Flaco jimenez and dwayne verheyden biography

Soul Music of South Texas Conjunto, built upon a polka rhythm, turns accordions and string guitars into a unique sound and subculture. Eduardo Garza of Mission was one of the big winners at the Big Squeeze youth accordion competition. Darren David Prieto played the accordion in Carnitas Uruapan, a meat market on the west side of San Antonio, one Sunday morning in while customers lined up for tamales and carnitas.

Sit-ins from the neighborhood were part of the weekly routine. Grammy Award winner Max Baca of Los Texmaniacs walked into Carnitas wearing a football jersey and shorts rather than his western stage outfit and sat in with the band, playing bajo sexto.

Flaco Jimenez tells the story of how Dwayne Verheyden has become a master of the accordion, and sounds just like him!

Like blues and country, conjunto—pronounced cohn-hoon-toe—is indigenous, only regionally specific to South Texas, with mostly Spanish lyrics. Conjunto has two key instruments: the diatonic button accordion, which, like a harmonica, changes notes as air is pushed or pulled past vibrating reeds, and the bajo sexto, which provides the rhythm and backbeat.

Most modern conjuntos also include drums, guitar and bass. This is a unique music form. Conjunto was born in the late 19th century when German immigrants introduced the button accordion to South Texas. In part because of its rural roots, it was known as cantina music. The instrumentals by those conjunto accordionists sounded Mexican with additional Bohemian, Czech and German elements, reflecting the influence of the immigrant communities of South Texas.

Conjunto is no longer exclusively a Texas thing. After his performance at the Tejano Conjunto Fest in San Antonio in , fans patiently lined up to have their picture taken with him, as if he was the Justin Bieber of conjunto. Typical of most Texas kids, he grew up listening to rock, country, jazz and hip-hop.