# CD review: Buenos Diaz – Fox Street Blues – 2024: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2024/06/24/cd-review-buenos-diaz-fox-street-blues-2024-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2024-06-24T00:04:30+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**That I finally made a blues rock record after so many years, haha! It was ground
zero for me, and it’s the genre of music that touched me the most as a young guitar
player. It took me a while to find the confidence to want to make any kind of blues
record, because I knew if I fell short, it could easily sound flat. But as I dove
in, I think I gave it the attention it needed, digging into studio guitar sounds
for the first time, swapping out amps and guitars depending on what each song needed.
The making of Fox Street Blues coincided with the birth my studio The Tone Shack
too, which allowed me the freedom to explore the songs and genre in depth and at
a relaxed pace,- an interview with us said Nick Diaz.**

Fox Street is on the east side of inner loop downtown Houston right off Navigation
Blvd. It’s a predominately lower-middle class Mexican American neighborhood where
my mom grew up in a small modest wooden white house. She used to walk home from 
school daily and throw rocks at the neighborhood boys who used to harass her.

My grandmother who was a single mother, worked most her life for the Trail Ways 
bus line as a station custodian to keep food on the table and a roof over her family’s
heads. Her husband, my grandfather, left Houston for Chicago looking for work when
my mom was 7, but realistically prob left them for another woman in the big city.
My mom only met her dad twice, leaving her older brother as
 the man of the house
who worked every day of his life since he was about 12 to help contribute to the
family.

My father left when I was 2, leaving my mom in similar terrain raising three kids
in a modest 2 1/2 bedroom house as a single mother who worked split shifts for the
local telephone company for over 30 years just so she could juggle school schedules
and feeding us. It was tough living a lot of the time, no family vacations, a troubled
brother who spent one Christmas in jail, and there was even a period of time where
we slept on the floor with no AC just trying to keep cool through the hot and humid
Houston summer. Watching my parents argue was a norm whenever my father would randomly
show up, sometimes drunk, often leaving about the house a lingering reminder of 
heartbreak and hard times in a broken home. Being brown and dads leaving at an early
age, it happens to a lot of us, and if that’s where you come from you’re lucky if
you make it out the other side with any kind of somewhat functional life. These 
stories are unfortunately the norm and a large part of the American fabric. I found
there was nothing else to do, but play my guitar loud, steer any heavy energy into
the music, and turn my this story into art, because you could say the blues has 
been following my family around for quite some time.

I grew up playing the blues in Houston, sneaking into clubs at 17 and sitting in
with older local musicians learning what I could from them about this rich musical
heritage that hails in a large part from Houston (Albert Collins, Johnny Clyde Copeland,
Gatemouth Brown, Billy Gibbons). It’s been a lifelong endeavor, putting a blues 
album together, and a challenging one, I think more so than anything because the
blues has been such a personal part of my life and I wanted it to be as honest as
possible.

I’m proud of this album, and the songs I’ve selected, a few covers with some originals,
showing both my appreciation for the blues songwriters that came before me while
trying to compliment that with where I’ve taken the blues myself as a person and
as a songwriter.

Mexican-American singer-guitarist-songwriter and Austin, Texas native Nick Diaz 
and his band Buenos Diaz offer up a rather uneven slice of blues rock. While he 
is an adept guitarist, the lyrics and delivery come off much of the time as awkward.

He also provides bass and percussion while being backed by the keyboards of Sam 
Powell and three alternating drummers. Nick wrote all but one tune. He is experimenting
with sounds here and taking chances, but some of his endeavors are misguided. Hopefully
his future projects will have better structure along with a more cohesive sound.

The brief intro track “Hope” consists of twiddling guitars, pounding drums, indecipherable
voices and feedback. This leads into the charging rock of “Nothing To Lose” that
features no guitar soloing. “Let It Go, Let It Out” nicely saunters along with nick
laying down some burning guitar licks over Sam Powell’s electric piano. The vocals
and lyrics detract from the tasty groove and guitar skills on “Punch Drunk In Love”

He pulls out some fine blues guitar action on the shuffling “Big Hips, Smooth Lips,
Wet Kiss”. This is one of his better vocals as his voice can be appealing to the
listener. Some good blues-rock guitar salvages the weak lyrics of “The Blues Live
In Texas”. The song has an infectious ringing guitar riff and Jeff Olson’s drums
are in the pocket. More guitar fireworks on “Bandito Blues”.

Nick breaks out some nasty slide guitar for “I Got The Blues” along with his energetic
vocal. The boys answer the question of “Where’s The Funk In The Neighborhood” with
thumping bass, driving drums and wah-wah guitar. The vocals are a bit over-shouted,
but they fit the vibe. His slide guitar on “Where Do We Go” is very melodic. What
self-respecting blues-rocker wouldn’t include a nod to Jimi Hendrix? They do a good
interpretation of the music and Nick talk-sings the words. What sounds like keyboard
accents are a nice addition.

The songs here are hit-or-miss, but there is no denying Nick’s way around a guitar.
It is the saving grace of this album. The drumming and keyboards add strength to
the proceedings. You blues-rockers out there should give this a look-see.

“I think all in we spent 4 years working on the album, top to bottom, and for no
other reason other than we had the luxury of time on our side to really make it 
as good as we could, and when the gig schedule got busy, we’d take a break from 
the recording process. I originally wanted to put a few traditional blues covers
on it, but after a conversation with blues ace Mike Zito, he suggested I revisit
the recording process with more originals because he enjoyed listening to them more
than the covers. Per his suggestion, I went into the song vault, pulled out some
old tracks I’d written during my early 2000’s New York days, tore them apart, and
re wrote new material (Nothing to Lose, Where’s the Funk in the Neighborhood) based
on the drum tracks we’d made at a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The band back then was a blues rock project as well and had a lot of youthful energy,
so once I dug in, it all came together pretty easily. It was a fun and new approach
for me, digging into old material like that, and I’m glad Zito suggested it. And
I do still have the blues covers in the vault and will be releasing them later this
year as a blues covers EP. Today though, speaking of growth, evolution and change,
I’m currently working on a Spanish rock record, a first for me”,- he added about
this,- They’re part of the live band, so it was an easy choice. Jeff Olson, a native
Austinite and standout drummer, has been in and out of Buenos Diaz for some 11 years.
He’s spent time behind the kit for White Denim, David Ramirez, and a number of other
fantastic acts. Mark Henne played drums on some tracks as well, has drummed for 
Black Joe Lewis and currently drums for Alejandro Escovedo. Drummer Matty Amendola
was part of the New York band I mentioned before. Sam Powell, is currently touring
with country act William Beckmann, rounds it out on keys.

This album is real life stories, real life blues. We recommend that you definitely
buy this CD and enjoy it with us.

[**Buy from here – New CD 2024**](https://buenosdiazmusic.bandcamp.com/album/fox-street-blues)

![](https://i0.wp.com/f4.bcbits.com/img/a1820315706_16.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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