Hello Tejanos Out There!
This is a Tejano music site with a commonality line of balance. I thank you kindly for visiting and I'm so glad you're here at the real TMDC. Explore the new site, the new links, the new commentaries and new pictures, plus the latest updates and good Tejano music.
Plus, overall music dialogue are the main principals of this site, and for all of you across this country. Progress in the advocacy and infrastructure of our Tejano music industry you could say, again ...
Is the heart and rhythm of TMDC.
So, welcome to my Home Page Tejanos
Welcome to tejanomike.com
And this is where it all begins, and it has my introduction to the site. I talk about tejano music balance, music awareness, I talk about my city of Austin and my early beginnings in music, I mean, it's been an exceptionally long music journey between three states, the present day music apps/platforms, and as an advocate for more than 30 years.
"I also believe that music, like life itself, can take us through so many roads and so many different paths,
so many changes, traveling through city after city, and playing in other states and countries."
"But more importantly I think, we also learn other things from so many people we meet along the way.
That is the beauty of life itself."
Since I'm from Austin Texas, and a Libra, well, sorry, but, ... "I love beauty in all forms" ... and in all kinds of art/abstract pictures, 'astronomy' has been one of my favorite subjects since I was eight years old. I love to write and compose 'love ballads' ...
But Tejano music being the main one. I love to write and arrange original songs as well as conjunto, group,
and band music arrangements. I have written a few Tejano and country songs; they're on the 'Music' link.
I also play different kinds of music here on my tejano music site, i.e., from super Tejano hits to light rock to d new and old country covers ...
At times I upload YouTube videos, and other music that I have in my computer like Latin salsa, oldies, Hawaiian, reggae, and other classic hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s, to the present - I mix it up all the time.
Other current interests are world history, United States history, photography, computers, and digital effects. And ...
-
I use Photoshop to layout my own pictures of the universe and our solar system - together
-
Luv the flute; I play it at home
-
I have so much interest in all kinds of planes since I was a kid in Texas, from jets to airliners. FAV: F22 Raptor
-
Ai too, but somewhat optimistic on many levels
-
Currently working on a new music trend I call, "Expansion Music' ... i.e., breaking the barrier and standard of 8 bars, 16 bars, extensions, etc.
Hello my good tejano friends. Over the years I have spoken about my Austin Texas musician and music artist, Manuel Donley. The three Carmona's, my dad, my brother Chris, and myself played with his band, "Las Estrellas", for about two years, 1956-58, and what a band we had, and fun too. We toured all over Texas, recorded 45s ... and as young trumpet player I learned a lot from him and the other musicians. Below is his bio and awards. [In part}
____________
Donley played Tejano before most folks knew what Tejano was. And he was Tejano’s first rock star ... in the fifties and sixties the kids that he calls “the teenyboppers” would pack Austin clubs like El Gato Negro to see Las Estrellas because this wasn’t their parents’ Latin music. Las Estrellas were danceable, but they were also loud; unlike big-band jazz orchestras, they featured electric guitars and bass along with a swinging horn section. “We were the first to take traditional music from Mexico and play it like a rock and roll band,” says Donley. “That was my idea. And the kids went wild for it.”
Tejano star Little Joe Hernandez was one of those kids. In the late fifties he’d regularly see Las Estrellas perform in Corpus Christi and chat with Donley during intermissions. So when Raul Alvarez, of the Austin Latino Music Association, asked the two-time Grammy winner to write a letter supporting Donley’s nomination for a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, he was happy to oblige. “There were so many Donley wannabees, like myself, that were influenced and inspired by watching him perform,” Hernandez wrote.
Five other people submitted letters documenting Donley’s importance, and they apparently had an effect. On June 25 Donley was named one of nine 2014 National Heritage Fellows, a distinction that includes a $25,000 award. While other Tejano legends have earned the honor in the past, Donley is the first to represent the Tejano orquesta tradition. “The bulk of the previous honorees from Texas have been in the conjunto style, mainly accordion players,” says Alvarez. “This puts the orquesta style back on the map and in the history books. And, of course, it cements Cowboy’s standing as a pioneer.”
The Donley surname comes from Manuel’s great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant who settled in Texas. Manuel was born in Mexico but moved to Austin at the age of seven, when his father - who for a time played violin with the Durango symphony - bought a barber shop on East Sixth Street.
Manuel got his first guitar when he was thirteen, after hearing the theme to Just Plain Bill, a serialized radio soap opera about a barber, at his after-school job at a toy workshop.
“I was painting little dolls. I did the detail work on the eyes and faces,” says Donley. “And I heard that soap theme and I said, ‘What is that?’ The woman I worked for said, ‘It’s a guitar.’ I wanted one so badly that I quit school and got another job washing dishes at El Toro on Sixteenth Street for nine dollars a week. I put a sixty-dollar guitar with a broken neck on layaway. It was almost unplayable, but I didn’t know any better.”
Then he began gathering Las Estrellas, which started as a six-piece ensemble and eventually ballooned into a dozen or more players. Soon after they started playing live, Donley earned the nickname Cowboy, because unlike the leaders of most large orchestras of the day, who sat behind shell-shaped cardboard stands like the rest of the musicians, Donley stood at center stage, like a country and western performer. Or more to the point, like a rock star. The code-switching that Peña describes quickly caught on.
The electrified orquesta, whose music was raucous but precisely arranged, played dance halls and honky-tonks across the state. Young bandleaders throughout Texas took note and started amping up their sound. Las Estrellas recorded more than one hundred singles for small Texas-based labels; their biggest hit, “Flor del Rio,” was so popular on dance hall jukeboxes that fathers told Donley they’d named their daughters Flor, in tribute.
[PART TWO ... can be read on 'The Past' link.]
Today, well, I am grateful for the many advances in the digital planet and the innovational Ai technology we see daily ... And how it's used in our modern present-day world. You could say and you might even agree with me that it's a fast paced industry out there with social media platforms' ... And so many turbo-driven music apps.
It's a busy market-driven music business.
Very competitive.
Finally, Tejanos … Being a Libra from Texas, kindly allow me to share this with you all ...
"Every morning, I look forward to a new day because it brings in a new life chapter, it opens another new path, and
each day gives all of us another window of opportunity to face the world all over again."
That statement above is the simple truth. It is powerful. I say that because each sunrise reminds us that we are never stuck, never finished, never without hope. Life keeps opening doors - even when yesterday felt heavy, confusing, or uncertain. A new day means we get to try again, to get up again and continue on, to dream again, and believe one more time that we do have a future with our tejano music.
Also, every day is a fresh chance to grow, to heal, to love, to forgive, to create, to attain the best for our tejano community across this country of ours, and to stand strong in who we are. I thank you immensely for walking this music journey with me, for your constant loyalty, and for all your support. Let’s face the world again - with faith, with unity, and with the Tejano spirit that never fades.
About this site: TEJANOmike is a passionate advocate for Tejano music, which is a genre that blends Mexican and US influences, often featuring instruments like the accordion and guitar. He runs a website called the real 'TEJANOmike' at www.tejanomike.com ... where he shares his love for Tejano music, promotes its history, and encourages young musicians to excel in this genre. Welcome back.