"No, he plays Texas Music," I said. "Does he speak Spanish?" "A little, but he doesn't write Spanish songs." Rodriguez looked perplexed. "He should write some Spanish songs," he said finally. I called him back the next day to ask what had him so flummoxed. "The kid's music was good," he said, "I just thought he should have had some more of that Spanish influence. Spanish is pretty popular now. Larry Joe Taylor and all those Texas Music guys are doing it." What about if the same songs were being sung by a white guy -- would he still have expected to hear a Spanish influence? "I probably wouldn't have thought about it," he said. The difference, he explained, is that Gómez does have Hispanic roots and has no doubt heard all those early Mexican songs filled with accordions, spirited rhythms, and the echoes of a deep-rooted culture that reverberate at the core of most Latinos. "It's in your soul, it's part of you," Rodriguez said. "Most Hispanics enjoy having a little of that in the music. They've heard it somewhere down the line. It's in our roots. If you're playing Texana music, it should be in there. It's why Texas Music is different from the rest of the country." Gómez chuckled when asked about juggling the expectations of white and Hispanic audiences. He doesn't give a rat's ass. "I drew influences from those bolero ballads, those sad Mexican ballads," he said. "But you don't have to have a cumbia beat for a Hispanic to like it. Hispanics clearly are showing interest in Texas Music, and you don't have to make it anything else, just do what you do ... I'd rather do it that way than trying to force some kind of fake references like some other guys do." A screw-you attitude. The kid might make it as an Outlaw yet.
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January 28, 2004 RadioShack turns its legal guns on a middle-class web site operator.
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