Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Norteno newcomer La Chio says she never goes to bed without her notepad and pencil on the night table.
And with good reason.
"That's where I get most inspired to write a song. It could be very late at night or very, very early in the morning," said La Chio (real name: Rocio Payan). "Sometimes I even get up and grab my guitar and right then and there finish the song."
La Chio is the only female artist in the new music movement called musica de guitarras. Her debut album, "?Quien Sera?" includes four of her original compositions among its 12 tracks.
Like Los Cuates de Sinaloa, another hot new group in the movement, La Chio's debut CD can be better described as acoustic folk norteno. La Chio plays a mix of ballads and rancheras, but the main instrumentation is acoustic guitars with the occasional bajo sexto and light percussion.
This puts an emphasis on the stories, which describe the pain, solitude and hope in relationships. The title track details the uncertainty in waiting for a lost love, while "Que Dijiste Tu" questions the wisdom in being loyal to an ungrateful lout.
La Chio said inspiration is fleeting.
"I really have no idea where my inspirations come from," she said. "They can come at any time. It is not like I say, 'OK, now I am going to write a song,' and then I sit down and do it.
"Sometimes I get a phrase or a rhythm in my head and I hurry to write it down."
Once she starts on a song, she likes to finish it in one sitting.
So how does she know when a song is really "finished"?
"Well, the song may be complete, but we won't know if it's ready to be recorded," she said. "In the studio we add all the music and hear it in playback. The truth is, you can have songs that really hit you right away, and then there are songs that are just there, they're not interesting."
Like Los Cuates de Sinaloa, La Chio says she has a deep appreciation for acoustic norteno pioneers such as Carlos y Jose, Miguel y Miguel and El Palomo y El Gorrion. But her real heroes are Juan Gabriel and the late Rocio Durcal and Selena.
"I love the way Juan Gabriel writes. Or Rocio, the way she sang with such passion," she said. "And with Selena, I like the way she expressed herself on stage."
La Chio included Selena's "Tus Desprecios" on her debut.
"We wanted to record something of her," she said. "But so much of her music has been covered by so many people. And that song is good, and it had not yet been covered.
"And we made it new again, with our acoustic arrangement."
Musica de guitarras, like pasito Duranguense and musica de tierra caliente, is yet another offshoot of the burgeoning regional Mexican field. According to year-end numbers released by the RIAA, Latin music sales jumped 16 percent in dollar value for 2005 compared with 2004. That's a stark contrast to the general marketplace, which saw a 3.9 percent decline.
Part of that growth is attributable to still red-hot reggaeton, which is part of the urban category that also includes rap, banda/rap and hip hop. But regional Mexican music continues to rule Latin music sales, accounting for 48 percent of all shipments.
Pop/rock came in at 39 percent, with tropical a distant third with 9 percent.
--
(E-mail: rburr@express-news.net)
c.2006 San Antonio Express-News
