Fred Zimmerle's Conjunto - Trio San Antonio (Arhoolie)

Summertime is always Norteno time at Rancho de Taylor and this generously packed platter is a new found favorite this year. Zimmerle (surname stemming from a German grandfather) adroitly leads the trio with fleet-fingered button accordion (doubling on guitar or bajo sexto on several tunes), but it’s bassist Juan Viesca that often steals the spoils. Nicknamed “El Rayo” (the Thunderbolt), he pummels his strings with a rockabilly frenzy, the bombardment of punishing slaps and stops captured beautifully by Arhoolie honcho Chris Strachwitz’s mobile mics. His irrepressible antics regularly move the rest of the group to raucous whoops and hollers. The setting for the collected sessions is Zimmerle’s living room circa 1974, a good two decades subsequent the trio’s heyday. His day job was at the local air force base, but nights were reserved for raising the roofs of the neighborhood cantinas. The set list mirrors a typical weekend gig at a local watering hole with an emphasis on loping cancions and bouncing polkas, the stray corrido or redova slipped in for surprise’s sake. Zimmerle’s repertoire leaned heavily on the songbook of local doyens Los Hermanos Chavarria and the closing cut on the disc finds him in stirring duet with his idol Martin Chavarria. Arhoolie’s catalog is loaded with conjunto music of the highest caliber, but even amongst that bumper surplus this set easily stands out as one of the best.