What was the first concert you ever saw?
Arlo Guthrie at the Temple of Music and Art. I think I was 14 or 15.
What CDs are in your changer right now?
I don't have a changer, however, scattered about the front seat of my car are: Howe Gelb's Arizona Amp and Alternator; Stan Ridgway, Songs That Made This Country Great; The Best of Love; Freddy Fender, La Musica de Baldemar Huerta; Calexico's Feast of Wire; New Pornographers' Mass Romantic; Universal Honey's Earth Moon Transit; and Los Tigres del Norte's Idolos del Pueblo.
How many total albums do you own (CDs, vinyl, cassettes, 8-tracks)?
About 300, but I need more.
Do you download music, and if so, legally or illegally?
Legally and not often.
What was the first album you owned?
A Johnny Paycheck "Best of" album I got for my 10th birthday.
What song would you like to have played at your funeral?
"La Golondrina," por supuesto.
Musically speaking, what do you love that your friends don't know about? What's your favorite guilty pleasure?
Sometimes when I'm driving to Phoenix, I crank up Paul Revere and the Raiders really loud and sing along at the top of my lungs.
What band or artist changed your life, and how?
When I was 18, Jeff Glave dragged me to a Student Radio Task Force benefit show where Al Perry and the Cattle were playing. Al started with "4WDORV," and the world hasn't seemed the same since then.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
Anything by Giant Sand, Mariachi Reyes, Calexico, Phantom Limbs, River Roses, The Drakes, Caliche con Carne, Downtown Saints, Campo Bravo, Naim Amor, Naked Prey, Mitzi Cowell, The Band of Blacky Ranchette, Creosote, Sidewinders/Sand Rubies, Tom Walbank and the Ambassadors, or the Weird Lovemakers. In other words, anything recorded by a constituent who votes for me.
