Today on Only Vans, a living legend. A wordsmith. A wine connoisseur. Rick Trevino joins me in the van to talk about his whole experience of life thus far. We discuss wine, his getting signed Cinderella story, speaking Spanish, tropical music, writing on piano versus guitar, having a writing partner, and his awesome family, too.
Rick Trevino is a dang living legend in my book and when his cousin and tour manager Gibby (who has filmed some of my music videos) told me Rick wanted to be on the podcast, I almost died. Then Rick and Gibby showed up with a bottles of wine and whiskey for us and I actually did die.
I think what’s cool about this casual conversation with Rick is that he has gotten to write, record, and sing among so many legendary people – so much so that he just talks about everyone on a first-named basis. Raul is Raul Malo from The Mavericks, for example, and Flaco is of course Flaco Jimenez, rest in peace.
I re-listened to the Los Super Seven records that I had forgotten Rick was a part of, and man, y’all gotta dive back into those! And also all of Rick’s catalog, but especially get to a live show. Thanks for the chat and gifts, Ricky!
Artist:Charlie Overbey Hometown: Cerrillos, New Mexico Latest Album:In Good Company (out July 26, 2024) Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): “Punk Rock Spy In The House Of Honky Tonk” (courtesy of Lemmy of Motorhead)
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
In 2016 I was touring with Blackberry Smoke and we were playing The Fillmore SF. As I walked up to the microphone, the magic of the Fillmore ghosts overtook me and I just stood there caught in the moment. I could hear the crowd getting louder and louder, but I was deep in the history of it all and then all of a sudden – I popped out of it and said, “Sorry, folks! I was having a Fillmore moment!” That crowd got louder at that moment than I had ever experienced! I think I’ll remember that moment even when I can’t remember my name anymore.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
The night my Father died I sat down and wrote “This Old House.” The emotion one feels in such deep despair and loss is hard to put to song or on paper. The fact that I have never played it live and have a hard time even hearing it solidifies for me the depth of “This Old House.”
Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?
Genre is a tricky thing – as artists, we all want to avoid that word and focus on writing from feeling and heart, delivering whatever comes from there. I have a long history and background in music from rock to punk to country and I tend to write with all of that mixed in, which in the music “business” is not favorable. They say, “You have to fit into a genre” or “People need to know how to classify you to have any success.” This could explain why I’m still a struggling musician, because I don’t steal from other writers and I don’t commit myself to a “genre.” I just do what I do. When I was a kid, my favorite local punk band, The Tazers, had a song called “Don’t Classify Me” and I guess at heart I’m still a young punker, semi-growed up, with an acoustic guitar and a killer band behind me.
What is a genre, album, artist, musician, or song that you adore that would surprise people?
I have always loved the depth, emotion, and songwriting of Barry Manilow. I have seen him 5 times in the first 4 rows. I am a pretty solid Fanilow and have never been shy or closet about it.
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
I would love to sit at an all you can eat taco bar for hours listening to Raul Malo play guitar and sing.
Ever since I heard the Bob Dylan lyric “He not busy being born is busy dying,” from “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” I felt haunted by it: Which one was I doing at any given time? And is there a point in your years where you switch permanently from one to another? Is it a specific age? A moment? As I grew older, I realized there was no easy answer to this question. Timing of life and death is often completely trivial at best, falling in our laps when we least expect it, and the best we can do is keep being reborn, over and over again, until that hourglass runs out of sand — or just shatters.
The Mavericks know a thing or two about rebirth: Together since 1991, they’ve fought fiercely for their independence in a country climate often looking for conformity. Brand New Day is the first on their own label — Mono Mundo Recordings — and it proves that, nine albums in, the genre-blending quartet knows how to keep the cocoon spinning. But life can be long and cruel, and they know a thing or two about death, as well. Bandleader Raul Malo’s father passed away while they recording the LP, and “I Wish You Well,” a gorgeous meeting place between Tejano serenade and Roy Orbison croon, is the tribute to the legacy he left behind and the uncertainly ahead. “This is where the road divides,” sings Malo. His voice is unlike most in country or Americana — smooth, mournful, full of sunbaked soul. After two decades making music, old can be new again, even as we embrace the passage of time. Maybe the best way to keep busy being born is just to be a maverick.
Inspiration for Whitney Rose’s sophomore set starts with the late, great Patsy Cline, whose spirit sings along on songs like “Little Piece of You,” the heartbreak jukebox ballad “The Last Party,” and swinging, swooning slow dancer “Ain’t It Wise.” The great girl groups of the '50s and '60s make an obvious imprint on the proceedings (especially on Rose's duet with producer Raul Malo on the Ronettes chestnut, “Be My Baby”) while the '70s sass of Dolly Parton comes to the fore on “Lasso” (albeit with a slightly sneering bit of guitar work from Rose’s main six-stringer, Nichol Robertson).
That bit of burlesque informs the raucous “My First Rodeo,” a high plains rider that sounds a little bit like Grease-era Olivia Newton-John fused to the soundtrack of a Dick Dastardly "drat-drat-and-double-drat" race chase. Nancy Sinatra’s sexy boots get a nod, too, on the title track, as well as the album’s best number — the flirtatious one-four-five of “The Devil Borrowed My Boots.”
Rose’s Mavericks-fortified philharmonic are workmanlike in their execution and Malo’s production is enjoyable but not evolutionary which, when all's said and sung, best describes this pleasant (but not progressive) collection of country rock songs.
Hank Williams may or may not have ever made his way to Canada's Prince Edward Island, but his songs sure did. That's where Whitney Rose first came across them, in her grandparents' bar. She also heard the Mavericks' music there. Those two early influences — and a few others — have now collided as the young singer/songwriter releases her classic country-influenced debut album produced by Raul Malo.
Rose calls the sound on Heartbreaker of the Year “vintage pop-infused neo-traditional country” because it bridges the divide between the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and Hank's “There’s a Tear in My Beer” with eight original compositions. In addition to his role as producer, Malo also added vocals, guitar, and percussion. Some of his cohorts in the Mavericks — Jerry Dale McFadden (keyboards), Paul Deakin (drums), and Jay Weaver (bass) — and other guests — including Burke Carroll (steel guitar, dobro, lap steel), Drew Jurecka (strings), and Nichol Robertson (guitar, mandolin) — rounded it all out.
Of the young artist, Malo enthuses, "Whitney Rose writes the kind of country music that will one day firmly place her as one of the greats of the genre.”
That potential is evidenced in songs like “The Devil Borrowed My Boots.” "It was a whole lot of fun to write,” Rose says, “because the subject got to do whatever she wanted and then blame it on the devil. How your devil comes out varies by the individual, but I think we've all got a little devil in us. Many of my fans have told me it's their favorite tune on Heartbreaker of the Year, and I have a lot of fun performing it live. My band calls the tune 'Devil Boots' … and have used the same term to refer to me from time to time."
Heartbreaker of the Year will be out on August 21 via Cameron House Records.
Photo by Jen Squires
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