Songs of love and desperation. Songs of borders and walls and the yearning for a new life. Songs of family and celebration. Songs of sisterhood. Songs that take the best elements of two musical cultures in order to forge a vibrant bilingual fusion of Tex-Mex songs and stories. That’s what you’ll hear on the spirited debut album from The Texicana Mamas. Set for release on August 21, Latina Americana artists Tish Hinojosa, Stephanie Urbina Jones and Patricia Vonne have joined forces and blended their thriving solo careers into a brand new, self-titled project.“All three of us have been successful songwriters and artists in our own careers,” says Urbina Jones. “But a little over a year ago, we serendipitously came together and quickly realized that there was something very special not only about the combination of our voices, but also in the love and celebration of our Mexican-American roots in music. It felt like destiny and the perfect time to share our bicultural story in song during this unprecedented time in our country.”
The concept of The Texicana Mamas grew out of a magical music moment which took place at the legendary Nashville venue, The Bluebird Café. A place where songwriters come to offer their art in the purest of forms, Hinojosa, Urbina Jones and Vonne performed there together in 2018, as part of a writer’s round along with songwriter James Slater. The evening was specifically to celebrate Latina writers during Hispanic Heritage Month. The occasion was inspiring, not only to the audience, but also to the women on stage. In the normally quiet listening room, famous for its “Shhhh” signs, the audience was on its feet, singing and clapping with irrepressible enthusiasm.
Erica Wollom-Nichols, GM for The Bluebird, described the evening: “The ‘Mamas’ performance in our intimate venue engaged the audience through both the music and the narratives that they presented, individually and as a musical unit. The excitement they shared as they performed was infectious, and the multi-cultural lens they offered was enthusiastically welcomed.”
The obvious next step for them was to write new material and head into the studio.“It’s a blessing and providential that we three Tejanas from San Antonio came together organically to celebrate our Mexican-American heritage and pride of our rich culture by blending musical genres and eliminating borders,” comments Vonne. “This is our time to be a voice for our people.”
Hinojosa adds, “Our shared love for our Mexican-American heritage and storytelling adds depth and dimension that I’m proud to be a part of.”
Last week, The Texicana Mamas released the first music from the project, a single/video titled “Cocina De Amor (Kitchen of Love).
Like several of the songs on the album, “Cocina de Amor” was co-written by Hinojosa, Vonne and Urbina Jones, and the original compositions on the project blend seamlessly with covers “Lo Siento Mi Vida,”originally recorded by Linda Ronstadt, and Los Lobos’“Canción del Mariachi,” which was featured prominently in the 1995 film Desperado, directed by Vonne’s brother, Robert Rodriguez.
Mexican-American and Grammy award-winning musicians Flaco Jimenez and Max Baca both appear on the album’s “Amigas De Corazon,” another song penned by the trio.
Throughout the project, the music borrows from both sides of the border, mixing Americana influences with traditional South Texas/Mexican genres, including corridos, conjunto, norteño, mariachi, and ranchera.
Clearly, The Texicana Mamas are greater than the sum of their parts. But so is the bicultural, groove-laden, genre-compounding, powerfully individual, and collectively joyful music that gets made when these three Texas women take the stage.
