Flaco Jiménez – Flaco’s First (Arhoolie)

Just a teenager when these thirty Rio sides were waxed in the late Fifties, Flaco would go on to become one of the most influential exporters of Tejano music to the world beyond his San Antonio stomping grounds. His Los Caminantes (The Pedestrians) cover all of the then-popular dance hall bases from oompa-driven polkas to romantic boleros and bouncing, lightly syncopated rancheras. It’s the latter style of tunes that have the most pervasive representation and Flaco attacks them with youth-born brio, his fleet-fingered accordion fluidly filling in the cracks across a loping bass and bajo sexto fueled rhythm. The mature vocal harmonies that accompany many of the tracks also belie the adolescent ages of the band’s principals and point to another reason why these platters were so popular on regional jukeboxes back in the day.