Rancho No Tengo - Soundtrack

2007 - Rancho No Tengo (movie soundtrack) - CD - released in 2007 by Anaconda Records. Songs Include - Rancho No Tengo, It's These Changes, Chasin' Simpatico, El Momento de Verdad, Rumors, If You ain't From West Texas, Turn Left at Nogales, Driftin' Apart, Balazos, Hungover in Oklahoma City, Because A Woman, Macho Grande, Adios Terlingua, Rancho No Tengo Instrumental, If'n Myself To Death, Que Le Vaya Bien. The title song Rancho No Tengo is a melody I carried around for many months in my head. Rancho No Tengo means in Spanish-- Ranch I don't have. It is the name of my property, located in the hill country near LLano, Texas. It consists of several adobe houses or casitas thrown together over ten years around a Mexican style courtyard, made from real adobe bricks. It looks like a John Wayne movie set. The song itself is more of a metaphorical exploration of the perils of living life and what happens when you step out the door, away from the safety of home, and into the dangers of the world. In other words -- " Stay on the porch- if you can't hang with the big dogs." I wrote Chasin' Simpatico, which translates into "chasin the good," way back in the early 70's in a backyard, back when I was livin in Palo Alto California and was homesick for Texas. It seemed like a real West- Texas Doug Sahm style melody with the lyrics being about a longing for the Rio Grande border town of Del Rio in a mythical, Emerald City, kind of way. Anyone knowing Del Rio would probably think that I was crazy, but it has its coolness in an abstract kind of way. Back in 1977, when I was playing with the late great tenor saxman, Rocky Morales, who was also working with Sir Doug, I heard him always say "It's these changes I can't stand." This proclamation always stuck with me. Rocky was the guru of the West-Side San Antonio Tex- Mex scene and I consider myself very lucky to have known and worked with him. Thirteen years later around about 1990, after being on the road constantly since 1980, living the rock and roll experience and everything that came along with it, we had played in Washington DC at the 9:30 Club and later that night I ended up at a house somewhere in Maryland, and in a very stratopheric headspace, the words and melody came to me about the ups and downs of a musician, who has been on top of the music scene, only to watch everything, including success, slowly dwindle away I consider myself very lucky to have been playing music , most of my life, but at the same time it does take a toll, but it beats roofing.