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 Entertainment | October 2005 
Fernandez Is The King Of Rancheros
 Ramiro Burr - The Chronicle
| | Fernández, with his booming voice, makes each corrido a gripping tale of men living life to the fullest and facing impossible odds. |
Vicente Fernández, long recognized as Mexico's top ranchero singer, tries his hand on corridos, the Mexican story-song genre, on his latest studio CD Y Sus Corridos Consentidos.
Corridos aficionados will get a kick out of the 14-track CD, which includes the storied corridos such as Tumba Abandonada, Juan Charrasqueado, Luis Pulido, and of course, Gabino Barrera.
Fernández will likely include some of these corridos when he visits the Toyota Center tonight.
The 65-year-old Fernández may look a little different to his longtime fans on this tour. Last year he stopped coloring his hair and moustache jet black. The result is a white-haired Fernández on the cover of his 2004 CD appropriately titled Se Me Hizo Tarde la Vida.
The corrido is a story song, usually a heroic or fascinating tale about a struggle or a controversy. Like the subjects of the New Christy Minstrels' Paul Bunyan, Lorne Greene's Ringo or Charlie Daniels' The Devil Went Down to Georgia, corrido heroes are usually larger-than-life figures — bandits, drug runners and outlaws.
In El Corrido de los Perez, Fernández details the tragic killing of two brothers by a coward in a Mexican town in 1911. Valentin de la Sierra retells the face-off between Valentin, a rebel leader, and federal troops in the mountains during the Mexican revolution.
Luis Pulido is about a man who kills his best friend for flirting with his wife-to-be. The subject of Juan Charrasqueado is a wild playboy who enjoys many conquests until he is ambushed by a group of ranch hands.
The timeless title character in Gabino Barrera is an even wilder playboy, given to yelling "Viva Zapata!" while partying all night with wine, women and song. But he, too, meets his demise in a hail of bullets fired by federal troops.
For unfamiliar fans, the corridos may be hard to distinguish, especially among norteño groups, since they usually follow a similar musical cadence. But Fernández, with his booming voice, makes each corrido a gripping tale of men living life to the fullest and facing impossible odds.
Next month Fernández will release his latest CD, Vicente Fernández Mis Duetos, which features duets with big-name artists such as Roberto Carlos, Aída Cuevas, Felipe Arriaga, Yuri and Ana Gabriel.
Thanks to the power of technology, Fernández also sings "duets" with three singers who are no longer living: Javier Solis, José Alfredo Jiménez and Celia Cruz.
The first single is Mentira Mentira, a touching bolero ranchero where Fernández teams up with a Solis vocal. Mis Duetos is due Nov. 15 and will be available in a special CD/DVD edition that includes five videos and photographs.
Pop/ranchera singer Ana Bárbara will open the show for Fernández. She's touring behind 2004's Loca de Amar, which includes the radio singles Loca and Lo Busque.
rburr@express-news.net |
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