Calexico groovin’ with Latin fusion at Kilkenny Roots Festival

Calexico mix a myriad of influences but it all just seems to make sense, writes Gerry Quinn

Wed, 29 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Gerry Quinn

ONE of the highlights of the Kilkenny Roots Festival this weekend promises to be Calexico.

The Tucson-based band, fronted by Joey Burns and John Convertino, are famed for creating an aural richness that encapsulates a plethora of influences, such as Tex-Mex, Americana, and world music, in an indie-Rrock setting.

Multi-instrumentalists Burns and Convertino have just released their ninth studio album, Edge of the Sun.

On Sunday night, they take to the Set Theatre stage as headliners at the Kilkenny Roots Festival. In 1999, Calexico played their first ever Irish gig at the same festival and suffice it to say, in the interim, both band and festival have grown and evolved.

The John Cleere-directed Roots event in the Marble City, has achieved a reputation for showcasing Americana and Roots acts that have gone on to varying degrees of international recognition, while Calexico is now established as leading exponents of imaginative and innovative American music.

A recent live appearance on US TV’s, The Conan O’Brien Show, is a testament to that.

Joey Burns recalls Calexico’s first Irish show.

“The crowd were incredible,” he says. “We were on tour, we were super happy, we were young. John Cleere and his family were a lot younger as well. We recently ran into them in Madrid.

“Then of course, all the memories came flooding back. I love Ireland. In Kilkenny, the crowd was fantastic. They were with us and it was in one big sweaty room at the time,” he says.

As with all Calexico records, Edge of the Sun is somewhat of a departure, in the sense that Burns and Convertino are constantly absorbing and experimenting with newfound music, cultures and literature, that inform their writing. So how did this new opus come about?

“We started about a year ago. We were down in Mexico City and we chose to go to Coyoacán, a neighbourhood on the south of the city. We went there to do some writing and our keyboard player Sergio Mendoza was really instrumental in being the pathfinder and having friends that were able to house us, feed us and help record us. It was all one beautiful serendipitous adventure.

“Coyoacán is such a wonderful part of Mexico, you can’t help but be just overwhelmed with inspiration and sure enough we started writing and recording with some musicians there. When we went back to Tucson to do the majority of the work and complete the album, we continued with the theme of asking people to sit in on the record,” he says.

Helping to create an international sound and feel on Edge of the Sun are diverse guests artists such as Neko Case, Mexican singer Carla Morrison, Ben Bridwell from Band of Horses and Greek group Tikam.

According to Burns, almost every track has a guest doing backing vocals or some playing.

“On Falling From The Sky we’ve got Ben Bridwell. He’s got a gorgeous voice and great energy. Carla Morrison is singing back-up in Spanish and English on Moon Never Rises.

“Sam Beam is featured on the song Bullets and Rocks doing backing vocals. He’s just got such a great ability to harmonise and provide such a blanket of texture on the vocals. This record is very descriptive, it’s evocative. There’s a lot of character in the instruments and there are a lot of varieties of styles,” says Burns.

“So there’s something on a record like this for everyone. Especially this one, we opened the cupboard and let all the characters out of their cages.”

The Calexico signature sound, no matter how diverse has always had a Latin flavour to it, drawing on mariachi, cumbia, conjuto and Tejano music to add a little sun and light.

“My parents had a great record collection,” he says.

“They’d go to Acapulco or to Jamaica or Trinidad or New Orleans. All those places that just ooze sun, adventure, exoticism, celebration and diversity. They were from upstate New York. I was born in Canada with my brothers.

“We moved to southern California to soak up the sun. And I love the fact that my parents embraced other cultures and languages. I think that has been carried into what I do musically. I have no other way of explaining it. I love variety.

“I love music from around the world. I love the minor key. You find it in a lot of different folklore and songs from around the world — even in Ireland,” he says. Burns first came to Ireland with his family as a young man. “We went to Ireland in 1992 and I got to meet some relatives over there that I never knew existed, growing up in southern California.

“We learned traditional songs and it had a lot to do with my songwriting subsequently. We are all asking those questions about where we come from. I’m sure the people in Ireland are asking the same questions — or maybe they are asking — I wonder where my relatives went? It’s that kind of questioning that informs my musical quest in some ways,” he says. Welcome home Joey.

Calexico play The Limelight, Belfast, May 2. The Set Theatre, Kilkenny, May 3. The Olympia, Dublin, May 4.