here’s what i noticed. . . when my stuff gets reviewed by anyone under 40, it suffers. worse when the age plummets below 35. disastrous when under 30. it’s become rather obvious when certain subtle intended references are lost on those of such tendering. its almost sweet. but mostly sticky. i know its good judgment to never indulge in any kind of retort. but i don’t mind taken the reviewers to task, in fact i find it a fine hobby ( my only other one is booking air travel, which i find both exceedingly rewarding in my golden years.. . sadly ). but certain elements of said critique give away the writer’s prowess or limited resolve and general lack of sonic life experience. and that is ok too, except that they are in a position primarily to inform, and in doing so, when so uninformed to begin with, judge with wild card speculation based on taxing deadline tethered by a salary free internship just this side of blogdom. (if i were british, this could be perceived as a “put down”, but no, am strictly american by default, so not to worry.) to the point then. a coupla things about reviewing “alegrias”.. . in relation to this zine's gideon brody. “the ballad of lole y manuel” is a softly humorous ‘sonny and cher’ homage to the amazing couple who changed the course of flamenco in the 70s for the counter cutlture of spain much the way led zepplin changed the blues for yours. the beat is neither mexican nor calexican, but brazilian, actually. using the calexico analogy at all is just lazy. joe admitted years ago he never places himself in his own songs, where as i am always one of the characters embedded within said soundscape for at least the duration. their music is nicely mariachi or spaghetti western. this record is neither. and all these songs are true .. . eventually. any relation to something 'south of el paso' as gideon puts it, borders less on mexico and more on sonic racism, lumping anything spanish with something south of the border. maybe an innocent mistake, i’m sure, but still smells of stereo type casting. anyhow.. i am not trying to be mean, just elderly. “lost like a boat full of rice” is a very old andalucian expression (actually every sputter of spanish used in “lole y manuel” is an expression particular to different states within spain), and that expression squarely fits the wit of any attempted reviewer who skims this muck rather then indulges i know life is short, so no problemo. the meandering piano track is set to break up the album much the way the instrumental guitar broke up ‘sno angel like you, a momentary intermission of sorts. a way of signaling those that remember when vinyl was the order of the day and the point when you would flip the record. the tune itself is a homage to the likes of manuel de falla, who is not a meanderthal at all. when the “leather” track kicks in, it represents leaving the collective posse behind, it having only one cordobian on percussion along with thøger and i on string things. this leading to the stark finale of “one diner town”, which is sorely solo and signals the dream is over, but is absolutely not the best thing on the album by far. it should further be noted, aside from raimundo’s masterful boleria intro to “cowboy boots on cobblestone”, there are no such flamenco beats on the entire album. intentionally so because i do not understand them. what i do know is stunning guitar when i hear it. in the proximity of these fellows, the most astonishing guitar play and improvisation happened at every turn. this is what this record is, in the same way the gospel choir lent their stunning dizzy spell of changing human overtones every time we gathered. songs nestled within the confines of people who play guitar like their ancestors invented it. and in fact, the album cover illustrates the actual grandfather, there posing on guitar, of our band’s juan panki. to contend that this album is actually flamenco is to be sadly misinformed. these are guitar people. all of us. coming together in various tunes to administer the pluck. the beat is something relative where we can all meet to do so, such as the brazilian or the cuban. any well informed, reasonably experienced critic can notify the public accordingly, i am almost certain. the end -howe