All photos by: Ramon Hernandez

at the 2010 Tejano Conjunto Festival

All artists, even Los Dos Gilbertos, had to obtain and wear backstage access passes for the Tejano Conjunto Festival. Juan Tejeda, the festival’s director for the past 29 years, served as master of ceremonies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Benny Layton of Los Layton was among the first to perform on Thursday.              AJ Castillo wowed an early crowd with his progressive new style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LLos Fantasmas del Valle – Bobby Salinas, José Martín Cortez, Rodney Rodríguez and Héctor Barrón  -- await their turn to go on stage.

 

 

< Sergio Castillo, AJ’s brother, helped his sib out on backup vocals.

 

                                     These group of musicians and accordion legends are Karlos Landin, David Lee Garza of Los Musicales, Leonel Pulido      of   Los Clasicos, Gilbert Reyes of Hohner Accordions, Otuño Lujan and the legendary Óscar Hernández.

   Nick Villarreal was not on the bill, but he showed with la de H.E.B. y la de Wal Mart.

                                                                                                                         Gilbert Reyes Jr., who hands marketing and is sales manager for Hohner Accordions,  was on hand to let festival goers try accordions out for size and to host a few meet-and-greet with some of Tejano’s top squeezebox players.

The conjunto greats are from left to right: Rubén Garza, Héctor Barrón of Los Fantasmas del Valle, Juan Tejeda of Conjunto Aztlán, Rubén Garza, Jimmy Bejarano Jr. of Los Quatro Vientos in Ohio, Noriyoshi “Honorio” Imamura of Conjunto J in Japan and Gilbert García of Los Dos Gilbertos.

                                                        On the right photo above,  Los Dos Gilbertos are vocalists Enrique “Flaco” Naranjo, Rubén Garza and founder Gilbert Garcia.

Above, What does a member of a popular Tejano mega-band do on her spare time. In the case of Cacy Savala from Grupo Mazz, she attends the Conjunto Festival and hangs out with Roberto Pulido. right photo, Mickey Mendoza of Sus Carnalez was a big hit with her refreshing new style and left the crowd wanting more after her rendition of Elvis Presley’s “One Night.”

Linda Escobar shows off the accordion that belonged to her husband, Kenji “El Gato” Katsube, who passed on in 2003 for a tribute to follow.on the right  , Bajo sexto player Noriyoshi “Honorio” Imamura shows off his versatility by playing some of Kenji hits in duet with Linda Escobar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Legendary female accordion pioneer Eva Ybarra literally belted out her greatest hits with that famous unique raspy growly voice no one has ever been able to imitate

<,For those that wonder what ever happened to Robert Casillas, he is in the  process  of earning a music degree at a university in Denton, Texas.

Bernardo Martínez of Sus Compadres was another crowd favorite

JJerry and Luis Peña of Los Arcos Hermanos Peña  floored an early crowd with their electrifying style. Too bad, they live in Dimmitt, Texas and don’t come down here more often so we can enjoy their music on a continuing basis. on the right, Lynyrd may be from the Netherlands, but together with Geert on guitar, they combined to produced what sounded like a bajo sexto. bottom right,  Dwayne Verheyden and the TexMeXplosion may have opened up Saturday’s festival, but they quickly proved they are worthy of being a headline act at next year’s festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Mr. Acordion"  Joél Guzmán is not only an ace squeezebox player, but a showman to boott.

The Grammy Award winning Tex Maniacs took time out to meet and pose for pictures with fans.

Janie Esparza, owner of Janie’s Record Shop, and four of her daughters partied until the festival was over. And on Sunday, they had to open up the record store to handle the countless out-of-town customers anxious to buy most of the music they heard during the Tejano Conjunto Festival.

Two by two, dancers stepped out onto the vast open area to dance the night away.

Some

Some  danced alone, some danced with partners and some danced cumbias as a line-dance while others just sat and tapped their foot to the rhythm of the music. Then, it was all over – until next year.

Sarah Fox joined her husband, Joél on vocals                                   JJ Rodríguez, host of the “Puro Gancho con JJ” television program on Aztec America   

                                                                                                      interviewed Marlissa Vela, the late Ruben Vela's daughter and a recording star in her own right.

 

Flaco Jiménez signed autographs for over an hour at the Hohner Accordions booth

 

 

 

After spending four days in the recording studio with Flaco Jimenez, his protégé, Dwayne Verheyden and his group plus his father William, could not get enough as they hung out with Flaco during the last night of the festival.