Miguelazo is Miguel Contreras' stage name. Miguel is
a guitarist, keyboardist, bassist, composer and vocalist.
He was formally in the rock group Beg, Borrow, & Steel
(BB&S). He formed another band, El Tiempo to play for
a custom made gig. When he is not performing with the
band he performs under the name of Miguel. This gives
him a chance to perform his original compositions ,
and more often than not with present or former members
of BB&S.
Miguel began performing at the age of 14 when he and
a group of kids formed a band in Fabens, Texas. At that
time there was only one band in that small town, but
later bands starting forming left and right. Miguel
played guitar and sang in almost all of the bands that
were there: The Skeptics, The Moonlighters, and The
Night Flames to name a couple. The bands played mostly
top 40 hits and Tex-Mex music, but Miguel was a rocker
at heart. Miguel traveled to California when he was
16 and his uncle "Tito" made sure that Miguel sat in
with every band that played publicly. Miguel quickly
learned that sitting in with groups gave him a lot of
experience in playing different styles. Miguel later
returned to Texas because California would not accept
all his high school credits. Upon his return to his
hometown, Miguel quickly joined what perhaps was the
best band in town: The Night Flames.
A guy Miguel had played with before, Chuy Renteria,
had the idea of trying to get the best musicians in
town and form a type of super group. This upset quite
a few band members because they left their own bands
to join this group. After much trial and error, the
final line up of the group was formed. There were to
be two vocalists: Miguel and a guy named Lencho Parra.
Miguel and Lencho had been together in another group
and quickly hooked up. The other band members, which
were "stolen" from two other groups also gelled. The
final band consisted of five horn players: Tenor Sax,
Alto Sax, Trombone, and two Trumpets. The remaining
group members were Chuy's brother, Salvador on lead
guitar, and Albert Casillas on bass, and Joe Valdez
on Drums. This eight piece group plus two vocalists
was the biggest band to ever come out of the little
town of Fabens, Texas. Chuy made sure that everyone
practiced hard and would even fine players for coming
late. He copied the working ethic of James Brown. This
was the seed that impulsed Miguel to pursue music.
Miguel continued to play and learn more and more music.
Between the ages of 22 and 25, he had already composed
about fifty different songs and poems which he had put
to music. He discarded a lot of the music he composed
then, but kept two songs, "Come Back" and "El Tiempo"
up to this day. Both songs have been revamped musically
and show the progression his music has taken. Since
then he has written 40-50 more songs, but has not been
able to record them properly due to financial restraints.
Finally one day, Miguel answered an ad for a party which
was soliciting songwriters for a project. Although reluctant
to do so, Miguel answered the ad and it resulted in
one his songs being published and recorded in 2010.
The La, La, La Song was recorded and sung by Emil Bishaw,
an up and coming young performer who was sixteen years
old at the time of the recording. The recording was
done in Nashville at Hilltop Studios, one of the oldest
recording studios there, and the song had a catchy,
pop feel to it.
To be continued...
