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CaboRon
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Alex DePue ... A Review
Fiddler On The Beach
By Mikel Miller
Baja California, Mexico -- A hidden treasure in Baja is discovering good musicians hanging out between concert tours and recording sessions. People
here find out about their laid-back music sessions by word of mouth or email alerts.
Some friends in Baja invited me to hear fiddler Alex DePue, who was getting ready for the annual Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville
October 2-3. He was playing for tips at La Palapa de Jose, a little place right on the Pacific Ocean, about 36 miles south of the border, on the city
limits between Rosarito Beach and Ensenada.
The thatched-roof open-air palapa had a small bar in the left rear corner, and tables and chairs for about 60 people in the main part. In the right
rear corner, a stage with two spotlights and a one-microphone sound system sat waiting between sets. An unpretentious guy, in his late 30s, walked
over and welcomed us.
"Thanks for coming," he said. "I'm Alex." He smiled broadly and stuck out his hand with a strong handshake. He stepped onto the one-step-high small
stage, settled onto a hard swivel chair, and shouted hello to three other new arrivals. A tiny table sat in front of the stage, holding a metal pot
with a sign saying "Tips" surrounded by his business cards and maybe a dozen copies of two CDs. Alex said they would make great Christmas stocking
stuffers, and joked that they were only "$20 apiece, or two for $50."
He took a box of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and tossed it into his open fiddle case on the floor. He pulled the electric fiddle close to his
chest, hugged it with his neck, and drew the bow across the strings.
The fiddle sprang to life, singing and dancing a Cajun tune, with Alex keeping time by stomping his right foot on the plywood stage. The fiddle moaned
long and low, like a locomotive whistle, on the opening notes of "Orange Blossom Special," a tune that many consider the American national anthem for
fiddle players. He reached out with his bow and tapped it twice on the metal pot to make a sound like a locomotive bell. Then the fiddle picked up
speed and exploded into the breakneck tempo of the 1938 bluegrass classic.
Another night, he started a game of "Name That Tune," demonstrating his versatility on half a dozen pieces from Lionel Ritchie, The Eagles, and
others. People at the tables shouted out names of songs they recognized, and softly sang the words they knew.
He paused to encourage requests. "Just write what you want to hear on a $10 bill and give it to me," he joked. The fiddle launched into "Smoke On The
Water," with everybody clapping time. Somebody asked for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," a country classic. "That's a $50-dollar request," he
teased, but he played it anyway, and sang the lyrics, too, in a husky baritone. The place went crazy.
His cheek-length hair fell across his face, whipping from side to side as he swayed, and he stomped that right foot on the stage, sweat soaking
through his shirt. He finished the evening with a wave of his fiddle bow, and the crowd of 28 cheered enthusiastically. Some guests dropped money into
the tip bucket and began drifting out, but others stayed to visit for a minute or two. My front row seat cost just $2.50 for a cup of Mexican café one
night and $3 for a cold beer the second night, plus tips for the metal pot.
His two Baja sessions gave me new appreciation for violin virtuosity, and I could hear why he is one of the best in the world. His fantastic fiddling
ranged from bluegrass to classical, rock to Bach, and included a classical music piece written for four violins. Two friends from Los Angeles saw him
another night and came away impressed, wanting to know more about him.
Alex began studying classical violin when he was 5, won his first major competition when he was just 10 years old, performed at Carnegie Hall at age
16, and has performed in fiddle championships across the USA. In 2007, he won the California State Fiddle Championship. He won fourth place in the
Grand Master Fiddle Championship in 2005, and won eighth place in 2008.
A couple of years go, Alex toured North America, South America, and Europe with legendary rock guitarist Steve Vai. Usually, he tours with Miguel de
Hoyos, a great Mexican classical guitarist. Don't miss the 10 minute video from a joint performance with Miguel in Monterrey, Mexico, on the Internet
at http://www.myspace.com/alexdepue
During the past two years, he has been enjoying the laid-back Baja lifestyle between events in the USA. He performs in southern Baja during the winter
season, but hangs out on the cooler northern Baja Pacific coast in the summer months.
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monoloco
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I had the opportunity to see these guys last year at the Canada de Diablo in Todos Santos and they put on a great concert. Serious talent.
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bajabound2005
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Alex and Miguel have performed twice here in Punta Banda, both times to sell out crowds. They are fantastic musicians and entertainers. If you ever
have the chance, don't miss it!
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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bajajazz
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Caught the violin/guitar act at Teatro Juarez in La Paz some months back. Undoubtedly the most athletic musical event I've ever attended. The
performance was marked by an abundance of flopping shirt cuffs, flopping hair and flopping sweat, and distinguished by a total lack of musical
sensitivity, which is to say regard for the music as originally written.
The tempi and volume were all gangbusters all the time. Interesting use of amplified acoustic instruments though, but overall the performance was
wearying after the first five minutes. Too much ego, too much look-at-me-ma-I'm-dancing.
It's a pity and a chronic problem with singers and musicians that they most often don't have a director or a producer to tone them down a notch when
they go over the top. Writers have the benefit of editors whose job it is to delete the purple passages, and actors have the benefit of directors to
dial them down when they get overwrought and start chewing the scenery. Performers in the musical arts however, don't have and most times don't want
those controls; their lack of discipline and restraint tends to make them look and sound ridiculous, a clown act. And that's a shame because the
talent and training are there, the duo has all it needs to win a spot on the "A" circuit excepting one vital element -- good taste.
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jbcoug
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Who said anyone was looking for good taste? They just liked the music!
John
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bajajazz
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Violin/guitar duo
Millions of people like Barbra Streisand, too. But in the music world she's regarded as an overwrought vulgarian who won't take direction because
she's . . . Barbra Streisand.
If Alex and Miguel want to get off the tin-cup-pass-the-hat-circuit they need to get some sensitivity, good taste and dignity into their performances.
As is stands now their act and their "music" are not to be taken seriously. It's just good-humoured clowning around -- and that's okay if that's all
they want to be. I think, however, that they're capable of being -- musically -- much more than what they are, and it's time for them to graduate and
move up from Baja beer joints.
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mike odell
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I like Baja beer joints!
I like ole time Honky Tonks, and roadhouses!
Alex and Miguel can play at my joint, La Trinidad, any ole time they want!
Streisand and Hanoi Jane can hump off though!
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Bajahowodd
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Just don't know why a thread on this topic has to have politics injected. There are many musical genres. while I've never seen these dudes perform, I
totally understand what bajajazz is saying. And what's more important is that jazz didn't diss anyone who stated they liked these guys.
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monoloco
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I don't agree with bajajazz. These guys rock. As a musician I would be happy to have 1/10 the talent that these two have.
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bajajazz
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| Quote: | Originally posted by monoloco
I don't agree with bajajazz. These guys rock. As a musician I would be happy to have 1/10 the talent that these two have. |
monoloco -- that's the point. Alex and Miguel do have talent, a lot of it, and training, too. They're capable of being much more than what they are
and it pains me to see them wasting the opportunity to actualize their potential.
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Marie-Rose
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I, for one, am incredibly delighted to have access to some professional artists while in
Baja! From what I understand, Miguel and Alex love Baja and choose to live in the area part time because of the "way of life". I do not think they
believe they are wasting their potential. They spend so much time working on new ideas while they are here... then can go north to "actualize their
potential"
I hope that they will be at the "Jammin for the Animals" again in Todos Santos!!! (I believe it will be in Dec this year)
Remember, when in Mexico, yes may be no and no may be
maybe!
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monoloco
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajajazz
| Quote: | Originally posted by monoloco
I don't agree with bajajazz. These guys rock. As a musician I would be happy to have 1/10 the talent that these two have. |
monoloco -- that's the point. Alex and Miguel do have talent, a lot of it, and training, too. They're capable of being much more than what they are
and it pains me to see them wasting the opportunity to actualize their potential. |
You may be right, but
then we probably wouldn,t have them playing small venues in Baja anymore.
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jbcoug
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Bajajazz,
You make it sound like they are wasting their lives. I could only wish that I could do what I love, where I love and make other people happy while I'm
doing it. I can't really think of a better way to spend my life. But, somebody would probably still think I wasn't maximising my potential. I'm
pretty sure I would not care what they thought.
John
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toneart
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Hold it!...
Let me mediate:
Bajajazz is probably correct, and that is fine if you are a paid music critic. I know that Bajajazz has the training and the sophistication to offer
an educated opinion. But in my opinion, his is wasted here.
Alex DePue and friends are playing to their crowd. I would assume they are not all that sophisticated when it comes to criticizing or analyzing a
genre, a performance or a venue. Furthermore, they don't care. The important thing is that they like DePue, his music and his choice of
venue;Baja...ahhhhhh!
Would I go to see them? Probably not, unless I had nothing better to do, but maybe that's the point. Life in Baja is not supposed to be that
complicated that you don't have time to be entertained. And surrounded by good friends and others, all having a good time, who wouldn't show up and
realize that...Oh Damn! I think I like it!     Oh, and I have been known to get goofy, at times.  
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bajajazz
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If I were wise I'd let toneart have the last word here, but since I'm not I'll go against what I laughingly call my better judgement and soldier on
trying to sell my point of view regarding performance playlists and venues.
The one (and probably only) time I saw Alex and Miguel in concert it was in the context of a formal theater, not a beer joint. Yet the playlist was
appropriate for a beer joint full of people whose minds were slightly aberrated and their hearing impaired. Yes, alcohol does that. That's why
drunks talk so obnoxiously loud.
Alex and Miguel's playlist was, to me, deadly dull after about five minutes. It was all played too loud and at a showoffy breakneck speed, with no
regard for musical dynamics. Loud and fast, from beginning to end. It was if they were participating in an athletic event for the benefit of deaf
and tasteless drunks, not a musical evening in a formal theater.
And if they're okay with living and playing on that sorry-ass level, it's okay by me. But in my view they are cheating themselves and their audience
by wasting their talent and training playing a menu of musical crap.
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DENNIS
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Bajajazz....I think you hear and see things a bit differently than most untrained folks. Me....I like music but I can't stand noise. Orange Blossom
Special is fun to listen to but, it makes me nervous. I guess I'm just getting old.
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Dave
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajajazz
And if they're okay with living and playing on that sorry-ass level, it's okay by me. But in my view they are cheating themselves and their audience
by wasting their talent and training playing a menu of musical crap. |
You assume they're capable of more.
Alex certainly is. He's a classically trained musician with great facility, a monster ear and excellent improvisational skills.
Miguel isn't. He has no classical training, learns everything by rote and is incapable of improvisation or transposition. He does have good facility,
though.
Performing with Miguel, Alex is most certainly wasting his talent and training.
Miguel is fortunate to have him. 
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Dave
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A little secret
| Quote: | Originally posted by jbcoug
Bajajazz,
You make it sound like they are wasting their lives. I could only wish that I could do what I love, where I love and make other people happy while I'm
doing it. |
Most capable musicians reduced to entertaining patrons are not happy in their work. You may think they love their job but it's facade. Making the
audience happy is simply means to an end...
A paycheck.
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toneart
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OK! That does it....
You guys are hipper than I thought. Therefore, I admit that I agree with BajaJazz and hereby throw all my support (moral, not monetary) his way.
I have walked out of more mediocre performances than I have sat through. And yet the audience, for the most part, doesn't know the difference. Like we
musicians say, "Drink up. The more you drink, the better we sound". 
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Pompano
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BAJA MUSICIANS
Bravo! Salud! I've been very lucky and happy to have listened to many, including these at mi casa. I love GOOD MUSIC.
From early morning coffee to midnight martinis.
From country western to classical flamenco:
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Tony...look me up when you return to Mulege? I would like Fast Eddy and the Slow Learners to play at a shindig mi casa in early December.
Mike Odell...hombre, you hit the nail on the head. Way to go.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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