Talking Taco
I remember when I first heard of Ben King. I was studying upstairs at Viva books in San Antonio when I heard a kind of music that was unfamiliar to me. I asked Elizabeth what it was.
"Oh that's the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble. They found these music scores from the 1500s when priests in South America combined traditional European cathedral music with Native American instruments. I like to play their CDs in the store sometimes."
"Where do you find music like that?"
"You should meet Ben King. He's got all kinds of interesting music."
That conversation let me to the small warehouse/office of Talking Taco Music. Under that label, Ben Tavera King markets, distributes, and sometimes performs and produces the music that he loves. It's a one-man operation. Many of the CDs feature his performances, and he's also the guy who boxes them up and ships them out. This is music you really can't find anywhere else. Cowboy guitar, flamenco guitar, mexican guitar, native american drums and flutes.
And he's got stuff in the warehouse that isn't even for sale. Piles of CDs, music you've never heard of. Songs sung in Irish bars in the 1800s, Sephardic romance music, music from the middle east. Stuff you can't even afford to push because there just isn't much of a market for it.
"You need a website?" I asked. "I'll design one for some CDs."
And so a deal was struck and a friendship begun. I designed and maintain their website. In return Ben occasionally sends me boxes of really interesting music. My middle daughter Shelby and I tear open the boxes, laughing, and put CD after CD into our player to hear the strange and often discordant voices of other cultures. Most of what he sends me he can't even sell on his website.
Here's a deal. If you're ever in San Antonio, send me an email and I'll let you take as few CDs out of my office at the church. I have hundreds, more than I can ever listen to.
A few months ago I found out that Ben used to write a music column for our local paper. After that I convinced him to start a blog where he could talk about interesting music. And so Talking Taco, the weblog was launched right here in the salon community. I notice Mark Hoback of Fried Green al-Qaedas has already found it. Anyway, I wanted to formally welcome my friend Ben King to the salon blog community.
Check him out.
rlp
Latin American Music Traditional Mexican Music Native American Music Flamenco Guitar
8:01:17 AM 
|
