AUK’s Chain Gang: Texas Tornados “She Never Spoke Spanish To Me”

So, it would seem, according to Russell’s excellent offering to the chain gang that, up in Canada, The New Pornographers can request someone to sing Spanish techno to them. Meanwhile, down at the other end of the North Americas, they can’t even get someone to speak Spanish, let alone sing Techno in that language!

‘She Never Spoke Spanish To Me’ is a song from the pen of the great Texan songwriter, Butch Hancock, and it has been covered by a number of artists, not least because it’s a terrific song. I toyed with the idea of posting Joe Ely’s fine version but, in the end, my love for a little Tejano music meant this version got the nod instead. For those of you who don’t know the Texas Tornados, and you really should, they are a TexMex supergroup, comprising, in their classic line-up, of Augie Myers ( The Sir Douglas Quintet), Flaco Jiminez (probably the premier Conjunto accordionist of his generation), Doug Sahm ( multi-instrumentalist, also from The Sir Douglas Quintet) and Freddie Fender, best known for his 1975 hit ‘Before the Next Teardrop Falls’. ‘She Never Spoke Spanish to Me’ appeared on their eponymous debut album, released in 1990, and the band are still active, though Doug Sahm and Freddie Fender died in 1999 and 2006 respectively. The Sahm name lives on in the Tornados, with son Shawn now filling his father’s cowboy boots in the band.

Close your eyes, sit back, and let this song wash over you; you’re instantly transported to a dusty little cantina, somewhere down on the Texas/Chihuahua border…