in January, we have been asked when the lineup will be posted and where to get more information. Well, here it is...
Rancho Alegre Conjunto Festival Information
The Rancho Alegre Conjunto Festival is BACK! Make plans to join us in Austin on Friday May 5th and May 7th as we bring some of the best conjuntos to the world-famous Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater at 8th and Red River, in the heart of the Live Music Capital of the World!
What can you say about the one and only, the legendary Flaco Jimenez?
Flaco's been everywhere, played alongside nearly everyone and is a multi Grammy Award-winning international superstar, former Texas State Musician and NEA Fellow.
Get to know Flaco as you may have never heard him before in this intimate interview with our own Baldomero "El Parrandero" Cuellar, which we recorded at Janie's Record Shop in San Antonio in August, 2016. Many thanks to Rudy Ancira of the Tejano Music Alliance of Texas for joining us and documenting the interview.
As bandleader of a solid, hardworking conjunto for over 40 years, San Antonio's Rudy Garcia was truly ahead of his time. He wrote and registered his own songs. He managed himself and played all over Texas. He had his own record label called Godfather records. His sound was unique.
Join Rancho Alegre on KOOP Radio for a special interview with bajo sexto master Tomas Vasquez. We traveled down to the Rio Grande Valley last month and had a great time talking with Tomas about his life, his career with Freddie Gomez y Los Dinamicos and what he's been up to lately.
It's an honor for us to broadcast his story, in his own words and voice, along with rare and classic recordings, on FM radio in Austin.
Please note: This interview is almost entirely in Spanish, and we will try to have a transcript available and post online as soon as it is available here on ranchoalegreradio.org.
Listen to Rancho Alegre's interview with San Antonio's own Los Thunderbirds. We had a great time talking with Abel Hernandez, Ray Flippo, Joe Zimmerle and Tony Vasquez.
The group stopped by the KOOP studios just after Christmas 2015 and we got to know the guys and what the future holds for them.
