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Calexico On World Cafe

Calexico
Jario Zavala Ruiz
/
Courtesy of the artist
Calexico

If you've listened to the Cafe for a while, you know and hopefully love today's guests. Calexico is a band whose music is a jangly desert mashup of Western Americana, Latin influence and any other sounds, instruments or collaborators they've picked up along the trail. It's no wonder they're perfectly named after a border town between California and Mexico.

Calexico performs music from the band's latest album, The Thread That Keeps Us, and I talk with one of the founders, lead singer Joey Burns. He and drummer John Convertino co-write most of Calexico's material, which may be why rhythm and feel are front and center in the band's sound.

Calexico is rounded out by Martin Wenk, Jacob Valenzuela, Sergio Mendoza, Jairo Zavala, and Scott Colberg. The band kicks off with a live, in-studio performance of the song "End Of The World With You." Listen in the player above.

Copyright 2018 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.